With eight minutes left in the first half of the 2010 season opener, Richmond midfielder Daniel Jackson lined up to take a relatively easy shot at goal.
Coming off the back of his most consistent season after six years in the league, the then-70-gamer was one the few shining lights of a disastrous 2009, in a fixture that had seen the Tigers lose 16 matches and resulted in veteran coach Terry Wallace walking away from Punt Road.
Throughout it all, Jackson had been sturdy and reliable, the antonyms to what the club had mostly been in a year to forget.
He was the future — and 2009 was the past.
Already trailing the Blues by 33 points on that cool Thursday night, this shot at goal was as symbolic as it was consequential.
Nail it through the guts of the goals and the Tigers could ride a wave of momentum into half-time and overrun a Carlton team that had its early-season eyes already set on September.
Miss, and the heads of a relatively young team would slump in disappointment, resigned to their fate.
With hope on the line, Jackson strode in and thumped his boot into the ball as he would have done thousands of times before.
It was an ugly result.
Spinning a chaotic dance of something between a drop punt and a torpedo, the Sherrin veered to the right of the behind post and fell to the ground like a drunken groomsman at the end of a particularly buoyant wedding.
In the coaches box, newly minted leader Damien Hardwick crossed his arms and let out an aggressive "pfft".
His team would lose by 56 points.
"As far as I look at it, this is as poor as we're going to get," Hardwick said after the game.
"This is as poor as I'm going to be as head coach, and our team — this is as poor as it's going to be also.
"Look, it's a learning [curve]. We've just got to get better a hell of a lot quicker."
A week later, they would lose by 72 points to the Bulldogs. Then back-to-back 55-point losses to the Swans and Demons. Then a 39-point loss to the Dockers, and a 108-point drubbing at the hands of the Cats.
It was a losing streak that would last the first nine matches of Hardwick's career, and see the Tigers finish the season only half a game better off than the year before.
"It was no rougher to my introduction to AFL coaching," then-Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said after the season opener.
"It's a tough caper and he's taken on a group of players that he has to build from the ground up."
Amongst that group of players were four names that Hardwick hoped would form the foundation on which to build an unlikely dynasty.
In first-gamer Dustin Martin, he saw an aggressive ball-winner, a bullocking teenager who brought that Collingwood-like mongrel to a club that had so often lacked the unsociable edge of the very best teams.
In 26-gamer Trent Cotchin, Hardwick had a midfielder with blue-ribbon class, an old head on a young body who had already shown he could turn the fortunes of a game with a hardball get and releasing handball.
In 48-gamer Shane Edwards, he had a fast-moving and classy prospect who had shown in glimpses an ability to not only get the ball, but hurt the opposition on the scoreboard.
And in 47-gamer Jack Riewoldt, he had a key forward who played with unbridled enthusiasm and athleticism, with his 57 goals just a small sample size of what the Tasmanian could do if given the opportunity.
The building site was a mess, but the materials were sturdy. The architect was clever. And the investors were all in.
"We've got a new coach, we've got a new game plan, we've got a new way of doing things," an enthusiastic Brendon Gale said in a now-famous interview with Footy Classified during the 2010 season.
"I make no apologies for the fact we want to be the best football club. We want to be the greatest."
The club boss had earlier sent an internal document that said the Tigers would be aiming for a membership base of 75,000 people, a debt-free future and, crucially, three flags by 2020.
It was a plan that was roundly criticised both inside and outside the club for being too bold.
"I'm not embarrassed, I'm actually proud of that," Gale said when pushed on his dreams.
"We've got a vision to compete and be the best. The best on the field and off the field."
And in Hardwick, the Richmond powerbrokers saw the best.
They saw the best as he made incremental improvements to the win-loss record, going 8-1-13 in 2011, 10-1-11 in 2012, and eventually making finals in 2013 on the back of a 15-8 season.
They saw the best as he got games into the kids, supported ably on the field by the likes of Jackson, Brett Deledio, and Chris Newman, who gave their all for the yellow and black but wouldn't taste ultimate premiership success.
They even saw the best as the Tigers failed to make the finals in 2016, and the knives glinted in the Melbourne sun with demands that Hardwick be moved on in favour of fresh blood.
And finally, they saw the best as Hardwick stood on the dais in the final match of the season on three separate occasions, fulfilling the unlikely dream of his greatest supporter, and ending decades of heartache for the long-suffering Tiger Army.
"The way the club has supported me and given me every resource possible and got me the best people possible, it's a testament to what I think we have created," an emotional Hardwick said in his press conference.
"The man to my left (Gale) started out a couple of days prior to me but he has been enormous on my journey and I cannot thank Brendon enough for what you have done for me and my family,
"To [club president] John O'Rourke and the board, and Peggy O'Neal and Gary March before, and the support you gave me when you could have quite easily at any stage tossed me out in 2016, and the journey we have responded to there, I can't ever thank you enough."
Without question, Damien Hardwick is one of the greatest coaches of the modern era. Aggressive, dynamic, and a tactical sorcerer.
But while his success is as much a product of the man, it is also a result of the faith the people above offered him throughout, in a footy world that is quick to jump off the ride as the first dip in the rollercoaster looms.
His success was all a part of the plan.
It was lofty and ambitious. Crazy and enthusiastic. Wild and zealous.
It was strong and it was bold.
And it sees Hardwick leave the club as Gale had predicted all those years ago — the best.
