The Blues bounded out of the blocks and brushed Richmond aside with apparent ease at the MCG on their way to a win that threatens to undo the good work Hardwick’s side has done in his first year at the helm.
“Possession-wise we were poor, contested possession-wise we were poor - it was just a really poor day for our footy club and we’re really disappointed with the way we played,” Hardwick said.
“You can be a young side, but when you’re uncompetitive there’s no excuse for it. As far as I was concerned today, apart from the third quarter, we were uncompetitive.
“We, at no stage, challenged Carlton. They got their game up and going early and we couldn’t stop it at any stage apart from that brief period in the third.
“You can put it down to age, but at the end of the day that’s no excuse.”
Jack Riewoldt, who finished with two goals, was a picture of frustration throughout as he struggled with a defensive double team.
As the side’s only major scoring threat, it’s a tactic that occurs weekly and his coach appears to have had enough.
“I’ve actually got to go and see the umpires at some stage - don’t get me wrong we’ve been beaten by a better side - but I think poor old Jack’s struggling a bit at the moment,” Hardwick said.
“Like most bits of play you could pull out a number of free kicks from every bit of play that you look at closely.
“But I think what we’ve got to do is look to maybe bring some attention to the powers that be and have a look at it because Jack’s a great player, we want to see the great players protected, we want to see them getting their just rewards and we don’t want to see them being manhandled.
“We just want to play on equal terms.”
Hardwick pledged to continue to blood new players and experiment with his line-up as he looks to hit upon the formula for success in 2011.
“We’ve got two games to probably get some respect back for today because we let ourselves down badly,” he said.
“Coaches, players, the whole lot of us - I thought we were really poor.”
