Hardwick takes a swipe at Victorian Premier over Balta comments after Tiger cubs snare a thrilling win

Triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick has taken a swipe at Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen, saying she should stick to running the state instead of making remarks about Noah Balta’s playing availability.

Hardwick had just watched Balta play a pivotal role in helping Richmond defeat his unbeaten Suns at Marvel Stadium by 11 points in his first game back since pleading guilty to an assault charge.

Balta, 25, will be sentenced in an Albury court on Tuesday for repeatedly punching a man in the head outside Mulwala Water Ski Club on the NSW-Victorian border just after midnight on December 30.

Disturbing CCTV footage of the assault prompted Allen to say that Balta should not be allowed to play again until the courts handed down their punishment for the “sickening attack”

But Hardwick, who coached Balta in their 2020 premiership season, was critical of her comments.

“You’ve got a Premier that put her nose in someone else’s business,” Hardwick said.

“She should just concentrate on getting the state running well. It is an absolute mockery, her making comments with regard to that.

“But at the end of the day, he’s pled guilty. He understands that. He’s going to cop his fair whack.

“You know, speaking to him, [we’re] disappointed in his actions, [but we] support the individual, and he’ll get better as a result of it.”

While debate will continue to rage over Richmond’s decision to play Balta, he ultimately played a huge role in helping the Tigers win their second game of the season.

The Suns trailed by 43 points at the final change but gave themselves a chance by booting three goals in the opening three minutes of the last quarter and the last five goals of the game.

But Balta, veteran Nick Vlastuin and the Richmond defence were able to stem the tide.

Balta held Suns forward Ben King to one goal and two kicks and took several strong marks deep in defence during a nervous last term.

“He is a premiership player and people sort of forget how good he is,” Hardwick said.

“Obviously, it was his first game back, and I thought he had a pretty dynamic, good game.”

Before the Gold Coast clash, Richmond great Jack Riewoldt told Fox Footy that the Tigers should not have selected his 2020 flag teammate while court proceedings were still playing out because it did not pass the “public sniff test”.

Fellow Fox commentator David King said the Tigers had chosen to put “four points” ahead of what such issues mean culturally to football clubs.

“If they don’t play him tonight, they don’t get the four points,” King said.

Balta was banned by the Tigers from playing the opening four rounds of the season, and played in the VFL last week before returning to the senior side.

Tigers coach Adem Yze said Balta’s performance against the Suns highlighted the hard work that he had put in during the past three months.

“He’s done a mountain of work, 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,” Yze said.

“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 Noah’s performance today was outstanding, so it’s a credit to him. I’m really proud of him.”

There was a mixture of cheers and jeers from the crowd when Balta first touched the football.

“I couldn’t really hear it, but I know that our Tiger army would support him,” Yze said.

“He’s a great Richmond man. He’s been around our footy club for a long time, and he’s one of us. So it would have been nice and nice to hear Tiger army getting behind him, for sure.

“But, like I said, the support he got from his playing group, and not only the full team, but the back six… [they] really stuck together today.”

Vlastuin was superb in defence for Richmond, taking 13 marks, while on-ballers Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper had 62 possessions between them.

Hardwick will lament bad kicking against his former club. The Suns dominated the inside-50 count 62 to 42 but were wayward in front of goal, booting 9.15 (69) to Richmond’s 12.8 (80).

Hardwick threw Mac Andrew forward late in the game, but he was twice outmarked by Balta.

John Noble was superb across half-back, Ben Long was their best forward with three goals, and Noah Anderson (32 disposals) and Touk Miller (33 disposals) tried valiantly to drag them over the line, but in the end it was a disappointing loss.