Wallace's end of season review (RFC)

[one-eyed]

part one today

End of season review: part one
richmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen
12:39 PM Tue 28 October, 2008

RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace says the 2008 season was a bit of a mixed bag, but it should give supporters much hope for the future.

The Tigers had come off a dreadful 2007, where they finished dead last with just three wins and a draw.

And the first half of 2008 didn't get off to a great start, with a win over arch-enemies Carlton, followed by spankings at the hands of North Melbourne and then Collingwood.

Wallace said the season was a good indicator of where the club was early, but where it was capable of heading to.

"How did I assess it? We had opportunities to play against the better sides in the competition, and weren't – at that stage – up to the task of being able to knock over many of those," he told richmondfc.com.au.

"At one stage in the year I said at one of my press conferences we are where we are because we've beaten all the ones below us but we haven't beaten many of the ones above us.

"Why I quite liked the season is because it was based on players who are going to improve.

"I thought that was the most important thing – that there was an upside."

A draw that had every team playing each other twice would have been interesting, Wallace said.

"I thought the second half of the year that the blokes' self-belief was starting to really grow and that they could really compete.

"We'd have loved to play some of the teams that we played only once in the first half of the year in the second half, just to have a view about how far we had come."

But Wallace admitted that the season could have been either a lot better or a lot worse, depending on a few results.

"It's a very fickle industry – one or two results one way or another and you're in fourth or fifth, but if you lose the Brisbane and Port Adelaide games, you're not even talking about a reasonable season, you're talking about a disappointing season.

"That's how tight the season is."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsid=69324

[mightytiges]

"We'd have loved to play some of the teams that we played only once in the first half of the year in the second half, just to have a view about how far we had come."

We'll find that next year in the first 6 rounds when we play the Dogs, North and Swans.

[one-eyed]

End of season review: part two
richmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen
Thu 30 October, 2008

HERE'S a riddle for you – is it harder to move up eight places on the AFL ladder, or just one place?

In 2008, the Tigers moved from 16th to ninth. In 2009, they need to move at least one further place up the ladder to play finals.

But coach Terry Wallace says moving to ninth – so often a resting place for Richmond teams in the last decade – was the easy bit compared to the job that faces his team next year.

"Sixteenth to ninth is a lot easier than ninth to eighth," he told richmondfc.com.au. "No-one's going to give up their spot in finals for nothing.

"You only have to see the last part of the year – sides that were second and third were losing games, sides that were eighth or seventh wouldn't lose no matter what happened.

"We were sitting there witnessing it – they weren't going to lose to anyone, because no-one wants to give up their chance."

And the positive momentum gained from the significant move up the table is no guarantee of a finals berth next year, with Wallace able to easily prove movement in either direction for the following year.

"I can show you figures – and I've spoken to the players about this at the best-and-fairest – on sides, with Fremantle being one of them, over the last three years who finished the season strongly without making the finals, who went on and had really successful years the following year.

"So it's there, and that ought to give you confidence in that if you do that, you should have the ability to go on with it.

"But equally, I can show you since the final eight has been in, the ninth side, fairly much 50 per cent of the time they've gone backwards, and 50 per cent of the time they've gone forwards.

"So there are no guarantees.

"You take confidence in being able to go after something, but if you just think it's going to happen, you're kidding yourself."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsid=69404

[wayne]

I would hope that we don't use Fremantle as an example!

[Stripes]

He's a smart operator TW! He's keeping our hopes high but at the same time giving his players and supporters a realism check in case 2009 turns sour. I don't believe he is looking for excuses in case of failure because he is smart enough to realize that nothing will save him in this case more he is attempting to motivate his list to work hard and fight for a finals berth next year rather than just expecting it to happen.

I hope the players go from working hard individually to gain a spot in the team to working hard as a team to go to the next level. The motivation that Cotchin, Riewoldt, Rance and Connors have obviously maintained over the break gives me hope that this message may have been adopted. I just pray the rest of the team is just as focused and unified in obtaining that next step!

Stripes

[mightytiges]

There's no point for Plough to make excuses for next year anyway as he'll be gone if things did turn sour. Both articles are pretty much honest and stating what we already know. Though like wayne he could have left out Freo as an example lol. I'd rather he used Hawthorn (end of 2006 they won 4 of last 5).

[one-eyed]

End of season review: part three
By Mic Cullen
Mon 03 November, 2008

IT WAS one of the stranger decisions of 2008, but it paid some huge dividends. And it showed that sometimes taking the bull by the horns is not only brave, but smart.

Richmond's spearhead Matthew Richardson, for so long the pillar around which its attack was structured, was moved out of the forward 50.

Not just up to centre half-forward, but to the wing.

The move puzzled some supporters, who feared the team would lose its main avenue to goal, and cheered others, who were thrilled that the big man with the big tank would be able to use that capacity to the side's advantage.

The pressure of being the chief goalkicker was removed; something that clearly overwhelmed Richardson at times.

The switch came in round four when Richmond belted Fremantle at Subiaco Oval to get its season back on track – hailed as a masterstroke as Richardson collected 25 touches, 15 marks and kicked four goals in the 64-point win.

Coach Terry Wallace told richmondfc.com.au that the 33-year-old's role change wasn't long-planned, but rather quickly decided on.

"We came up with the idea on about the Wednesday," Wallace said with a laugh.

"Pressure does amazing things, and I think it's probably fair to say I was under a fair bit of pressure for my position after we got belted by both the Kangaroos and Collingwood.

"I never worried about last year (2007) – I thought there were a thousand reasons why the season never got going, and I've seen a hundred sides go through one year like that, and come back to equilibrium [the] next season.

"But you win the first game and then you lose your next two by nearly 10 goals, and all of a sudden three (wins) from 22 becomes four off 27.

"Speculation starts to mount and there's a fair bit of pressure coming on.

"And I got to the stage where I thought 'Well, if I'm going down, I'm going down my own way, so I might as well do what I think is right'.

"People say that's a strange comment ... and I was trying to do what was right anyway, to get Richo to the end of his career by allowing him to finish in the manner in which he had played most of his career."

Like his side, Richardson had struggled for the first three weeks of the season; against the Kangaroos his five shots on goal came from just nine possessions.

He embraced the chance to play up the field and his influence in wins over Port Adelaide (round 13), the Brisbane Lions (17) and Hawthorn (20) was particularly stirring.

"[I wanted to] give him the happy ending, and the supporters the happy ending," Wallace added. "But if it was going to mean that we couldn't win, and that it was going to be my neck on the chopping block and frustration for him anyway because he's not playing in winning sides, I thought 'We've got to do something about this'."

Richardson played 20 of the Tigers' 22 games this year and polled 22 votes to finish two adrift of winner Adam Cooney in the Brownlow Medal count.

He also earned his first All-Australian guernsey since 1999, finished third in the club's best and fairest and, for the eighth consecutive season, led Richmond's goalkicking with 48.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsid=69514

[Chuck17]

That 3rd instalment is better, less spin and more talk about a truly worthwhile subject, ie The Big Richo

[mightytiges]

It's funny what seemed obvious to us playing Richo away from FF and up the ground where he could run his opponent ragged, it took Richo's 5th coach in his 4th year with his job on the line to finally move Richo out (to be fair Northey played Richo on a HFF in a free roaming role so it really should be from Walls onwards). I'm not sure what Plough meant by keeping supporters happy playing Richo at FF. Most Tiger supporters I know had been calling for this move for years and not because of Richo but because our dopey midfield over the years were too dumb/lazy to find another forward and just bombed the ball instead in the direction of Richo with 4 defenders hanging off him.

The best part of the move is it's freed up our forward line for our younger forwards to stand up unrestricted and it's made our attack less predictable. Finishing up 2008 as the 5th highest scoring team is proof of that  .

[torch]

Richardson should play out his career on the Wing, floating Forward, drifting Back! whatever!