The Gold Coast Suns could be set to cash in on the AFL’s ambassadorial payments as they gear up to lure Damien Hardwick north.
Suns CEO Mark Evans flew to Italy to offer the former Richmond mentor a five-year deal to become their next senior coach.
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Hardwick and the Suns have been linked ever since he stepped down from the Tigers job back in May, less than midway through the 2023 AFL season.
Those links only intensified when the Suns sacked Stuart Dew after Round 17’s loss to Port Adelaide.
The Age reports the Suns have since reached out to Hardwick via phone, asking whether he would be interested in restarting his coaching career at the Queensland football club.
They then devised plans to send Evans across to Europe, with Seven reporting he had touched down in Milan early this week to meet the three-time premiership coach face-to-face.
But as the rumours intensify, reports over just how much money the league will chip in for the expansion team have begun to circulate.
“For the same footy club, the AFL paid a million dollars of Karmichael Hunt’s contract as a player going back to 10 years. I would imagine that would be the starting point for the Damien Hardwick number,” journalist Damien Barrett said on Footy Classified.
“Whatever money Alastair Clarkson was offered by the Gold Coast and the AFL, it’ll be the same, if not more, (for Hardwick),”.
Hardwick stepped down from the Tigers job citing burnout, but just a few weeks later went on the Dyl & Friends podcast saying he already missed the role.
“I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see myself doing it,” Hardwick replied when asked if he could see himself coaching again.
“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, angry.
“If I was a Richmond fan, I’d be absolutely filthy,” Cornes told 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.”