{"id":795718,"date":"2026-07-12T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795718\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:23:12","slug":"afl-news-2026-gold-coast-coach-damien-hardwick-fan-altercation-adelaide-oval-during-crows-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795718\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick fan altercation Adelaide Oval during Crows loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

An angry Damien Hardwick<\/a> is unhappy with having to walk through the crowd at the Adelaide Oval, after an interaction with a fan during Gold Coast\u2019s<\/a> loss to Adelaide<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

As he walked to the ground at three-quarter time, Hardwick had a verbal altercation with a fan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Damien Hardwick chats back to a fan after comments come his way through the crowd.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

The ground is unique in that coaches must walk through the crowd effectively to get from the box to the field.<\/p>\n

It has led to frustration, with Geelong coach Chris Scott voicing similar complaints earlier in the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hardwick didn\u2019t hold back with his thoughts after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking through here, and I understand people are going to say stuff, and I\u2019ve got to be better, but end of the day, those sorts of people are the guys that live in their mum\u2019s basements and type on bloody social media forums and all that sort of stuff,\u201d Hardwick told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to be better, like I said, but we\u2019ve got to do something about it. It\u2019s a dangerous position to put us in, first and foremost, security is OK, but we don\u2019t need people being peanuts about it. Get out of the basement, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks stepped in to defend Hardwick, saying fans need to be held accountable. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any coach should have to put up with that, and I don\u2019t know the ins and outs, I\u2019ve obviously heard talk about it, but for a coach to be subject to abuse \u2013 if it is abuse \u2013 I mean I\u2019d say to our members and our fans, we\u2019re not here for that,\u201d Nicks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to enjoy watching a great game of footy, and our boys put on a show tonight, so just enjoy it … You\u2019d like to think we don\u2019t have to take that away, because there are some, I guess, pluses that come with that when your team\u2019s up and performing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cdisappointed\u201d David King said fans like that Crows supporter are \u201cruining\u201d the sport\u2019s unparalleled access for everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really angers me that fans feel the need to do that,\u201d the North Melbourne champion said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the best venues to go and watch football, the crowd can get as close to the players as any other sport \u2026 and I just think they\u2019re ruining it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeanuts like that, having something to say to the coach that\u2019s clearly derogatory – (because) Damien doesn\u2019t respond to idle chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really disappointing. I hope there\u2019s some retribution for that guy, not Damien.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwick\u2019s Suns were thrashed by 79 points in Adelaide, marking their seventh straight defeat. They now sit 14th on the ladder after entering the season among the flag hopefuls. <\/p>\n

After round three the Suns were first on the ladder and premiership favourites with odds makers. Now Hardwick concedes their season is in tatters. <\/p>\n

\u201cEnd of the day, we\u2019ve got six weeks, this year is effectively gone, what we\u2019ve got to do is forge our way forward about what we want ourselves to look like for next year, from my point of view,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we\u2019re playing, we don\u2019t deserve to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast hosts the Western Bulldogs in round 19 and still technically only sit one win outside of 10th spot on the ladder, meaning a wildcard berth remains possible. <\/p>\n

Former Richmond star Nathan Brown<\/a> was surprised by the Suns coach throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWouldn\u2019t the players now think they\u2019re wasting their time turning up over the next six weeks (after Hardwick\u2019s comments)?\u201d Brown asked on Nine\u2019s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd<\/a> believes Hardwick was simply being a \u201crealist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be thinking \u2018the next seven weeks are about next year, because we\u2019re not going to be a factor at all\u2019,\u201d Lloyd said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a realist attitude. It\u2019s an honest coach sitting there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An angry Damien Hardwick is unhappy with having to walk through the crowd at the Adelaide Oval, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-795718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795718","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=795718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}