Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans has flown to Italy to supply former Richmond mentor Damien Hardwick a five-year deal to develop into their subsequent senior coach.
Hardwick and the Suns have been linked ever since he stepped down from the Tigers job again in May, lower than halfway by means of the 2023 AFL season.
Those hyperlinks solely intensified when the Suns sacked Stuart Dew after Round 17’s loss to Port Adelaide.
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The Age studies the Suns have since reached out to Hardwick through telephone, asking whether or not he could be all in favour of restarting his teaching profession on the Queensland soccer membership.
They then devised plans to ship Evans throughout to Europe, with Seven reporting he had touched down in Milan early this week to fulfill the three-time premiership coach face-to-face.
Ironically Dew has additionally been in Europe, noticed with the Australian males’s cricket staff throughout their Ashes marketing campaign.
Gold Coast is reportedly not contemplating another candidates for its senior teaching position.
Hardwick stepped down from the Tigers job citing burnout, however only a few weeks later went on the Dyl & Friends podcast saying he already missed the position.
“I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see myself doing it,” Hardwick replied when requested if he may see himself teaching once more.
“I love it, I miss it. I’ve been out for two weeks and I wanted to miss it, if that makes sense?
“I need to decompress for a while, I need to go away, I need to reflect. And figure out things that make me good and things that I can sit there and put me in a dark place, as well.”
However it’s that reasoning which left Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes, a premiership teammate of Hardwick, indignant.
“If I was a Richmond fan, I’d be absolutely filthy,” Cornes instructed SEN’s Sportday.
“He’s traded all their (Richmond’s) draft picks. He’s bolstered the midfield, he was contracted until the end of 2024.
“He lasted nine games in 2023, citing burnout and now he’s going to coach a rival a couple of weeks later.
“It’s a bizarre story to me and I love Damien Harwick and I love what he’s done. But I’m sceptical of the whole thing.”
He added: “Is he the right man for Gold Coast? I know what his resume says. I know what a great coach and football person he has been.
“But coaching is a job where you need energy. You need to be all in. You don’t want to come back in January. You don’t want to be having time off. You don’t want to be burnt out.
“This club needs to play finals, it needs to play finals next year.”
Originally revealed as ‘I’d be filthy’: Great’s Dimma blast as Suns make European jaunt to supply ex-Tigers coach mega-deal
Source: www.news.com.au
