Plough's hoodoo hope
6:57:07 PM Sat 10 June, 2006
Jason Phelan
Exclusive to richmondfc.com.au
Richmond's 35-point win against the Kangaroos at the MCG on Saturday was important not only for the four premiership points, but also in that it halted a worrying trend according to coach Terry Wallace.
Tigers fans have become all too accustomed to seeing their side suffer a mid-season form slump after getting away to reasonable starts in recent years and the significance of Saturday's win was not lost on the Richmond boss.
"We're breaking through a few barriers - it's the first time we've won in June for four years I think, that was the fifth time we've played that side in round 11 over the last five years and they had won four out of four against us, so we're breaking through a few of those things," Wallace said after the match.
"Hoodoos and records are there to be broken and hopefully we can just start chipping away at a few of those sorts of things because the records around here are all pretty ordinary, so they've got to be changed."
"I just thought today was a good methodical victory for the footy club."
"We were coming back from a Perth game, we were in a situation where you've got your key player (Richardson) out and you've got your first game back for another of your key players at the club in Nathan Brown."
"There was more emphasis on the younger players being able to step up and do their jobs and they were fairly methodical I thought."
It's the emergence of this younger talent at Tigerland - with players like Andrew Raines, Dean Polo and Brett Deledio all having an impact - that heartens Wallace the most and he pledged to keep working on that development.
"We've played more players at senior level (this year) than any other side in the competition - we've played 36 - and we'll just keep working them and bringing them through and trusting them to do their jobs," he said.
"If we keep getting an even contribution then that's a real bonus. I just hope that our supporters can see that we're starting to make some ground - there's a long way to go - but we are starting to make some ground."
The confidence that stringing a few wins together brings has also allowed Wallace to continue to work on the strategic side of the Tigers' play and he was buoyed by what he saw against the Roos.
"The thing that I'm most pleased about now is that we have the ability to change our game structure in the course of games," he said.
"We have two or three styles that we can play during a game and we can call them from the box or the players have the ability to call them out on the ground."
"I think a few times today when they had a little bit of momentum going their way we were able to sway that back after changing a few things in our game. That's working pretty well for us at the moment - it's one of the real positives."
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