Tigers set to sack Wallace
Caroline Wilson | May 12, 2009
RICHMOND has unofficially decided to axe Terry Wallace and is expected to tell the struggling coach by the end of May that the club will pay out his contract should he choose not to continue until the end of the season.
The Tigers are preparing a contingency plan that has development coach Craig McCrae coming into contention as a caretaker, along with assistants David King and Wayne Campbell. Even Coburg coach Jade Rawlings will be considered as a temporary replacement.
While Wallace will coach Richmond into round eight against Port Adelaide, last Saturday's loss to the Brisbane Lions proved the final straw for the club's administration, which is working to unveil a long-term strategy in the knowledge that Wallace will not be a part of it. It is understood that Wallace knows his final year has been financially guaranteed.
Wallace is under no illusions that his coaching career is nearing an end and could be finished by the end of the month although he refused to speculate last night as to whether he would complete his contract.
He told The Age: "I've no issue with the club. The club has been supportive as they can possibly be.
"It's business as usual here. We started our review at 7am. I understand the frustration and the speculation and I understand the disappointment — I was as disappointed as anyone on Saturday. That doesn't mean we're falling apart here."
McCrae has come into contention as a short-term caretaker due to his coaching experience with Queensland while Rawlings is understood to command significant respect from the players.
Campbell, the former Richmond captain, returned to the club as a potential future coach and while he and King would be prepared to step in should Wallace decide to depart mid-season, King remains favourite in the short-term with Campbell seen as requiring more experience. Wallace's long-time assistant Brian Royal is not being considered.
With the Tigers and Wallace expected to finalise terms in the coming weeks, the club continued to scoff at suggestions that Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has already been approached to take over next season.
The search for a new coach will begin next month with the Richmond board expected to approve and unveil the next stage of its football department restructure in the knowledge that drastic changes to the list are required.
Although the Tigers and Wallace have not yet officially discussed his future there is genuine doubt that Wallace would insist on remaining at the club once the decision to sack him had been reached.
Wallace's predecessor Danny Frawley, who completed his contract after accepting the inevitable at round 13 in 2004, yesterday described coaching out the final nine weeks of his contract as "the toughest thing I've ever done emotionally".
Frawley had four weeks remaining in the home-and-away season when the Tigers appointed Wallace.
"I didn't think it would hurt as much as it did," said Frawley, now head of the AFL Coaches' Association. "I think it was the country boy in me that thought, 'A deal's a deal'. I don't regret it and I'm glad I saw it through, it was almost like a grieving process, but I was pretty flat by the end of each day. I certainly don't regret it but it's not for everyone."
If Saturday's loss, coming when the Tigers were in a winning position for the second successive week, proved to be one capitulation too many for the club, it also seemed to have convinced Wallace he no longer had any hope of gaining the belief of his players this season. He appeared unusually flat and bewildered post-match.
He seemed to have rallied by early yesterday but was uncharacteristically publicly angry when door-stopped by a television journalist and asked if he had lost the passion to coach.
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