Richo's move into a new dimension
By Mic Cullen
Tue 11 November, 2008
WHEN Richmond coach Terry Wallace made the decision to move Matthew Richardson up the ground early in the 2008 season, he did so in the knowledge that his position at the club was tenuous.
The Tigers had beaten Carlton in round one, but then heavy losses to North Melbourne and Collingwood in the following weeks had produced rumblings from the always-edgy Tiger army about the coach's position.
The dropping of Joel Bowden and Kayne Pettifer on the same weekend caught the headlines, and the move paid dividends for Bowden, who was strong on his return from Coburg.
Wallace said there were multiple reasons for the actions of the match committee, and points to the results as validation of their actions, although the motivation was multi-pronged.
"We dropped a couple, because we thought our defensive aspects of the game, our press, wasn't where it needed to be," he said.
"People kept saying that we didn't have any passage to goal and we didn't have any players coming through that could stand up and kick goals.
"It was interesting to see that we were significantly better this year at scoring goals once the ball got inside 50 than we were last year, so the one-dimensional nature of going to Matthew, as good as he was, people were picking it off, where this year we could rotate a few through there and get a better result anyway.
"I thought that that was always capable of happening, and I also thought it was time to let Jack (Riewoldt) and Cleve (Hughes) have a go at it, without Matthew being in there, because he is so demanding.
"I thought well, it's now or never, and if it doesn't work then they were going to string me up anyway (laughs), and if it doesn't work at least I've tried what I think could be an effective tool."
Wallace said the part he thought would be difficult was actually pretty easy.
"The most important thing was convincing Matthew, which was easier than I thought, which was a credit to him – he took it on 100 per cent, sick to death of driving home after losing games himself.
"The next week was the Fremantle game, and we up and went from there.
"I've got to say that I thought he probably got a seven-week dream period where he played fantastic footy, and then he was carrying a knee for a while, wasn't training, and it fell away a little bit.
"But it certainly showed us enough that we reckon it's sustainable."
http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=69665
