‘Can’t speak that way’: Suns CEO reacts to bizarre Hardwick comment
Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans has walked back eyebrow-raising comments made by Damien Hardwick, who effectively conceded the club was no longer a chance of playing finals footy this season.
A frustrated Hardwick said after Saturday night’s 79-point defeat to Adelaide that his team’s season was “effectively gone”.
Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick. Getty
“What we’ve got to do is forge our way forward about what we want ourselves to look like for next year, from my point of view,” the Suns coach said after the Adelaide Oval match.
“The way we’re playing, we don’t deserve to make it.”
Hardwick’s comments were met with confusion, and criticism, throughout the AFL world, given the Suns are only one win outside the wildcard spots with six games remaining.
The Suns are sitting 14th on the ladder ahead of a home game against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.
The expansion club has lost its past seven games and many of its highest-paid stars, including 2025 Brownlow Medal winner Matt Rowell, are underperforming.
In a statement provided to Nine’s Footy Classified, the Gold Coast CEO painted a different narrative to Hardwick.
“That comment was a reaction to how we felt after a performance well below our best, and what’s needed to compete with the best in the competition,” Evans said.
“All of our efforts have to go into getting improved performances – and wins.
“The ladder position, and chances of finals, come from that.”
Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd believes Evans would have had choice words with Hardwick privately.
“I think Mark Evans would agree behind the scenes with Damien Hardwick that they’re not going to win the premiership this year. You just don’t win a premiership when you lose seven in a row and sit 14th on the ladder,” Lloyd said on Footy Classified.
Mark Evans’ statement about Damien Hardwick’s comments. Nine
“But in the statement he has to present to the fans, members, and players, he has to maintain that there’s still a quarter of the season to go and that they can still play finals.
“The public statement he’s making is very different from what he’d say to Damien Hardwick privately. You simply cannot present it like that to the public. You can’t speak that way with six rounds to go and only being one game out of the top 10.”
Geelong great Jimmy Bartel was taken aback by Hardwick’s remarks.
“They are playing a lot of teams positioned between sith and 12th [on the run home]. We always talk about eight-point games, but if you actually beat those teams, you start to leapfrog them. That’s why I’m surprised they conceded so early and so far out,” Bartel said.
“I’m curious whether that public admission was actually a tactic to take the pressure off the team, hoping they might play a bit more free and easy.
“But you very rarely hear a coach concede like that this far out from the finals.”
