Tigers in good shape
4:33:59 PM Tue 13 June, 2006
Angus Morgan
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond coach Terry Wallace has said he believes the club has reached the half-way mark of the season in good shape, but that everyone at Punt Road is bracing themselves for a testing period ahead.
The Tigers are sitting just outside the top eight with a six-five win-loss record compared to seven-four after 11 rounds last season.
Wallace said that if the Tigers are to improve upon last year's final tally of 10 wins they must make serious inroads in matches coming up immediately after the mid-season break against Collingwood, Port Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs.
"We've had a few fade-aways over the second half of the years over recent times and that's another point for us to prove," Wallace said.
"The history around here hasn’t been great over quite a few years so we've been trying to break down a few of those barriers and that's another one we've still got to improve, and the draw after the break is very, very tough.
"We know that we've got to try to get a win on the weekend (against Hawthorn in Launceston) to get ourselves to a seven-five situation and then really sort of lock and load ourselves for what is going to be a really tough month-and-a-half after that.
Wallace said that while his players are in rude health, he believes they will benefit from having a "breather" over the mid-season break.
"We're in good shape fitness-wise. If the break wasn't until four weeks away that would be fine by us, we're not falling apart," he said.
"Last year we were absolutely hanging out for the break - this time around we're in pretty good fettle."
Meanwhile Wallace agreed that Australia's late charge to victory over Japan in the opening round of the FIFA World Cup could provide him with some valuable material.
Trailing one-nil deep into the Group E match in Kaiserslautern, the Socceroos rammed home three goals in the final 10 minutes to record Australia's first World Cup Finals victory.
Wallace said it's an important reminder of what persistence can achieve against the odds.
"I think it also show the value of interchange for our sport," he said.
"It doesn't matter when you come on, at any stage or at any point in the game you can have an impact in the match, a massive impact in the match.
Wallace confessed, however, that the match didn’t quite have the impact on him that it should have.
"I turned off the TV with seven minutes to go - I still haven’t seen the goals and I'm filthy, absolutely filthy."
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