Richmond can't go on like this
Mike Sheahan | May 11, 2009
IT'S decision time at Punt Rd.
Now, not at the June board meeting, as previously promised by the administration. Both Richmond and Terry Wallace need to come to an arrangement that is in the best interests of the club, with due regard for the coach.
Metaphors to describe a coach on the way out can get you into hot water these days. But, in figurative terms, the noose continues to tighten round his neck to an intolerable level.
At 1-6, Richmond's last flicker of hope of playing finals this year has been snuffed out.
So, we have a team with no hope of playing finals, and a coach with no hope of coaching that team next year.
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Surely the logical course is for the parties to agree on a fresh start for the club, with a public pledge to field teams with the long-term future in mind.
It can't be in anyone's best interests to have another 15 rounds of what has gone on for the past seven.
It is a lost cause.
Richmond led the Brisbane Lions by 19 points at quarter-time at the MCG on Saturday before losing by 26.
The Tigers kicked 10 goals from 424 possessions, one goal in a quarter (third) that produced 145 possies.
That's junk. Where's the joy for players, coaches or spectators?
The coach gave the players licence to play their preferred way in the last quarter, and they responded with 2.1.
Richmond has won eight of 28 quarters for the season; the lowest number in the competition.
In simple terms, the Tigers were mortally wounded by the Round 1 humiliation at Carlton's hands.
Wallace seemed flat on radio before Saturday's game and was not seen with coaching colleagues at Saturday night's North Melbourne-Port Adelaide game to study Port, Richmond's opponent next Sunday.
The ongoing pressure - and lack of public support from the administration - must be telling on him.
While he has said he has a commitment and will honour it, that was when there was some hope.
The issue for him now is a gracious exit. He won't want to depart on a sour note for a second time in his long coaching career, having been denied a farewell game at Footscray in 2002 after an ill-considered decision to announce his departure.
Everyone in positions of authority at Richmond in the past five years - the coaching panel, the players, the team leaders, the football department, the recruiting staff - has failed in their jobs.
The Tigers have won 36 of 95 games, with a best finish of ninth. No lasting improvement. No new stars.
They're the facts.
The only course open to Gary March and his board is to make a fresh start. Again.
Get Trent Cotchin into the team as soon as he's ready. Same with Andrew Raines. Bring back Mitch Morton and Will Thursfield, and try Daniel Connors, Cleve Hughes, Adam Thomson and Tyrone Vickery.
What Morton is doing out of this team is yet another mysterious decision this year, while Thursfield can't get a game after playing 18 last year.
Perhaps he got ahead of himself, but he's 23 and can play.
Then there is the dilemma with older brigade. When Richmond's best 22 can't win games, why would you bring back Kane Johnson, Nathan Brown, Jordan McMahon?
The Matthew Richardson situation is more complicated, and sensitive.
Sadly, the Tigers seem to have no alternative to a public declaration that the Wallace era is over. That the rest of 2009 will be spent testing the youth on the list.
As Wallace has been doing with Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, who is developing ever so slowly.
Despite all the conjecture about Michael Malthouse and the Richmond coaching job next year, the more immediate need is to settle the current dilemma.
If Wallace walks away or is removed, assistants David King and Wayne Campbell both have senior aspirations, and credentials.
Campbell, a Richmond captain, supposedly returned to Punt Rd from Whitten Oval on the indication people in authority saw him as a future coach.
He may not want to step into a caretaker role, but King, a dual North Melbourne premiership player, is rumoured to have no such reservations.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25458081-19742,00.html
