Wallace reveals the pressures of being a coach under siegeBy Alex Zaia
SEN
13 June 2018AFL Hall of Fame inductee Terry Wallace has opened up on the messy end to his reign as Richmond’s coach that ultimately saw him lose his job.
Wallace resigned as the Tigers coach in 2009 on the back of enormous media scrutiny after having not made the finals since joining the club in 2005.
The three-time Hawthorn premiership player revealed he knew the writing was on the wall following Richmond’s loss to fellow strugglers Melbourne early in his final season at Punt Road.
“I remember driving to the MCG in Round 4 of my last season, we were 0-3 and playing Melbourne who were 0-3,” Wallace told SEN Afternoons.
“I just knew that if we didn’t get a result that day, it was basically all over.
“We were six or seven goals down, ten minutes into the second quarter, pretty much game over.
“We flew back late and lost by a goal and a half, and ‘dead man walking’ was the headline on the Monday.
“I knew when I left the MCG that day that it was a matter of when, not if."
Wallace also spoke about dealing with the intense pressure of being an under pressure AFL coach, the insecurity it causes, and how certain stakeholders can cause political rifts within a football club.
“There’s different parts to it," he added.
“When it’s happening in game, you’re still working as hard as you can to try and get a result, to try and work through that.
“Once you’ve stepped out of that, you’re now sitting there and thinking: what’s my next step in life?
“I’ve still got to continue to do my job, but I’ve got to start getting my life organised as well, because clearly I don’t think that I’m necessarily going to get through this.
“So what’s the next phase look like? But in doing that, you’ve got to try and make sure you’re still keeping everything normal.
“You’re seeing things that aren’t necessarily happening as well, whether that’s with players, the communication level has dropped off a little bit, you sort of see them having a little chat or a snigger in the corner.
“All that stuff happens, then you get all the rumour and innuendo of phone calls to other coaches.
“You’ve got businessmen who are ringing the CEO or ringing board members and sort of saying: 'We’ll help you pay the bill to get him up out of the joint'.
“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. When it gets really, really political, that’s the ugly face of it.
“The competition and the beast that is AFL, we only need to go back to yesterday, how magnificent is it?
“But when it gets political in club, it’s an ugly place at times as well.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/06/12/wallace-reveals-the-pressures-of-being-a-coach-under-siege/
