{"id":796764,"date":"2026-07-13T03:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796764\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T03:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:50:12","slug":"afl-news-2026-damien-hardwick-comments-after-gold-coast-suns-lose-footy-show-panel-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796764\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Damien Hardwick comments after Gold Coast Suns lose, Footy Show panel discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast<\/a> coach Damien Hardwick<\/a>\u2018s defeatist attitude after the Suns\u2019 thumping loss to Adelaide<\/a> has been called \u201cpathetic\u201d by the Footy Show<\/a> panel. <\/p>\n

As the Suns fell to a 19.14 (128) to 7.7 (49) loss to the Crows, Hardwick was furious and his press conference comments sparked plenty of discussion. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hardwick slammed the fans in the arena<\/a> for their behaviour and effectively wrote off his team\u2019s ability to make the finals. <\/p>\n

But the AFL Footy Show panel swiftly condemned his attitude, saying there is a mathematical chance that the Suns could make the AFL<\/a> finals. <\/p>\n

The Suns are currently only one game out of the top eight with several winnable matches remaining in their 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defeatist nature of this season has even got to the coach Damien Hardwick,\u201d said journalist Damian Barrett. <\/p>\n

\u201cExtraordinarily, with six matches remaining, he\u2019s effectively just put a line (through) this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a pathetic attitude for him to shut the season down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Jones hit back at the idea of the Suns being out of the equation, saying \u201cthey\u2019re a game out\u201d. <\/p>\n

Nathan Brown agreed on the panel, asking if Hardwick\u2019s \u201clack of discipline\u201d contributed to player Mac Andrew having an altercation with the umpires on the field in a moment of frustration. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a strange thing to say because there\u2019s still a chance to make it, they have a couple of winnable games coming up,\u201d explained Brown. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I look at Dimma and I saw Mac Andrew remonstrate with the umpire last night and it was a double goal and I just think, does Damien Hardwick go, \u2018You know what? Does that come from me? Do my players have a lack of discipline?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can disapprove of umpires on occasions around the interpretations. He can be… he does question the AFL a lot. Does that filter down to players like Mac Andrew? <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Suns coach Damien Hardwick talks to his players.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes Damien Hardwick sit there…and go, \u2018Is that some of my doing, what Mac Andrew did last night?\u2019. Does he need to lead a little bit better in maybe his press conferences? That\u2019s what I\u2019d say moving forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ex-Adelaide captain Rory Sloane offered a player\u2019s perspective to Hardwick\u2019s comments, warning that a coach publicly giving up on the season may lose him the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think they\u2019re a chance to play finals, but he doesn\u2019t… the way he was talking last night\u2026 even hearing that as a player, that wouldn\u2019t do a lot for your belief in your system at the moment,\u201d said Sloane.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re not performing the way they want to; defensively, they\u2019re way off. But that doesn\u2019t do anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

Matthew Lloyd disagreed, saying Hardwick was attributing his thoughts to a \u201crealist attitude\u201d for a coach of a struggling outfit. <\/p>\n

\u201cTen weeks ago is a long time. I know you\u2019re saying it\u2019s just the honest coach sitting there,\u201d said Lloyd. <\/p>\n

The Suns are set to host the Western Bulldogs on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick\u2018s defeatist attitude after the Suns\u2019 thumping loss to Adelaide has been called \u201cpathetic\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-796764","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\/796764","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=796764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}