Tigers' Wallace hopes for 16 goals a game
By Stephen Rielly
The Age
November 2, 2004
Richmond coach Terry Wallace has revealed an ambitious plan to launch an all-out attack in matches next year, which will hopefully net four goals a quarter and put an end to the club's "losing ugly" reputation.
In explaining his goal to a Tigers' coterie function last week, Wallace said he wanted his team to shoot itself out of trouble and produce a high-scoring game that, if nothing else in the short term, made for an entertaining spectacle.
To that end, he said he'd prefer Richmond getting beaten 16 goals to 18 than scrapping its way to a narrow defeat after kicking 10 or 11 goals.
For a team that has kicked 16 goals or more only six times in two years and did not do so at all this year, Wallace says his team will go after that number - 16 - every game in 2005.
"The last two years we've averaged 11 goals a game. Now, it's one thing to lose, but another to lose ugly. No one wants to lose but I'd rather lose putting on a game that was worth going along to have a look at," Wallace explained yesterday.
"When you're kicking 11 goals a game and averaging fewer than three goals a quarter, each single mistake is magnified and even one can be devastating.
"The statistics will tell you that if you kick four goals a quarter and 16 a match, you will be competitive in every game you play. Now, how soon we get there, who knows? But the nature of the game we want to play will be offensive - to kick our 16 goals a match."
This credo, last embraced by Malcolm Blight during his time at Geelong but subsequently modified by the time he reached Adelaide, is contrary to the accepted wisdom in professional team sport which holds that defences, rather than offences, win premierships.
Wallace says he understands this and, in time, hopes to "balance out" his game with a strong, adaptable back line, but argues that for now he has to make the best use of what he has to give the fans something worth turning up for.
"Then, if we're still getting beaten, because we've got a soft underbelly or our back line isn't strong enough or we haven't got enough grunt or run, well, if we're being beaten 18 goals to 16, then it's only a bit of tinkering at that point and at least you're giving your supporters something to go along and have a look at," he said.
"The other thing for us, contrary to what the statistics tell you, is that I think we've got the ability to structure up a side that can score. To kick 16 goals a game I think you need to have five players kicking 25 goals plus and I reckon we can find them. But I'm not sure that if we kick 11 that we've got the midfield or the defensive qualities at the moment to hold the opposition out.
"If we had a strong, sound defence similar to Geelong's, which is basically set in place and reliable no matter the opposition, that would be ideal because we could work on other areas, but where we're at is building the next generation before we lose (Darren) Gaspar and (Andrew) Kellaway."
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