Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick moved quickly to reject fractures among his playing group.<\/p>\n
The Suns have lost three consecutive matches and await an important clash against Hawthorn at home on Friday night.<\/p>\n
The most recent loss to Geelong included exchanges between players during play and prompted reports of disenchantment between players and coaches.<\/p>\n
But Hardwick declared the Suns fully aligned and the reports \u201ca non-event\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is we\u2019re in an AFL environment and there\u2019s going to be tension within footy clubs, especially when you\u2019re not performing,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably argue or challenge anyone who hasn\u2019t got tension within their club, they\u2019re probably not a high-performance environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have big boy conversations, no doubt about that, and we\u2019re all on the same page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is in team meetings, in reviews, we sort of sit there, provide clarity for the players and we walk out aligned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese stories seem to stem around all of a sudden people think there\u2019s a little bit of an issue \u2013 there\u2019s no issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our point of view, it\u2019s a non-event \u2026 I don\u2019t know in Melbourne, but sources and all this sort of thing for me, we just move on pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardwick was eager to flip the script on the potentially \u201cdemonstrative\u201d interactions between his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what they\u2019ve got is an understanding of how they want to play and great leadership demands that players take action on field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sort of looked at our decisions we made in that last quarter and our players were making motions that that was not the required plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sit there and communicate that, and that\u2019s the art of leadership. Sometimes accepting feedback and giving feedback is challenging at times, especially in a high-pressure environment such as an AFL game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can all get better, I can get better and we can all move through it, what we\u2019ve got to do is establish, \u2018Listen, when we are in those situations, this is how we get a response\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people need to understand is players are trying to get an immediate response or a certain situation rectified quickly and sometimes it might look demonstrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I guarantee you, if you look at any AFL game on the weekend, you\u2019ll see those kind of signals through every side.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when your side has a couple of losses we put the microscope on a side, it was our turn this week, it was Brisbane last week, it\u2019ll be someone else next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all part of the AFL cycle, I\u2019ve been in it for a long time, I know how it operates, (it\u2019s) pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n