Leigh Matthews is seeing a “confused man” in Richmond coach Damien Hardwick.
The Tigers have endured a tough season in their pursuit of a three-peat and a fourth premiership in five years, falling out of the eight and in danger of missing finals with a month to go.
Hardwick’s side was comfortably beaten by Geelong on Sunday, making it five defeats from their past six matches.
Richmond has struggled for form of late while dealing with a number of injuries to key players with Hardwick’s frustration evident to Matthews.
“I look at Damien Hardwick at the moment and to be honest, you look at a confused man because you don’t really know why it’s not happening,” Matthews said on Sportsday.
“Logic might say we just haven’t got the same players playing in the same manner, which goes back to what I always say - good players make good coaches.
“Nevertheless, sometimes you kid yourself when you’re coaching a dynasty team and think, ‘geez, we’re fantastic at what we do, we do it our way’, then all of a sudden a few of those players don’t play so well or they get injured and all of a sudden you fall off the cliff.”
Matthews, who coached Brisbane to three straight flags in the early 2000s, went through something similar when his Lions dropped off following their golden run and likened the situation to that of Alastair Clarkson and Hawthorn after their treble.
“Alastair Clarkson has already been through this. They’ve fallen from the dynasty to battling, they’re battling down the bottom of the ladder,” he added.
“It’s like climbing Mount Everest. The dynasty team is when you’ve won say three premierships within a few years of each other. Not just winning a premiership, but when you’ve been as good as Richmond has been.
“Damien Hardwick would think, ‘we’re doing the same things, we’re trying to get the same things going’, and it’s just not happening. It is very, very painful.
“Alastair Clarkson may have already gone through that because Hawthorn have dropped off the perch for a few years now.
“It is terrible, because you kind of think to yourself you get used to certain things as a coach and getting certain output from your team.”
The Tigers remain in the hunt for a finals berth as they sit 10th on the ladder just two points behind eighth-placed GWS.
There is an opportunity to break back into the eight if they can beat 11th-placed Fremantle in Perth this Sunday with the Giants set to take on Port Adelaide and ninth-placed Essendon meeting the in-form Sydney Swans.
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