Tiger culture must go: Brown
By Marc Moncrief
realfooty.theage.com.au
October 11, 2004
New Richmond coach Terry Wallace has already set to work shaking up the club and ridding it of a deep-seated losing culture, his old friend Nathan Brown says.
Wallace, who arrived at Punt Road last month, has started working players hard on the training track and will accept no excuses as the Tigers work to get off the bottom of the ladder, says the former Bulldog who played under Wallace at Whitten Oval.
"He's come in and said, 'You turn up day one pre-season and make sure you're in tip-top condition or you won't play in my side'," Brown said yesterday. "He's going to be very hard on the boys, which will be good.
"I just think that things have got to change. The culture of the club has got to change and there's no time like the present to do it. Terry thinks he's the man to do it and we'll follow him.
"We've fallen into a losing culture and everyone kicks us when we're down and it's hard to get out of that, so we've got to break that losing culture and, once we start winning, we've got to keep winning."
Brown said an influx of new blood over summer would hopefully help invigorate the club.
"We've got a good list of young players, we've got a couple of first-round draft picks and we've got Troy Simmonds, who we're very excited about having at the club. I think he's a fantastic player and the sort of tall, mobile player that we need," he said.
But Brown checked his enthusiasm, conceding that it would be folly for the Tigers to aspire to the AFL's highest prize next year.
"We're not going to kid ourselves, we're probably not good enough to win the premiership," he said. "But if we can take some steps and try and make the finals and then set something up like St Kilda have, then that's where we're heading. Dreams are possible, I guess . . . but our aim is to make the eight."
Brown also gave his blessing to former teammate Brad Ottens' move to Geelong. Brown said he had spoken to some of his former teammates about his own move from the Bulldogs and he was in no position to throw stones.
"He felt like he needed a change - like me last year," Brown said.
"I can't sit here and bag Brad or anything, so I wish him all the best."
http://realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/10/10/1097406424123.html
