Richmond coach Damien Hardwick declined repeated invitations to use reigning Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin’s injury woes for Friday’s shock 39-point loss to Collingwood.
The Tigers’ premiership defence ended with a performance the coach conceded was ‘un-Richmond-like' as the Magpies booked the first spot in next Saturday’s AFL grand final.
Martin entered the preliminary final with a corked thigh that had also caused knee soreness.
The Tigers superstar had 19 touches and nowhere near his usual impact on the contest but a ‘disappointed’ Hardwick refused to hide behind the injury after the heavy defeat.
MORE: Collingwood's Mason Cox tears Richmond apart in unbelievable half |
“He was fine, once you’re picked to play you’re OK,” Hardwick said.
“Did he have his best night? No, he didn’t but we had a fair majority of our side that was in a similar sort of boat.
“We thought we might have been able to get an advantage up forward with Dustin but unfortunately we just couldn’t get the ball to him.
“He looked dangerous there a couple of times but we just didn’t quite the game on our terms at any stage for that to provide a real spark for us.
Pressed on how much of an impact the injury had on Martin’s preparation for the do-or-die clash, Hardwick quipped: “Not enough, he was fine. Look, he didn’t train for a week and a half but once you cross that line, you cross the line.
“So we as a side collectively didn’t play well enough.”
But he did concede Martin probably wouldn't have played if Friday’s contest was a regular-season game
“It’s a tough question to ask, if it’s regular season we’re three games in front, probably not,” Hardwick said.
“But this is a cut-throat preliminary final so he was never a chance to miss.
“Dustin would have killed me if I had of said he wasn’t playing this week, so he was always going to play.”
Hardwick heaped praise on Collingwood, who he says are playing a ‘great momentum of footy right now’, but lamented the manner in which his side’s season ended.
“That’s the disappointing thing, you can probably handle losing but not losing the way we lost tonight, it was really disappointing I thought,” he said.
