HARD WORD: A ton of fun
Damien Hardwick says it was a privilege to see Lance Franklin bring up his century against Carlton
It was an enormous achievement, particularly because he was the first Aboriginal player to do that. We were just proud to be a part of it. It was unbelievable watching him go down the race with the Channel 10 camera following him. It was sort of surreal in a way.
I did laugh when the play was set up again and ready to go and next thing 15 security guards burst out of the race and out came Buddy. It was like a rock star arriving or something.
My son BJ was at the game and I said to him: ‘if there are lot of people running on the ground make sure, you run onto the ground too’ because it doesn’t happen every day. He’s 11 so he was a little bit nervous.
It looked like there was about 10,000 people out on the ground so it was a bit intimidating down there.
I remember when I was a young kid I did the same thing when Bernie Quinlan kicked 100 goals and, just like me, I know it’s something that my son will always remember.
He didn’t end up getting anywhere near Buddy. I told him to go straight for Jarryd Roughead but he was in the middle of the crowd as well so he couldn’t.
We were happy enough with our own performance but there are certainly things that we can improve on.
The home and away season gives you the opportunity to qualify for a position in the top eight to play finals. We've managed to finish in the top four, which gives us the double chance and if we play well enough, the opportunity to go deep into September.
Our fitness staff have worked on trying to ensure we'd have as good a list as possible to choose from for the finals, and now we have 25 to 30 players to select from which is pleasing.
Finals games are always more intense. The game tightens up a bit and scores aren’t as high. It will be a tough encounter so we just have to make sure that our structures are right at every opportunity.
From a players’ point of view, it will be great to play in the first final and especially being able to play on Friday night. The Bulldogs are a great side and they have had a great season so it’s going to be a tough game. I think it will be free flowing game and hopefully for all the fans at the game it will be a high quality contest.