Tigers shrug off a cold and look to finals
Michael Gleeson | July 23, 2008
RICHMOND, like its coach, has emerged from the funk of winter's grip lurching with a cough and a wheeze to find itself, as if by surprise, on the brink of good health.
The asthmatic-like choke that halted Terry Wallace has subsided to regular man-flu, Matthew Richardson's ageing hamstring has knitted once more, such that he will be back in the side this week, and most importantly Graham Polak felt sufficiently improved to return home for a few hours on Saturday to watch the win over Essendon.
The win has vaulted the Tigers to a game from the eight and retaining the capacity to command their own fortune for the remainder of the season. "What I have got now is what most of Melbourne has got, which is a chest infection and I am still coughing and I am still on tablets for another fortnight, but what I was dealing with last week was far worse," Wallace said of his own illness, which last week had him in hospital and on a respirator and almost unable to coach the side.
"I was really struggling for breath … It was pretty uncomfortable for the week."
Wallace got through the game missing only the post-match press conference, a task that he relinquished in the event of the win, but would have performed had the Tigers lost.
But the four-point win in anxious circumstances had him pleased it was a respiratory, not cardiac, issue he was battling.
Wallace was philosophical about the scenario that confronts the Tigers, a game from the eight and like any side ever keen to play finals, but more mindful of the distance that needs to be covered for finals than basking in the glory of the distance already passed from the misery of wooden spoons.
"We've still got our own destiny in our own hands and that's how you want to be in a season," said Wallace.
"It's much more pleasant for the playing group, coaching group and more particularly your supporter base to be going along to games to be at least able to dream and be excited about coming into those games of footy, where we weren't in that situation last year.
"Our first aim is to get back to 50-50 footy and if we can get a win on the weekend then all of a sudden we get our season back to eight (wins), eight (losses) and a draw, so at least we're back to square one."
The return of Richardson will advance the cause for a finals place in confronting another contention side, Brisbane Lions, this weekend.
Mark Coughlan, an almost forgotten man of football, is edging closer to a return, having played a couple of VFL games after the hamstring problems that followed the knee reconstruction.
Kayne Pettifer, meanwhile, is embarking on his knee rehabilitation after a reconstruction this week. The club hopes he will be fit in time for round one next year, wherever that may be. Pettifer is out of contract at season's end and Wallace has promised to advise him soon of the club's intentions for next year.
The improving outlook for the club — not harmed by the Federal Government's announcement of a $6.75 million cash injection at the weekend — has arrived punctually according to Wallace, even if some had mis-read the club's plight previously and expected too much too soon.
"Others have thought we had lost our way, but sometimes people don't understand how your list shapes up and how long things take," he said. "You go back a long, long way before (Richmond) played in multiple finals series and that's always been our aim, when we get there that we've got the ability to stay there.
"Whether that's getting there this year or getting there next year, whenever that may be, but it has to be based on something that is sustainable. That's all we've ever cared about." Finals and good health.
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