Cashing in on Tiger tactics
27 March 2005
Sunday Herald Sun
THE Tigers are poised to reap more than $300,000 this year by revealing coach Terry Wallace's game plan only minutes before the first bounce of every match.
Wallace will address a new 60-strong coterie group, the Richmond Executive, before every match and outline his game plan, team line-up and match-day tactics.
The initiative, the brainchild of coaching director Greg Miller, will see each member contributing $5500 a year as well as valuable resources including company cars and other items for fund-raising activities.
Wallace faces a frenetic pre-match program in which he will fulfil various media commitments before addressing the Tigers' official function, the Captain's Club function and, then, the Richmond Executive.
The new group will not see Wallace's match-day plan outlined on a white-board, but will be allowed inside the inner sanctum, including visits to the players' rooms and possibly the coaches' box.
Leigh Matthews was the first AFL coach to use his match-day secrets as a fund-raising activity, with 12 members of Lethal's Lions raising $200,000 a year for the Brisbane Lions.
Miller said Wallace was prepared to go to great lengths to inform the group.
"They are set up in a room right above the rooms, and three per match are involved with the match-day activity, and the other 57 are upstairs," he said.
"He walks right up the stairs and tells them what we are going to be doing for the day.
"We will find out (how much is revealed) on Sunday, but it's going to be pretty detailed."
Miller said the new coterie was only one of the new initiatives aimed at turning around Richmond's $2 million debt last year.
"They have become a valuable resource for other things around the club," he said.
"One of them -- Robert Dalton -- has already joined the board. He has gone straight in from the Executive."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,12670072%255E19771,00.html
