Why Wallace Is Yesterday's Coach?

[Smokey]

A really good article by Luke Darcy on the AFL website that includes a bit about Richmond and Wallace:

Aker needs to accept stuff

By Luke Darcy 7:21 AM Fri 30 July, 2010
RECEIVING stuff from your peers can be a very confronting experience. In the case of Steve Johnson and Alan Didak, it can be life changing.

Earning the respect of your teammates is the thing AFL players crave the most. Recent premiership-winning sides Geelong, Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans have embraced ‘360-degree stuff’ as the cornerstone of their leadership programs and their culture at the club.

The notion of 360-degree stuff was embraced by the business world long before it became popular in the AFL. The clear hierarchy in football clubs was a difficult barrier to break through, and the old system had been established over a long period of time. The president is the boss of the coach. The coach tells the players what to do. The captain has a little more input, and first- and second-year players shut up until they earn some respect. Last week, Jason Akermanis expressed his desire for it all to return to the way it once was.

“I thought administrators administer, coaches coach and players play,” said Aker.

In 1997, the Western Bulldogs side I played in missed out on the grand final by the narrowest of margins. Our coach, Terry Wallace, had to a certain extent revolutionised the way the game was played.

We trained earlier and harder than anyone, and we had a core group of a dozen natural leaders and competitors who genuinely felt we could beat anyone. This players’ group, which included such quality footballers as Scott Wynd, Chris Grant, Brad Johnson, Leon Cameron and Tony Liberatore, got together before the pre-season the following year.

We believed that the coach focused too heavily on the individual rewards the game offers, such as best and fairest awards and All-Australian honours; the coach had also floated the idea, in the week of the preliminary final, that players and coaching staff should get premiership rings in the tradition of NBA basketball. Many of us thought we were getting ahead of ourselves by being rewarded before we’d even made the grand final.

We felt that if we gave the coach stuff and created a strong, player-driven culture at the Bulldogs, then we could resolve the small issues we had and deliver the club’s second flag.

Unfortunately, Terry Wallace wasn’t the right character to handle this stuff; he believed that players meeting among themselves would lead to discontent.

It is my absolute belief that the Bulldogs would have won a premiership in the late ’90s had the coach felt secure enough in himself to accept input from the playing group.

When you create an environment that doesn’t allow people below you in a team to challenge your ideas, it makes it hard for them to develop and improve.

Not surprisingly, the Richmond players shared a similar experience following Terry’s five-year stint at Tigerland.

Wayne Carey was the best player and the most influential individual I have known in football. He was so good and became so big within the North Melbourne Football Club that he was beyond stuff. People would point to the two premierships he delivered as evidence that it didn’t matter. But it could be argued that had North Melbourne dealt with Wayne Carey’s indiscretions in the same vein as Steve Johnson and Alan Didak, then the Kangaroos could potentially have won five flags and ‘The Duck’ would have sorted his life out before it went off the rails.

Ray McLean’s business, Leading Teams, is the choice provider of 360-degree stuff-style leadership programs at AFL clubs. The success stories of Geelong, Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans cannot be mere coincidence.

In his book, McLean emphasises the need for whoever is at the centre of influence within the group to be totally committed to the process. In North Melbourne’s environment it would have been Wayne Carey; for most sides it is the senior coach. If they don’t buy in, the process will fail.

Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams asked a clever question of McLean when he was considering using Leading Teams: 'where is the competitive advantage for my team if everyone else is doing it?' The answer was equally smart and good for business! The advantage lies with the teams that embrace the open and honest culture of stuff the most.

Jason Akermanis last week likened his experience with Leading Teams to workplace bullying. He felt that receiving stuff from his peers was like having a vendetta against him.

It was interesting to hear his former captain Michael Voss express his thoughts on Akermanis’ departure from the Bulldogs: “I hope he walks away and sits down and thinks, what role have I played in this?”

Receiving stuff from one’s peers is confronting; accepting it the right way can be life-changing. Hopefully one day it will be for Aker.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/99252/default.aspx

[Go Richo 12]

Good article! The use of stuff has it's advantages but it is not the stuff on it's own that delivers the improvement, it is the way it is delivered. There must be a mix of negative and positive stuff. Get the delivery wrong and the whole concepts fails!

[Francois Jackson]

well who would've though im so shocked.

someone else saw what most of us with a brain on this site saw in that leather face was a selfish person who was only concerned about one thing

Himself.

to the very last day he showed his hand for all to see and now is he unemployed cause no one wants to hire a loser.

[Mr Magic]

Nice whack but really Wallet is yesterday's news before or after this article from Darc.

[mightytiges]

As much as Wallace had coaching and communication flaws with his players (see Postie's comments earlier this year about only talking to Plough four times last year), it's a bit of a cop out for Darcy and any Bulldog player of the late 90s to say Plough cost the Dogs a flag. They were 20 points up or whatever it was in the final quarter of a Prelim Final against an interstate side and the Bulldogs players started performing celebration party tricks after mistakenly thinking Libba had kicked the sealer. They choked big time!

[one-eyed]

Players cost Dogs flag in '97: Terry Wallace

    * Jay Clark
    * From: Herald Sun
    * July 31, 2010

TERRY Wallace has hit back at claims his coaching insecurities cost the Western Bulldogs a premiership in the late 1990s.

In a stinging attack on his former coach, Luke Darcy said Wallace would not accept player stuff and focused too much on individual awards during his six-year tenure at Whitten Oval.

But Wallace defended his coaching methods yesterday, branding the criticism a "cheap shot" at an "easy target".

Wallace, who led the Dogs to three top-four finishes from 1996-2002, said the club hired Ted Hummerston to assist communication with players at the time.

"People can have whatever pot shots they like but No. 1, make sure you get your recall right, because we had somebody in place down there," Wallace said.

"Ted was a personal friend of (president) David Smorgon, and one of the top facilitators of his time, who worked closely with the playing group.

"The fact is when I took over at the club we were sitting in 15th spot and we went from 15th to third in a season.

"It was enough of a team culture to turn the whole football club around from being on its knees to being an inch away (from a flag)."

Wallace said what cost the club a Grand Final berth was kicking 0.6 in the last term of its 1997 preliminary final loss to Adelaide at the MCG.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/players-cost-dogs-flag-in-97-wallace/story-e6frf9jf-1225899295150

[jackstar is back again]

who really cares about Terry Wallace.
How on earth he got a job on SEN is beyond belief

[yellowandback]

who really cares about Terry Wallace.
How on earth he got a job on SEN is beyond belief

he doesn't belong does he

[Francois Jackson]

what a surprise listening to Tony Liberatore defending his mate Terry leather face this morning on SEN with regards to Darcy's article.

actually it sounded like SEN was trying to protect their little friend Terry from all bad publicity.

Sorry to disappoint Libba but Darcy was right on the money. Sometimes the truth does hurt

[Infamy]

Darcy wasn't on the money, I know Tiger supporters are biased, but to blame Wallace when the players choked in the last quarter against the Crows is ridiculous.

[mightytiges]

Wrong Wall(ace/is) daniel. It's ex-Footscray players Steve Wallis and Libba's sons that are best mates and will be Father-Sons for the Dogs in this draft. What great timing for them btw to score two top Father-Sons in a weakened draft.

[Francois Jackson]

Terry would've worded SEN up to get Libba on there to say good things to repair the damage done by the article, such is the person he is. It sounded so rehearsed it wasn't funny. Wallace and Libbas sons are best mates arent they what a coincidence.

Whilst that didnt help(0.6 behinds) it also doesnt help when you have a coach who is more concerned about himself than to the team itself.
He seemed like the type of bloke who thought his poo dont stink and anyone who quesioned him would be out the door.

"if im to take credit for the recruitment at Tigers im also to take credit for Buldogs recruitment"

enough said and Well done darcy for being right on the money

[Francois Jackson]

Wrong Wall(ace/is) daniel. It's ex-Footscray players Steve Wallis and Libba's sons that are best mates and will be Father-Sons for the Dogs in this draft. What great timing for them btw to score two top Father-Sons in a weakened draft.

"Wallace, who is studying year 12 at Carey Grammar, is good friends with Mitch Wallis (son of Steve) and Tom Liberatore (son of Tony,) who play for St Kevin's and are eligible under the father-son rule next year for the Western Bulldogs"

i think you will find i was right MT.

[Infamy]

Terry would've worded SEN up to get Libba on there to say good things to repair the damage done by the article, such is the person he is. It sounded so rehebehindd it wasn't funny. Wallace and Libbas sons are best mates arent they what a coincidence.

Whilst that didnt help(0.6 behinds) it also doesnt help when you have a coach who is more concerned about himself than to the team itself.
He seemed like the type of bloke who thought his poo dont stink and anyone who quesioned him would be out the door.

"if im to take credit for the recruitment at Tigers im also to take credit for Buldogs recruitment"

enough said and Well done darcy for being right on the money

Your bias is blinding you
Who's to say the Dogs would have won the grand final anyway? Blaming him for not winning a flag when they didn't even get to the big day is ridiculous.
I don't argue that Wallace was more about himself than the team, however he still did a good job in turning around a side and getting a poor skilled and under resourced team to play tough skilled football that had them regularly playing good football. You see him in Year of the Dog and that was the type of coach that had some Richmond supporters looking forward to him coming to Richmond, however we never seemed to see any of that from him when he was here.

For the records, I wanted Eade over Wallace, however after everything, I'm not sure which would have been better. Eade hasn't won anything yet.

[Tigermonk]

Do we all have to be put through this rubbish about Wallace
Timely article when Richmond is traveling well so it can distract the club & the progress of going forward.

STOP bringing up the past people & move forward with the club HELLO