Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe middle part of the ground, we got absolutely spanked,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMax Gawn was by far the best player on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been very fortunate with Jarrod Witts, we have probably got the second best ruck in the competition and he got well and truly beaten today.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will bounce back, no question about that, but I thought our midfield had their colours lowered as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got to bounce back, they will bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n
King takes coaching record to 3-1 start | 07:25<\/p>\n
The Demons won hit outs 42 to 27 as Hardwick also pointed to a lack of toughness from his side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we got beaten in and around contest, I just thought they were harder and tougher,\u201d the three-time premiership coach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery now and then, this game will give you a wake-up call and give you a kick right in the nuts, and today, that was it for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur midfield\u2019s better than that, we know that, everyone knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melksham takes grab of the year nominee | 00:38<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Hardwick wouldn\u2019t \u201cunderestimate\u201d Melbourne despite Steven King\u2019s side going in as a big underdog after a seven-win 2025 season before the new Demons coach took charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at narratives and all this sort of stuff and people look at the ladder last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ladder last year is worth s***, to be perfectly honest. We take them for what they are.
\u201cThey were 2-1 coming off some good wins, they\u2019re a good side. They play an attacking brand of footy, easily identifiable.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to stop it, though, is another thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re playing a great brand of footy, commend Melbourne on what they\u2019ve done. Tough side to beat here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brownlow medallist Matt Rowell had a quiet return game from injury with just 13 disposals and four clearances as the midfielder had his minutes managed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always going to be what it is,\u201c Hardwick said about his star on-baller\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t played footy for six, seven weeks so he is only going to get better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardwick said Rowell could see increased minutes next game against Sydney at Gather Round on Saturday depending on how he pulled up.<\/p>\n
Former Demon Christian Petracca is more likely to feature in two games against Essendon than in South Australia next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is probably doubtful (for the Sydney game), he will certainly be probable for the Essendon game,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick says his midfield has to bounce back following what he described as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[287324,287323,63,689,14385,1127,2485,9130,43,38702,12092,25882,287325,12157,12097,7804,673,44,677,148985,4873,701,287322,1124,79260,670,16679,41,39,42,40,287326],"class_list":{"0":"post-587753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-absolute-screamer","9":"tag-absolute-spanking","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-damien-hardwick","13":"tag-fox-footy","14":"tag-gold-coast","15":"tag-gold-coast-suns","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-home-truths","18":"tag-jake-melksham","19":"tag-jarrod-witts","20":"tag-kick-right","21":"tag-matt-rowell","22":"tag-max-gawn","23":"tag-melbourne-demons","24":"tag-new-south-wales","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-oceania","27":"tag-people-look","28":"tag-post-match-press-conference","29":"tag-queensland","30":"tag-quiet-return-game","31":"tag-south-australia","32":"tag-steven-king","33":"tag-sydney","34":"tag-three-time-premiership-coach","35":"tag-top-news","36":"tag-top-stories","37":"tag-topnews","38":"tag-topstories","39":"tag-won-hit-outs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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