Broadcaster tears into Damien Hardwick after he launched a blistering attack on Victorian Premier over her criticism of Richmond and the AFL
Noah Balta is set to learn his fate on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm relating to an incident that took place in December 2024.
This weekend, the Richmond defender, 25, returned to play for the Tigers during their victory against Gold Coast, after having served a four-match ban handed to him in the off-season.
But the decision to bring him back into the fold, three days before Balta is due to appear in court for sentencing, has been condemned by some from inside the footy world and the wider community.
Even Allan had weighed in on the matter, ripping into the footy club and AFL powerbrokers, by questioning what message Richmond were sending out by allowing Balta to return before he was sentenced.
Hardwick, who had coached the 25-year-old for six seasons during his spell at Punt Road, clapped back at the Premier on Saturday afternoon, calling her comments a 'mockery' before telling Allan to keep her nose out of other people's business.
On Monday night, Wilson issued an address to Hardwick, ripping into the premiership-winning, claiming he was 'wrong' to call out the Premier.
"When you're going to stick your nose into issues outside of footy, get your facts right."
Caroline Wilson thinks Damien Hardwick's comments were out of line on Saturday night 👉 https://t.co/M9q2CvkrTf pic.twitter.com/1OahKNugWv
— 7AFL (@7AFL) April 21, 2025
'Damien, politics aside, you were out of line on Saturday night,' Wilson said sternly on The Agenda Setters.
'Just like you were when you bagged the curator at Richmond's beloved MCG. And just like you were when you ridiculed John Longmire's gameplan and later had to apologise. And when you turned on Marvel Stadium, which weirdly had a detrimental effect for two or three seasons on Richmond's win-loss ratio there.'
Back in 2020, Hardwick was forced to apologise to the ex-Sydney boss Longmire after he blasted the Swan's tactics. He had also slammed the crowd at the Marvel Stadium back in 2021, claiming that he 'hated' travelling to the docklands stadium instead of playing at the MCG.
'But even Gold Coast officials, some of them, were perplexed when you had a crack at Jacinta Allan, the Victorian Premier, over her comments about Noah Balta,' Wilson added.
'And you were wrong.'
She continued: 'I would have thought law and order was in the remit of every State Premier, particularly one whose government has committed $15million to the Punt Road rebuild, in the name of community.
'Damien, so many people outside of footy were critical of the Balta selection and the Premier was simply answering a question.'
Wilson then shot a barb back at Hardwick, twisting the former Tigers coach's comments back at him.
'So when are you going to "stick your nose into" issues outside of footy and get your facts right.'
'I agree with you,' Craig Hutchison added. 'His comments were tone-deaf and he got involved in something he didn't need to do.'
Speaking on Saturday, Hardwick told reporters: 'We've got a premier who put her nose in someone else's business.
'She should just concentrate on getting the state running well.
'It's an absolute mockery of her making comments in regard to that.'
He is not the only person to hit out at the Premier for her comments, in which she described Balta's alleged aggression on 27-year-old Thomas Washbrook as 'sickening'.
'I've never seen as many machete-carrying, weapon-bearing people out on bail just attacking us left right and centre,' footy great David King said on SEN, speaking on Allan's comments, before implying that she should 'read the room'.
'We've got half the state getting broken into at the moment.
The 25-year-old defender (pictured left, with coach Adem Yze) had been given the green light to return by the AFL and his footy club after serving his ban
'And she's decided to pick on the Noah Balta situation. I think she's got more on her hands. Control the controllables… I just think that's bizarre.
'What the hell are you doing raring your head up on this?'
Following the expiration of his four-match suspension, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon had confirmed that the league was 'comfortable' with Balta returning to play.
'We have worked with Richmond and we're comfortable with the suspension and the suspension that Noah has served... we're comfortable with where Richmond landed on that one,' he said.
The AFL Player's Association chief Paul Marsh had also stated that Balta had a 'right to play'.
But Allan was not comfortable with their stance.
'How does the AFL and the Richmond Football Club answer that question about what's going on here? What sort of message does this send to kids about what's right and what's wrong?' she said, prior to the club's Round 5 defeat by Fremantle.
'I think that's really a question that the AFL and Richmond need to answer,' she added.
'Let's remember the victim here who would no doubt be deeply traumatised by this experience.'
Balta, meanwhile, was lauded for his performance during Sunday's 11-point victory against Gold Coast.
Yze stated that the footy club will be looking after Balta, who has been training hard over the past three months to redeem himself among his team-mates.
'He's handled it by training hard. He's put his head down, bum up for the last three months and it's a credit to him,' Yze said.
'We'll support him through it, there'll be a bit of anxiety around it and we'll obviously need to look after him this week because there's a bit to that.
'But as we've done as a footy club all along, we work with the AFL, we'll go through the process on Tuesday and just support him as best as we can.
'He has done a mountain of work, extras, supporting our younger players not only to get himself right to play but he's been trying to win back the respect of his footy club.
'He knows he let the club down, he knows he did something wrong, but he's been dealing with that every day and for our boys to support him today and not only to support him, but his performance today was outstanding so it's a credit to him. We're really proud of him.'
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