BRAD Hards is the perfect case study for any young country footballer to model themselves on.
Great work ethic. Tick.
A hard trainer, a player who reads the game well, plays it harder than most, and is a polished performer with ball in hand. Tick, tick, tick, tick!
At 36, after many years of great service to his club and country footy in general, Hards could be forgiven for wanting to cool his heels with his kids on Saturday afternoons during winter.
Instead, the premiership player is still lacing up the boots for SFNL club Imperials, where he has played nearly 300 games.
To keep playing at a high level, Hards has learnt to embrace different ways to keep his body in good nick outside of football training twice a week.
This includes swimming and doing Pilates, which he attributes to improving his core strength and flexibility.
“It gets harder as you get older. You can’t do as many k’s in the legs, so you’ve got to try and do some other things to keep some mobility,” he said with a smile.
Hards was speaking with Sunraysia Daily after he produced a vintage performance in Imps’ come-from-behind victory against Red Cliffs on Saturday.
The Green Machine had stars all over the park in the second half, but Hards delivered a strong four-quarter performance, even drifting forward to boot a couple of goals.
He has long been one of the league’s best players. Coaching in recent years, however, had made it more difficult for him to produce game-winning performances as a player.
But he’s relinquished that role to Mark Wheatley in 2022, and Hards is feeling like a spring chicken on the field.
“I’ve been really enjoying my footy this year. Not having as much pressure on me with also coaching has helped,” he said.
“Coaching is a great job and I love doing it, but it comes with a lot of sacrifices and extra pressure.”
The local builder is not the only one in the seniors team starting to find their mojo.
A half-time pep talk from Wheatley on Saturday, when the side was down by nine points, could be a pivotal moment in Imps’ season.
“Mark said, ‘are you enjoying it or what?’ And then we went out and enjoyed our footy and look at how well we played,” Hards said.
“That change in mentality made the big difference. It wasn’t like we were trying any harder. It just sort of happened because we were enjoying ourselves.”
Hards said retirement from football was not on his mind.
“If I don’t enjoy it, I’ll stop playing. But at the minute, I’m loving it and really enjoying the season and playing some decent footy,” he said.
He feels confident that Imps are heading in the right direction for the second half of the season.
“We’ve just got to win each game now. I think we’re definitely good enough to make the finals, but we still need to make some improvement to match the top teams,” he said.
“We’ve had a disrupted season with concerns around illness and injuries and haven’t had a consistent team on the park for consecutive weeks.
“But we seem to respond well to adversity, so we’ve just got to keep giving the group a poke.
“If we get some continuity going, we’ll be a threat to any team.”
Wheatley saluted the “incredible contribution” of Hards to the club after the win on Saturday.
“He’s a champion isn’t he? He’s got unbelievable skills and the fact now he’s hitting the scoreboard is great,” the former AFL/VFL coach said.
“I don’t think he’s kicked a lot of goals in the past, but now he’s adding that string to his bow at 36 years of age.
“When is he going to stop? He’s just unbelievable.”
