Damien Hardwick posted a career coaching milestone on Saturday which confirmed his standing among the elite of the elite AFL coaches.

As the SUNS beat his former club Richmond by 68 points at the MCG, Hardwick became the 19th coach among 430 AFL coaches all-time to register 200 wins.

It is a mark to be celebrated by the now 53-year-old triple premiership coach, who has the SUNS 3–0 at the start of the 2026 campaign and premiership favourites on top of the ladder.

But it is a party that is not just about Hardwick’s double century, because it is part of a coaching journey which could easily have taken an entirely different path.

In the last game of the 2016 home-and-away season, Hardwick’s 157th game in charge at Richmond, his side was beaten by 113 points by Sydney at the SCG. It was the 13th-biggest loss in the club’s long history.

They finished 13th on the ladder with an 8–14 record, a disappointing slide after they had played finals in 2013, 2014 and 2015, even though they had gone out in straight sets each time.

It was a huge crossroads moment for the then 44-year-old Hardwick, who had a 74–2–81 win-loss record from 157 games at 47.7 per cent, and was a hot topic in the media as the Tigers chased their first premiership since 1980.

Not helping the Hardwick case at the time were numbers which retrospectively show that among the 19 200-win coaches in history, he is the only one not to have won a final in his first 157 games. His 47.7 per cent win ratio at that point was also the lowest.

But the Richmond hierarchy backed him in, and 126 wins later supporters at Richmond and the Gold Coast could not be happier, despite the fact Hardwick’s career numbers are still impacted by his moderate start.

He took 358 games to reach 200 wins. Tom Hafey and Chris Scott were quickest at 286 games, and Ross Lyon slowest at 360. Essendon’s Dick Reynolds was the youngest at 38 years 359 days, while Hardwick is younger than only Lyon, who was 58 years 175 days.

The all-time coaching win list now is:

466 – Jock McHale (713 games – Coll)
406 – Mick Malthouse (718 games – WB/WC/Coll/Carl)
389 – Kevin Sheedy (678 games – Ess/GWS)
357 – Allan Jeans (576 games – St Kilda/Haw/Rich)
336 – Tom Hafey (522 games – Rich/Coll/Geel/Syd)
306 – David Parkin (518 games – Haw/Carl/Fitz)
276 – Ron Barassi (515 games – Melb/Carl/NM/Syd)
275 – Dick Reynolds (415 games – Ess)
267 – Leigh Matthews (461 games – Coll/Bris)
253 – Norm Smith (452 games – Fitz/Melb/Syd)
253 – Perce Bentley (414 games – Rich/Carl)
246 – Chris Scott (362 games – Geel)
244 – Frank Hughes (378 games – Rich/Melb)
240 – Alastair Clarkson (451 games – Haw/NM)
236 – John Kennedy (412 games – Haw/NM)
208 – John Longmire (378 games – Syd)
206 – Ross Lyon (378 games – St Kilda/Frem)
202 – Dan Minogue (359 games – Rich/Haw/Carl/St Kilda/Fitz)
200 – Damien Hardwick (358 games – Rich/GC)

Hardwick’s finals record justifies his lofty ranking among the all-time greats.

Despite starting 0–3 in September, he is now 11-7 (61.1 per cent). Only Tom Hafey (72.7 per cent), Norm Smith and Alastair Clarkson (66.7 per cent) and John Kennedy (74.7 per cent) were higher at the 200-win mark. Only Smith (five), Hafey, Clarkson, Hughes, Reynolds and Barassi (four) have won more flags than his three.

Ironically, Hardwick has had most wins coaching against Essendon, where he played 153 of his 207 games and shared in the 2003 premiership. He is 20-6 (76.9 per cent) against the Bombers. Second-best on his win list is his new number-one enemy, Brisbane, against whom he is 18-7 (72.0 per cent).

Having gone 7-6 (53.9 per cent) against the Gold Coast, he is below 50 per cent against only three clubs: Western Bulldogs 8-9 (47.0 per cent), North Melbourne 8-11 (42.1 per cent) and Geelong 9-13 (40.9 per cent).

His biggest coaching win was Richmond’s 121-point victory over GWS at the Sydney Showground in 2013, and his biggest loss was the aforementioned 113-point defeat to Sydney in 2016.

He has had 59 different coaching opponents, most often Chris Scott (21), Alastair Clarkson (18), Ken Hinkley (17), John Longmire (17) and Ross Lyon (17), and is at 50 per cent or better against 39 of them.

He has had most wins against Ken Hinkley and Alastair Clarkson (10). The only opposition coaches he has never beaten are Adam Kingsley 0-4, Dean Bailey 0-3, and Jarrad Schofield, Leigh Adams, Robert Harvey, Scott Camporeale, Matthew Knights and Darren Crocker 0-1.

Which players have shared in most of Hardwick’s 200 wins?

Inevitably, it is a list headed by Richmond players, but it is not exclusively Richmond.

Jack Riewoldt (175), Trent Cotchin (161), Dustin Martin (156), Shane Edwards (143), Dylan Grimes (132), Nick Vlastuin (123) and Bachar Houli (119) fill the top seven slots, ahead of Tiger-turned-SUNS pair Brandon Ellis (111) and Daniel Rioli (105), and Tiger-turned-SUNS assistant coach Alex Rance (104).

That does not include Shaun Grigg’s 127 shared wins. The current SUNS assistant coach had 97 wins as a player under Hardwick at Richmond, and together they have had 30 wins in red and yellow.

And just for a little more local flavour, which players have polled the most Brownlow Medal votes under Hardwick? It is Martin (204) and Cotchin (143) ahead of Matt Rowell (64).

Hardwick’s 200th win, which gave him a 30–21 record at the SUNS, came with a bunch of other quirky statistics.

The SUNS have started the season 3–0 for the third time. They also began with a hat-trick in 2016, when they lost the next 10, and last year, when an unusual start featuring an opening-round washout and a Round 2 bye saw them win their first four.

Having beaten Richmond by 68 points on Saturday after putting away Geelong by 56 points and West Coast by 59 points, it is the first time in club history the SUNS have posted three consecutive wins by 50-plus.

Ben King’s equal career-high seven goals against Richmond gives him 16 goals in three games this year and sees him lead the early Coleman Medal race. Having kicked seven straight from eight kicks on Saturday, he has 16.1 from 18 kicks to lead Hawthorn’s Jack Gunston (13.6), Western Bulldogs’ Aaron Naughton (11.2) and North Melbourne’s Nick Larkey (10.1), remembering Larkey has played only two games.

Ethan Read, in his 28th game and aged 20 years 257 days, kicked a career-best four goals to become the 29th SUNS player to kick four or more goals in a game.

A little surprisingly, the giant StreetSmarts SUNS Academy product is well down the list for age and experience.

King (19 years, 21 days) was the youngest from Brandon Matera (19 years, 43 days), Ben Ainsworth (19 years, 141 days), Andrew Boston (19 years, 167 days), Callum Ah Chee (19 years, 195 days), Bailey Humphrey (19 years, 248 days), Tom Lynch (19 years, 299 days), Peter Wright (19 years, 305 days), Harley Bennell (19 years, 308 days), Joel Jeffrey (20 years, 70 days) and Mac Andrew (20 years, 57 days).

And, excluding seven imports, Matera (four games) was quickest from Ainsworth and Jeffrey (six), Boston (eight), King (10), Wright (13), Aaron Hall (17), Ah Chee (19), Josh Corbett (19), Izak Rankine (23), Jack Martin (25), Malcolm Rosas (26), Charlie Dixon (27) and Bailey Humphrey (27).