Retired Tigers champion Trent Cotchin has lifted the lid on when he sensed something was off with former coach Damien Hardwick during an emotional and fiery spray to players after his final game.

Hardwick stunned the football world mid-season by resigning as Tigers coach after 13 and a half seasons including a golden era of guiding the club to three premierships.

In Hardwick’s last game – the Round 10 Dreamtime At the ‘G clash against Essendon – Richmond coughed up an 18-point lead to get overrun by the Bombers, culminating in Sam Durham’s match-winning goal inside the last minute.

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The loss saw Richmond fall to 3-1-6 despite going into the season with heightened expectations after the club’s off-season double coup of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.

And in an excerpt of his new book ‘From the Heart’ that featured in the Herald Sun, Cotchin opened up on Hardwick’s intense outburst in the rooms that followed.

“He was filthy and cutting with his comments to the group and about the opposition. In an angry meeting in the rooms after the game, he referred to us as ‘putrid’ and said the way some of us had played meant he would just get ‘another c*** to replace us’,” Cotchin wrote of the post-match address.

“He pointed to the Essendon team that was displayed on the whiteboard and said, ‘To be honest with you, I reckon this team is a bunch of spuds, and you aren’t even as good as they are’.

“His spray had much more to do with us than his assessment of the Bombers. Upon reflection I’m not even sure he knew what he had said.

“He was quite rattled. I was thinking, ‘Well, this is different’.”

Hardwick himself admitted in his outgoing press conference he believed his assistants would’ve had an inkling he was set to leave his position after the club’s Dreamtime clash, though unlike Cotchin’s anecdotes, the former Tigers coach said it might’ve been because of his slightly looser demeanour.

“It was one of those last moments … it’s funny, Tim (Livingstone) and Blair (Hartley) (Tigers footy performance boss and general manager of football talent) who would have been very much been my lieutenants, I think they picked it up after the game,” Hardwick told reporters in May, noting he’d always planned for this season to be his last.

“Normally after a loss, we come back here and we have a few drinks. I’m straight in the match committee room trying to figure out the next course of action.

“When I caught up with them, I think they sensed it at that night when I didn’t go into that room. I didn’t start pencilling in what was the plan of attack for the review and I think they probably sensed that it was time.”

Cotchin also revealed he first officially learned his long-time coach was leaving Punt Road the Monday after the loss to Essendon after agreeing to meet up with Hardwick at the 51-year old’s home.

The former Richmond skipper noted how clearly Hardwick appeared to already seem more more relaxed after making the decision.

“He sent me a text message early on Monday morning but I didn’t notice it at first … The text message said: “Hey mate, do you have time to catch up today?” I eventually got back to him, saying: “Do you mean on the phone or in person?” He told me he would prefer to do it in person. I sensed straight away that it was about him. Not me!,” Cotchin wrote.

“I got to his place at 12.54pm; I left at 1.08pm. In between, we sat on the couch and talked about why he felt it was the right time for him to go.

“The one thing I will always remember was how much pressure seemed to have been released by him making that decision to leave. I can vividly remember how blue his eyes looked. He looked like he had more life back in his face.”

Hardwick has since been installed as as Gold Coast’s new senior coach for 2024, while Adam Yze was recently named Hardwick’s successor at Tigerland.