Terry Wallace coached teams: And up and coming draft

[znong]

Statistics from 1996: (Mostly concerned with the lack of tackling and the 1% per centers Terry Wallace coached sides do in a season).

Tackling

1996:    Sydney       =    Runners up   Rated 1st in tackling   Footscray:   16th
1997:   Adelaide   =   Premiers   1st in tackling      W.B      12th
1998:   Adelaide   =   Premiers   1st         W.B      11th
1999:   Kangaroos   =   Premiers   4th         W.B      10th
2000:   Essendon   =   Premiers   2nd          W.B      14th

(Note Essendon’s only loss in 2000 was to the Western Bulldogs in round 21. Western Bulldogs tackled more than Essendon that evening.

2001:   Brisbane Lions =    Premiers   4th in tackles      W.B      15th

(Note in 2002 and 2003 Brisbane was rated no 1 in tackles in the competition).    

2005:   Sydney   =   Premiers   1st in tackling      Richmond   15th
2006:   Melbourne =   ?      1st in tackling      Richmond   11th

1 per centers (Smothers, Shepard’s, blocks,) e.t.c

2000:   Essendon    =   Premiers   4th in 1 per centers   W.B      16th

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004: Brisbane =   Runners up and Premiers 3 straight years   
No 1 in one per centers                     W.B in 2001 15th

2005:   Sydney      =   Premiers   1st in one per centers   Richmond   16th
2006:   Melbourne    =    ?      1st in one per centers   Richmond   15th

Note:    Premiership teams in the history of the game have been good tackling sides. Tackling does many things in a game of football; it places pressure on the opposition and even places perceived pressure when you do it correctly. It obviously fatigues sides later in the contest also. In Finals games when there is a definite improvement in areas mentioned above, it has been proven that Terry Wallace coached teams do not tackle and apply physical pressure and 1%’s on the ball carrier, or in the game in general.
In Wallace’s best years in charge of a team 1997 and 1998 they were overrun and then smashed by the crows in both years. You could see Adelaide lift especially in 1997 because they were not being tackled, and therefore were not tired at games end. It gave them the ability to run the game out.

Wallace at the Bulldogs had one of the best tacklers the game has seen in Tony Liberatore. Even still it did not assist tackle numbers team wise. Romero, West, Dimma, and others were also productive tacklers or should have been.
Wallace allows teams with good foot skills too much time and space. In Richmond’s severe losses this year, the opposition has eased through the midfield with the mindset they would not be tackled. (Figures above prove this) Sydney, W.B and even Hawthorn were allowed too much time and space. If you give AFL footballer’s time and space they surely will cause havoc.

Wallace is successful in limiting contested marks, as well as hard ball gets to the opposition, although this may be a thing of the past. Most teams now play with an uncontested aspect to assist their running players. Teams with numerous forward options will often beat a Terry Wallace coached side.  He likes to have a defender such as a Kellaway or a Bowden free at Richmond to zone off or be the 3rd man up at the contest. At the Bulldogs Craig Ellis or Todd Curley would do that role. If you are the opposition and you see this, you surely direct some football through Bowden to hurt them on the scoreboard.
(Re Luke Brennan) Sunday in Tasmania.

Wallace has struggled to beat coaches such as Mark Williams, Schwab (Hawthorn), Malthouse and Matthews because of either their success at uncontested style of football, their ability to tackle fiercely, or the fact they have had numerous options up forward.

Wallace would probably like to play 22 wingman if he could. A fast running side that does not tackle. The purchase of Tambling and Oakley-Nicholls may come off, although at present Richmond stand 16th at clearances. Either at stop plays or centre breaks. In and under footballers would stop this trend. Richmond have refused to draft Nathan Jones and Jordan Lewis who are excellent at the stoppages, rather they chose Danny Meyer and Tambling types.

The lack of an up and coming spine could spell disaster for Richmond. Thursfield is a very good footballer, but he may not recover from a serious knee injury. Shultz is untried really at senior level. Hughes will be a player but will take two or three years to fill out. Limbach will also be productive, but needs to put on weight. Gaspar seems out of favor, Kellaway and Ray Hall are only battlers (despite braveness) who struggle with disposal. Bowden does not play on a man and if he does can struggle to man up on most occasions. If you pressure Richmond’s defence they do not have the ability to hit targets going forward. At the Bulldogs Wallace did not have the spine to win in September.
With the draft picks at his disposal (at Richmond) he could have well and truly improved the position of Richmond’s talls. However he has decided to go with the Western Bulldogs style again which did not pay dividends the first time around. 

Wallace is a very smart business operator, has excellent media skills which will benefit the club with members and sponsorship. However it remains to be seen whether he will take the Richmond side to sustained success. The lack of tackling, sustained pressure, one per centers and clearances
(with bigger bodies) need to be worked upon. Whether it will remains to be seen. As history and statistics show you need to be successful at tackling to win premierships. With Wallace at the helm it is highly doubtful.

Note: In Richmond’s best seasons in recent times: 1995 and 2001 they were a good tackling side.
1995:   1st in total tackles
2001:   3rd in total tackles.

What Richmond should do in the upcoming draft?
Do everything in their power to recruit the following players. They will need to trade / give away some talent, but the following players will assist in the tiger’s progression as a club.
Not in order:
1.   Tom Hislop (Tas) good at clearances / go forward and kick goals/ tough - Michael Voss
2.   Mitch Thorp (Tas) presence on field / leader/ tough/ fullforward / Jonathon Brown
3.   Jack Riewoldt (Tas)   good endurance / CHF/CHB Can play a Carey type game
4.   Tomas Bellchambers (Tas)   good tap Ruckman. Good mark. Clark Keating.
5.   Aaron Joseph (Tas) tough in and under player. Tagger/ or h.b.f/ b.p - Steven Baker
6.   Craig Bird (N.S.W) leadership qualities. hard at it / good at clearances. Brett Kirk.

[PuntRdRoar]

Thorp will be ok, Riewoldt we dont need, Hislop is already fully developed from what i can see and therefore future big improvement is questionable, Bellchambers can play but isnt eligable to be drafted, Joseph and Bird- not for mine- there are better players available and they should be taken before these 2.

[mightytiges]

Welcome to OER znong. One thorough first post!

Premiership teams in the history of the game have been good tackling sides. Tackling does many things in a game of football; it places pressure on the opposition and even places perceived pressure when you do it correctly. It obviously fatigues sides later in the contest also. In Finals games when there is a definite improvement in areas mentioned above, it has been proven that Terry Wallace coached teams do not tackle and apply physical pressure and 1%’s on the ball carrier, or in the game in general.

That's true znong about tackles and 1%ers tiring the opposition and being vital in September in terms of putting pressure on the opposition. We are poor in that area (and have been since Northey left). However we do have a side of young bodies. We have the most teenagers of any side in the AFL.

In Wallace’s best years in charge of a team 1997 and 1998 they were overrun and then smashed by the crows in both years. You could see Adelaide lift especially in 1997 because they were not being tackled, and therefore were not tired at games end. It gave them the ability to run the game out.

The Dogs choked in 97. Libba jumping into the arms celebrating as if the game was done was their downfall. Mark West should have also kicked the goal that would have seen them through anyway despite the wizardry of Darren Jarman. That game ate into that core of players psychie from which they never ever recovered.

Wallace allows teams with good foot skills too much time and space. In Richmond’s severe losses this year, the opposition has eased through the midfield with the mindset they would not be tackled. (Figures above prove this) Sydney, W.B and even Hawthorn were allowed too much time and space. If you give AFL footballer’s time and space they surely will cause havoc.

The Dogs, Swans and Eagles (3rd quarter) tore us apart with pace. We couldn't go with them. But they are top 4 sides (doggies would be if not hammered by injury) and 3-5 years ahead in development of where we are at. Saints and Freo games went down to the wire. The Hawks game was pathetic and there was no excuse because we didn't turn up to play. 

Adelaide, Geelong and the Saints pumped us by 10 goal plus last year but we have defeated two of them this year and we would have knocked off the Saints too if we didn't lose both Thursfield and Schulz allowing Riewoldt, who had been soundly beaten all night, a free reign in the last 10 minutes.

Teams with numerous forward options will often beat a Terry Wallace coached side.  He likes to have a defender such as a Kellaway or a Bowden free at Richmond to zone off or be the 3rd man up at the contest. At the Bulldogs Craig Ellis or Todd Curley would do that role. If you are the opposition and you see this, you surely direct some football through Bowden to hurt them on the scoreboard. (Re Luke Brennan) Sunday in Tasmania.

Teams with numerous forward options will often beat most sides provided their midfield gives them enough decent supply.
We've lost all six games not due to being outgunned in defence but through the midfield. That's where modern footy games are won.

Wallace has struggled to beat coaches such as Mark Williams, Schwab (Hawthorn), Malthouse and Matthews because of either their success at uncontested style of football, their ability to tackle fiercely, or the fact they have had numerous options up forward.

Wallace at Richmond vs:
Williams:  1-1
Malthouse: 1-0
Matthews: 2-0 (both wins at the 'Gabba)

Wallace would probably like to play 22 wingman if he could. A fast running side that does not tackle. The purchase of Tambling and Oakley-Nicholls may come off, although at present Richmond stand 16th at clearances. Either at stop plays or centre breaks. In and under footballers would stop this trend. Richmond have refused to draft Nathan Jones and Jordan Lewis who are excellent at the stoppages, rather they chose Danny Meyer and Tambling types.

For most of last year Richmond was one of the top sides in winning contested footy with Cogs and Tuck yet got absolutely smashed by the top sides once the footy got out into the open. We were run off our legs due to our lack of leg speed. In fact Richmond has always been a slow poorly skilled side for the past 25 years. Unlike the doggies we needed to draft pace as well as skill. Don't forget either we drafted Polo.

The lack of an up and coming spine could spell disaster for Richmond. With the draft picks at his disposal (at Richmond) he could have well and truly improved the position of Richmond’s talls. However he has decided to go with the Western Bulldogs style again which did not pay dividends the first time around. 

There is only one person responsible for our lack of KPP and his name is one Danny Frawley. 5 years (and drafts) and just 1 tall (Schulz) drafted  . Spud totally gutted our list as far as youngsters went  .

Wallace is a very smart business operator, has excellent media skills which will benefit the club with members and sponsorship. However it remains to be seen whether he will take the Richmond side to sustained success. The lack of tackling, sustained pressure, one per centers and clearances
(with bigger bodies) need to be worked upon. Whether it will remains to be seen. As history and statistics show you need to be successful at tackling to win premierships. With Wallace at the helm it is highly doubtful.

Rome wasn't built in a day. As mentioned Spud (as well as Geisch) had no idea about recruiting. We needed to rebuild our list basically from scratch as we had few middle age bracket players. That's why Wallace was given 5 years. It's going to take all of those to just get the balance in our player list right again. If anyone expected us to be gunning it just 18 months after finishing with the wooden spoon then they were/are living in fairyland. Remember the Dogs had played finals under Wheeler before Joyce and then Wallace took over. Two entirely different scenarios.

Note: In Richmond’s best seasons in recent times: 1995 and 2001 they were a good tackling side.
1995:   1st in total tackles
2001:   3rd in total tackles.

We were still miles behind the top sides even in those years. Top 4 finishes flattered us but we believed we weren't far away and fell away immediately.

What Richmond should do in the upcoming draft?
Do everything in their power to recruit the following players. They will need to trade / give away some talent, but the following players will assist in the tiger’s progression as a club.
Not in order:
1.   Tom Hislop (Tas) good at clearances / go forward and kick goals/ tough - Michael Voss
2.   Mitch Thorp (Tas) presence on field / leader/ tough/ fullforward / Jonathon Brown
3.   Jack Riewoldt (Tas)   good endurance / CHF/CHB Can play a Carey type game
4.   Tomas Bellchambers (Tas)   good tap Ruckman. Good mark. Clark Keating.
5.   Aaron Joseph (Tas) tough in and under player. Tagger/ or h.b.f/ b.p - Steven Baker
6.   Craig Bird (N.S.W) leadership qualities. hard at it / good at clearances. Brett Kirk.

No doubt we need more KPPs but I would be concerned if we drafted every kid from Division 2 of the U18 Champs.

[PuntRdRoar]

1 Key Forward
1 Key Backman
1 Ruckman
2 Midfielders
1 Running type defender

I dont know if you guys agree but for mine I think for what we need looking 3 years down the track...the 6 types of players above are what we need to continue the progress beyond that we need to finally get a full compliment of rookies.

[Fishfinger]

Great effort by Wallace and his team in '97 to be 12th in tackles and be stiff (robbed) not to play in the GF.

unong, nice work collating the figures. 
Out of interest, where were Nth Melb in tackles in '96 (premiers)?
Any chance of providing a source of where you got the stats from? Just asking because some others may want to use them selectively to make a point.  Stats are great like that.