DAMIEN Hardwick was in emotionally unfamiliar territory.
He was still mentally dealing with the fallout of Collingwood's stunning preliminary final takedown of his Tigers, months after almost 100,000 fans watched their MCG blockbuster.
Hardwick had become a premiership coach a season earlier – ending Richmond's 37-year flag drought – and most pundits expected him to be toasting back-to-back triumphs rather than brooding.
Being so close, but so far can be agonising for coaches.
Hawthorn's Alastair Clarkson – who Hardwick previously worked alongside, learned from and remains close with – spoke of being in a figurative "dark cave" in the aftermath of the Hawks' 2011 preliminary final exit.
Clarkson's men, of course, went on to contest the next four Grand Finals, including claiming a premiership three-peat between 2013 and 2015.
Hardwick's reaction to his fateful September night, when American-born Pie Mason Cox was the unlikeliest of matchwinners, was a slow burn and took him some time to understand.
He and his wife, Danielle, best known in the AFL community as 'Mrs Hardwick', ventured to one of their favourite holiday spots, Bali, in the off-season to escape the footy bubble.
Hardwick realised something wasn't right once he returned to Punt Road for the start of pre-season.
"I went away, as I normally do, and try and find something else, but it was probably the first year I didn't invest in myself as heavily as I wanted to," he told AFL.com.au.
Even when I came back, I thought I wasn't ready to give my very best to the players, so then I decided to go away again and do some personal development, which reinvigorated me to come back bigger and better.
"I felt like I wasn't being true to myself if I didn't go away and invest.
"We consistently ask our players to improve themselves over the course of summer and pre-season and I felt I hadn't quite delivered on that expectation myself."
In what Hardwick described as his way of becoming "somewhat whole again", he enrolled in the London Business School's Essentials of Leadership program.
Most coaches use the period leading into Christmas for such purposes, whereas the Tigers coach's delayed realisation about his own personal development meant he was absent from training in February.
Hardwick's study followed Richmond's training camp on the Gold Coast in January.
The 46-year-old had already completed Harvard Business School courses in authentic leadership (2016) and negotiation and competitive decision-making (2017).
"First and foremost, you put yourself out of your comfort zone," Hardwick said.
"But, more importantly, it's reinvigorating yourself through, 'Gee, I do these things really well' or, 'These are some areas I can improve' or, 'How can I improve them?'.
"You don't go away expecting to find some magical light-bulb moment, but if you come back with 1 or 2 per cent, that's sometimes all it takes.
"Most sides are looking for that incremental improvement and we're probably the same."
As for Hardwick's take on the way the Tigers' season ended last year, after they won their first 'minor' premiership since 1982?
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He is both full of praise for Collingwood – "They played as good football as I've seen them play for some time" – and forthright about Richmond not playing with "the same urgency".
The narrative that his Tigers were the overwhelming flag favourites also did not sit well with Hardwick, who watched his side sneak across the line in several "borderline" contests.
"Obviously, we look at trends and how they're tracking, and there were a couple of areas that weren't quite to the level we'd been previously (leading into that match)," he said.
"We knew what those things were, but why they were happening was probably the difficult thing to manage at times.
"When the season is running short on weeks, it's hard to get things to change pretty quickly.
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"You've got to be playing your best footy at the right time and we probably didn't, whereas Collingwood and West Coast did."
Richmond will again start the season as one of the teams to beat, particularly after recruiting influential key forward Tom Lynch, and Hardwick is satisfied with where his side sits.
"There are a couple of areas from our performances last year that we needed to improve, and we certainly did that," Hardwick said.
"But we also continue to work on the strengths of our game, which are really important to the fundamentals of how Richmond plays.
"From a preparation point of view, we're pretty happy. It's easy to say – we'll get to find out on Thursday night – but we're reasonably happy with where we're at."
