One for the 'family': Wallace
richmondfc.com.au
By Matt Brown
Sun 13 July, 2008
RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace says a determination to do the right thing by injured teammate Graham Polak had spurred the Tigers to their record 77-point win over the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval.
The victory keeps the Tigers in the hunt for a finals berth and has provided a timely percentage boost.
Polak is recovering in Melbourne from injuries he received when he was hit by a tram a fortnight ago.
Wallace said it had been difficult to judge how the emotion surrounding Polak’s injuries would affect the team in the build-up to the match, but added that the Tigers had responded magnificently.
“It’s always difficult to know. We had a couple of boys pretty emotional after the game in the rooms,” he said.
“From our point of view we’re a family, as a group, and Graham certainly is a part of that family.
“When one of your players goes down, when one of your family goes down, it’s up to everyone to rally about.
“And you can rally by being by his side and that sort of thing but, in football terms, you’ve still got to go out and play footy.
“We spoke before the game and just said we had some pretty important people back at home that would be watching in, and we were just really hopeful that we could do the right thing by Graham.
“So it was a pretty important day from that point of view.”
The Tigers trailed West Coast by 11 points at quarter-time before unleashing a brutal 11-goal to one second quarter onslaught to set up their commanding win.
Wallace said the Tigers’ fierce attack on the ball had been reflected in a complete dominance of the clearances after quarter-time.
“We’d been OK in that area for most of the game, but really at times it was having more youth in there and giving them the opportunity, I suppose, of having their head and to be able to go after it,” he said.
“At one stage in there we had Shane Edwards and Trent Cotchin along with Nathan Foley, and it was legitimately quick and they were really hunting after the footy. It was pretty exciting to see that.
“We had a fair bit of trust and faith in our playing group today. We were vastly younger than the opposition.
“The pleasing aspect I think for our supporters (was) they got a real glimpse of what might be a fairly strong midfield for the future.”
Wallace said it was still too early to know if Matthew Richardson (hamstring) would be available for next Saturday’s crunch game against Essendon.
“It is a massive clash. We’ve won three out of the last four games so we’re travelled pretty well, (while) Essendon have won four going into a big game at the MCG,” he said.
“You’d probably say of the two sides, one continues the march on, and probably for one it makes it very, very difficult (to make the finals)”.
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