Wallace wary of turmoil
realfooty.theage.com.au
By Daniella Miletic, Peter Ker
July 26, 2004
Terry Wallace, a prime target for the AFL's coaching vacancies next season, said yesterday said he might not coach at all next year, given the turbulent political climate at both Hawthorn and Richmond football clubs.
Wallace said that "massive changes" would be essential for both clubs, including cutting eight to 10 players on each club's playing list.
While Hawthorn's interim chief executive Jason Dunstall confirmed the club would interview the former Bulldogs coach during the week, Wallace was adamant he would not crawl over broken glass to coach in 2005.
"Not coaching next year is a realistic prospect. If I don't believe the three clubs (Hawthorn, Richmond, Adelaide) are right for Terry Wallace, then certainly Terry Wallace won't coach next year," Wallace said.
"It's such a difficult job that the mix has to be right for you and you have just got to feel that everything is lined up and it is absolutely perfect. Otherwise, I won't do it.
"I am OK financially, I don't have to do it. If I don't think it's right, then I won't put myself and my family through it."
The Hawthorn and Richmond boards are both facing an uncertain future. Rebel Tigers member Michael Pahoff is vowing to submit a petition this week to spill the Richmond board if it refuses to stand down and former Hawthorn board member Don Scott is leading a charge against the Ian Dicker-led Hawks board.
"You really don't want to be in a situation where you are negotiating with one group and then find out that somewhere down the track . . . that that's not the group that you are going to be working with," Wallace said.
"It's more than financial stability, it's so the club can work well. You want to make sure that the people you are talking to are running the club at that stage, and if they are not, or there is some doubt, then you have got to take that into account."
Pahoff said last night he was unconcerned that Wallace had voiced doubts about instability at Richmond and said he did not think the former Bulldogs coach was the right man for the Tigers.
"There are three clubs looking for coaches and potentially four quality coaches available: Wallace, Eade, O'Donnell and Harvey, he said. "So there's more than enough coaches to go around. I don't think Wallace is the right coach for Richmond anyway. I've heard he is going to Hawthorn and chasing money anyway."
Earlier, Richmond president Clinton Casey said he would ask the members who signed Pahoff's petition to withdraw their support for the document.
Casey said the supporters who had signed Pahoff's petition did not realise the gravity of what they were doing.
"I really can't believe that the members that Pahoff courted a few weeks ago fully understood what they were signing, fully understood the timing and the damage that this petition could potentially cause," he said.
"Hopefully we can explain that to those people on the list and we can offer them a better solution, have them withdraw their names, and address any member issues at the end of the season at the appropriate time."
Pahoff started collecting signatures before Richmond's round-12 match against Fremantle and gathered the 100 signatures needed to force an extraordinary general meeting the following week at the match against Carlton.
Casey said submitting the petition would leave the club "with no CEO in the chair, no coach for next year, no board and no president; a position that we think is completely unacceptable for this footy club".
"If the petition does get delivered, we are certainly going to look forward to contacting every single person that is on that list," Casey said.
Pahoff was in the crowd at yesterday's match between Richmond and Melbourne and said he was not surprised by Casey's plan. He said the Richmond supporters were well aware of what his petition stood for.
"I gave them sheets to take home and read, I gave them plenty of information," he said. "There's going to be a lot of disinformation by the board, I can't do much about it. Clinton has his own little world and can't distinguish fact from fiction."
Hawthorn football director Dermott Brereton last night declined to comment on Wallace's remarks, saying only: "That's his perception."
Brereton also said the club had not reconsidered its position of having sacked coach Peter Schwab see out the rest of the season at the helm. "There's been no reconsideration. We expect Peter to see out the request of the club," he said.
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