Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick is facing intense scrutiny after declaring the Suns’ season “effectively gone” with six weeks still remaining.
Hardwick made the stunning admission after the Suns slumped to their seventh-straight loss — a disastrous 79-point defeat at the hands of Adelaide on Saturday night.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hardwick under fire for declaring Suns season over
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“We look at last year, they were one of the best midfields in the competition and this year we’re well off it. It’s my job to sit there and find out why. I’ve failed at that at the moment,” Hardwick said.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got six weeks. This year’s effectively gone. What we’ve got to do is forge our way forward about what we want ourselves to look like for next year.”
It was a staggering comment from the coach of the club that was installed as premiership favourites earlier in the season and has one of the most-talented lists in the competition.
But while the Suns are languishing in 14th place with a 7-10 record, they are just one win outside of the wildcard finals position.
Channel 7’s Caroline Wilson said Hardwick’s comments sent shockwaves through the club hierarchy, as well as the entire AFL.
“Look, at least he half put his hand up and took some responsibility. But the football world, from the AFL to the Gold Coast hierarchy to all the other clubs were stunned by the notion that their season is over,” she said on The Agenda Setters.
“It’s just a ridiculous thing to say and I’m really surprised that he said it.”
Wilson went on to say that the Suns hierarchy should “take him to task” on those comments.
“He was emotional after the game and I can’t get a straight answer out of the Gold Coast today as to whether the CEO or the president or the footy boss has taken him to task for those comments,” she continued.
“Absolutely they should. He’s on a six-year contract. They flew to Italy to get him. He’s on well over a million dollars a year. He is the face of the football club, more than most coaches in the competition.
“And he’s been doing the job for years and he’s been a great coach. That is just not good enough.”
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt said the message would have been better served in private.
“People would say he’s trying to get a response from the players, but you can do that behind closed doors,” he said.
“You can say you blokes have checked out, you can challenge them, you can do all those things behind closed doors.
“But you look at the vision, you’ve got half-empty stands on the Gold Coast. Who’s going next week? If you’ve declared the season over (then who would bother coming).”
Wilson likened the situation to Hardwick’s final years at Richmond where his relationship with the media and handling of adversity came under similar criticism before his shock mid-season departure.
“This is what happened when things started to go sour at Richmond,” Wilson said.
“He gets gnarky, he gets grumpy. He’s never liked the media. He’s always had a difficult relationship with the media.
“I know you probably think I’m out to get him and I have been critical of the way he handled himself in those last years at Richmond.
“But that is just, that’s pathetic.”
Wilson also took aim at Hardwick for “deflecting” when he spoke about an incident with a member in the crowd at Adelaide Oval.
Hardwick exchanged words with a fan when he walked through the crowd, and then spoke about it post-match.
“Those sort of people are the guys that live in their mum’s basements and type on bloody social media forums and all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“But we’re not playing well. I’ve got to be better, like I said B.ut we’ve got to do something about it. It’s a dangerous position to put us in, first and foremost.
“Security is OK but we don’t need people being peanuts about it. Get out of the basement, mate.”
Wilson said Hardwick’s comments were out of line given the exchange appeared to lack any aggression.
“This is did not look like, judging from the security around and what the rest of the crowd were doing, that this was a really nasty comment,” she said.
“It’s been suggested that it was a light-hearted comment about being coach of the year.
“But Damien has got to be better than that and it was a deflection. And it was just a nasty comment about living in your mum’s basement.”
