How Hardwick moved Richmond on from preliminary loss to Collingwood: 'S**t happens'

Mick Stirling

How Hardwick moved Richmond on from preliminary loss to Collingwood: 'S**t happens' image

While the rest of the AFL world was still reeling from Richmond’s preliminary final loss to Collingwood, the Tigers themselves had already moved on, according to Nick Vlastuin.

And it took just a couple of words from coach Damien Hardwick to put the loss, and the lost opportunity, into perspective.

“We went back in four days post-game for our exit interviews,” Vlastuin told SEN Breakfast on Friday morning.

“They had the whole group in there and ‘Dimma’ just kind of sat down and said, pretty much, ‘Shit happens’.

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“He put it into perspective. He looked at the whole year - it was a pretty successful year - we only lost six games and Collingwood just played too good that day.

“He tried to get us to move on pretty quick because you don’t really get better dwelling on such a bad game for us, so after that meeting the boys were pretty positive and I was kind of happy to see the flag head over to West Coast and not really hear about it too much since.”

Whether missing the Grand Final will burn in the Tigers’ bellies won’t be known until next season, but Vlastuin dismissed it was tummy trouble that caused the loss to the Magpies, saying stories of a virus going through the group were overplayed.

“I think Dave [Astbury] was one of the main ones, but no one really used that as an excuse," he said.

"I don’t think it was a whole group thing, it was just one or two blokes weren’t feeling great."

Superstar Dustin Martin was another key player far from his best against Collingwood, but he has returned to the track keen to make amends.

“He’s probably a little bit better than normal,” Vlastuin said of the 2017 Brownlow medallist’s early training form.

“He’s been hanging out with ‘Cotch’ the last month or so.

“There wasn’t too much ‘Vegas-ing’ and stuff, or I think he got it out of his system right at the start … so he’s actually looking pretty good.”

Vlastuin said star recruit Tom Lynch is also impressing despite not joining in training with the main group yet as he returns from knee surgery he underwent at Gold Coast.

“He’s going really well. He’s in rehab still, so not with the main group.

“Pretty much two weeks before even our young boys were back he was in there everyday.

“He’s keen to get back into it, and as far as I can tell he’s fitting in really well.”

Damien Hardwick Tom Lynch

 

Mick Stirling