HARD is a creature who KNOWS he isn't the biggest, the meanest, the toughest, but has a go ANYWAY. The odds are often stacked against him but he doesn't give a shit. He bloody loves a ruck and sometimes, just sometimes, he gets a surprise win.
Thing is I think THEY must know by now that they've been thick, and simply got it wrong, but can't allow themselves to lose face.
"A shark would eat up a Honey Badger just like that!"
It is indeed tradition for a number of, shall we say, cranially challenged fellas on NSC to misunderstand what the word hard means around this time each year.