State representation came for Hardcastle in 2002 when he was selected as the New South Wales single sculler to contest the President's Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.

[2] On seven occasions between 2001 and 2008 in Mosman's red and white he contested the men's open single sculls title at the Australian Rowing Championships.

[3] Hardcastle's national representative debut came in 1997 when he was selected in the Australian U23 quad scull to compete at the World Rowing U23 Championships in Milan.

[4] Jason Day and Duncan Free stepped into the Australian quad with Reside and Hardcastle in 1999 and they commenced their Olympic campaign for Sydney 2000.

[4] They raced at a World Rowing Cup in 1999 and then at the 1999 World Rowing Championships in St Catharines they battled through the preliminaries placing third in their heat, winning their repechage, coming third in their semi-final (facing the ultimate gold and silver medalists Germany and Ukraine) and then repeating the semi-final result with a third place and bronze medal in the final.

[4] Crawshay moved into the quad for the 2004 Athens Olympics and Hardcastle found himself with a new double sculls partner in Brendan Long and a somewhat short preparation.