Tigers, Bulldogs, AFL, fans ... Wallace has tanked big timeCaroline Wilson | July 26, 2009
TERRY WALLACE and the Richmond Football Club parted company on the first day of winter, 2009. Both parties admitted in a nice way that his time at the club had been a failure. Both went to great lengths to say that personal relationships would hopefully continue.
It must be said that those relationships are less cordial now. The Tigers have been dreadful on the field and dysfunctional off it for so long that it would not have been surprising to see them botch the Wallace departure, but the truth is, they did not.
It is Wallace who has handled life after coaching poorly, so poorly that Richmond has been moved to less than casually point out to its former mentor's management that he remains financially connected to Tigerland at least until the end of the 2009 season. Wallace in his new radio role yesterday, mentioned briefly again how under-resourced his football department was when he joined Richmond. This is no doubt true, but too often he has passed on the blame while he has also publicly questioned the culture of the place for saying it over-indulged in the blame game.
If the club was under-resourced, then why push it to recruit Graham Polak and Jordan McMahon? Why not urge it to spend the money on recruiting staff who would have made better calls than those two?
Wallace's first call after agreeing to terms with the club was to coach one last game against the Western Bulldogs. The call was criticised by many and in execution did not go well - partly because Richmond did not exactly put in a major effort for the outgoing coach, and particularly because Wallace's olive branch to his old club had well and truly snapped only days after he offered it.
In fact, having coached a milestone game and a win over Fremantle, Wallace made an outgoing point of saying he did not want to end badly with Richmond and took the opportunity of apologising to the Bulldogs and their president David Smorgon for the way it had ended at the Whitten Oval. Smorgon, mildly surprised and appreciative, accepted the apology. (Even Wallace's departure from Hawthorn all those years ago was less than perfect despite his brilliant career.)
It took only days for Wallace, who was offered a handsome pay cheque, to give a version of his Bulldogs history on The Footy Show that angered pretty much everyone in senior positions at the club, because they believed his version to be insulting and incorrect.
But back to Richmond. His departing press conference made it clear that he was seeking a position elsewhere in the AFL or the media and his curriculum vitae was duly outlined.
Having joined SEN as a commentator, the veteran coach's first game was a Tigers clash against St Kilda. Bad call. Talkback after that game was not pleasant and, having endured a horror half-season at Richmond, that experience behind the microphone would not have been pleasant for Wallace and his shellshocked psyche.
His comments regarding the round-22 loss to St Kilda in 2007 were intriguing, although not surprising given that the then Richmond coach made it clear before the game that he had a "funny feeling".
What was surprising was that Wallace chose to buy into the debate at a time when AFL boss Andrew Demetriou was whacking anyone who chose to declare that tanking existed. More power to Wallace if his motives were to end the practice, but he will be hurt by what he said.
Richmond's disgust was barely disguised by comments from captain Chris Newman and acting coach Jade Rawlings during the week. It is not exactly a tick to the above-mentioned CV to admit publicly to not making a move to try to win a game.
Demetriou and Wallace have had their differences in the past, but the two enjoyed a convivial coffee shortly after the latter left Richmond and the AFL chief indicated he hoped Wallace remained in the industry, because the industry could not afford "to lose good people".
Somehow you cannot imagine Demetriou strongly recommending Wallace now for a position at the Gold Coast or western Sydney. Fair or not, that is how the system works.
Interestingly, Wallace has always been regarded as a great salesman, even a spin doctor at times. You could never have said that about Dean Laidley - a coach paid significantly less than Wallace at a club not exactly well-resourced over his time there.
And yet Laidley has said nothing and sensibly headed overseas to escape the inevitable post-traumatic stress. That may have not been possible for Wallace, but it would have been the smarter decision.
Instead, he has antagonised the Bulldogs - again, Richmond and the chief executive of the competition he wants to continue to work in. Not a great career move.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/tigers-bulldogs-afl-fans--wallace-has-tanked-big-time/2009/07/26/1248546620936.html
