Time to deliver (The Age)

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Time to deliver
Michael Gleeson | March 19, 2008

IN FEBRUARY heat, in its latest appearance since collecting another spoon of wood, Richmond turned out an impressive side on paper to play a thin St Kilda outfit in the first pseudo contest of the year.

St Kilda effectively fielded its seconds, Richmond was basically full strength, but proved to be a paper tiger.

Within minutes, Matthew Richardson was playing behind the ball. The game was lost. Tiger fans' hearts sank as they came to the realisation that last year had not been an injury-induced aberration. What they had been watching was the precursor to another year of pain.

That they won two of their next three pre-season games mattered not, full-strength Richmond had been humbled by St Kilda-lite. Richmond's season for those fans was decided before it began and, with it, Terry Wallace's coaching career, although that is the tail wagging the Tiger in a world where perception is reality.

Wallace admits that managing perceptions as well as teams meant he might have altered the physical preparation of his players this summer to help better manage those easily pricked expectations.

"We didn't at all feel the wind was out of our sails (after the St Kilda game)," Wallace said. "We went in with a completely different structure this year. We didn't do any competitive football work because we wanted to make sure we had a fit squad for round one, so we hadn't done the footy work in the lead-up to that NAB Cup and we used the NAB Cup series as our footy work. We played all our players right through that NAB Cup series, so when our blokes got out there for the first game, we hadn't done the hit-outs that a lot of clubs had done.

"But we have had four weeks now of continuity where others have rested them during this period and we haven't rested ours at all. So we took a different tack. It would be interesting whether I would take the same tack again because we got belted (publicly), because we had a full squad out there. Whether they were ready or not, I don't know.

"I am very comfortable with the NAB Cup but sometimes the scrutiny of the NAB Cup and what you take in, (sometimes) you are better off to take kids in because of the scrutiny.

"To us, it was not that big a deal. We were getting the players ready for round one in the … manner in which you think you should get them prepared. If we get caught up or worried about what others are saying, we are kidding ourselves. Absolutely, the pressure is on me."

Having massaged his team into ninth in 2006, Wallace explains last year as a conspiracy of injuries and inexperience but acknowledges those rationalisations won't wash again this year.

"We thought we had shown natural development and improvement until last year. Clearly last year, we underachieved from our own standings and certainly our supporters' standards. But we thought there were reasons behind that," Wallace said.

As a consequence of injuries — 28 different players with fractures in three years — Richmond could not get its optimum side on the field. Because of this, the Tigers remain uncertain where their best side sits against the rest of the competition. They are in no doubt where their reduced side figures in the scheme of things.

"I will tell you within a month. I don't think we ever really got our side together last year in the structure that we wanted and then when we did a little bit towards the end of the year, we looked all right, but you don't know if other sides are dropping off," Wallace said. "I found last year very, very difficult to really get a genuine assessment of where we are at — we will find out in the first six weeks."

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continues ...

President Gary March is similarly prepared to caution against premature evaluation.

"The first month is critical to our club. I am happy to have the same discussion with everyone in four weeks," March said. "Every year, the media put two coaches minimum in the gun and at the moment, the two coaches under perceived pressure are the coaches of the bottom sides who didn't change their coaches last year. We know that, but that is an outside perception, it is not ours."

The president is prepared to rate last year as an aberration, confident that having increased football spending by $2.5 million in the past two years and altering the football department structure in refining Greg Miller's role and introducing respected recruiter Craig Cameron from Melbourne, that the framework is now right.

"No one can be content with finishing last but we think there were extenuating circumstances for that. I am content we have got the structure and business model right," March said. "We will be judging our footy department on the continued improvement of our young players, not positions on the ladder. We are judging them on doing what they said they would do and rebuilding our list, which they have done. That is nearly finished."

To that extent, so will Wallace. Players such as those mentioned by March are precisely the ones the coach will be expecting to develop. They will be the ones who will determine, as much as Nathan Brown and Mark Coughlan coming back from injury, whether Richmond improves.

Richmond will rely on a raw back line again. Graham Polak has played key defence as much as key forward but his support will be the likes of Will Thursfield and Luke McGuane. Both promising, but both young. Can they be expected to hold down sufficiently the two key defensive positions to allow Richmond to rise significantly?

"Not sure," Wallace replied candidly. "That is their challenge, they are young. When we arrived, we had Darren Gaspar finishing up his career, Andrew Kellaway finishing up his career and Mark Chaffey finishing up. All good stalwarts but we had to start the process again.

"There was not a young 22-, 23-year-old sitting there at half-back or full-back that would be available to me that would be that 25-, 26-year-old.

"When I arrived, they were not at the footy club. We have manufactured them, picked them out, plucked them out, wangled our way around getting those guys to the club.

"We haven't, at this stage, got someone to go with the gorillas because they are not in the same age, maturity or development as those other players.

"But it is cyclical. When our boys are older and more mature, the other clubs will be worrying who they have to put on them."

Three of the Tigers' most senior midfielders — Kane Johnson, Coughlan and Shane Tuck — are fundamental and will spend big chunks of every game in the middle. But they all lack pace and will struggle to be on the ball at the one time.

"You have got to change it up, you have got to have the ability to have both (strength and pace) going through there at all times. Nathan (Foley) has got to play there, Lids (Brett Deledio) has got to go through there. We have been waiting for Richard (Tambling) to play there for a few years, he is now physically mature enough to go in there and win his own ball.

"People wanted it to happen two years ago but he was a scrawny kid at that stage and it wasn't going to happen. Daniel Jackson is another who is a genuine quick who will play through that area of the ground as well. I think we are quick enough but we are slow if we get the wrong combination in there," Wallace said.

The inclusion of former Bulldog Jordan McMahon will add to this pace.

"Three-and-a-half years ago, I spoke to the board and said, 'My promise to you is five years uninterrupted, you will have work on list management and redevelop an ageing list'.

"We are three years into that development. I said clearly where that list was at and, at some period in time, we will come under pressure and some sort of scrutiny while that list was developing along, but they could be assured we wouldn't deviate from that original plan.

"That is what we are doing. The game is cyclical and we are in a cycle that still has us in a young part of our cycle."

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