Tiger's career on the line
By Stathi Paxinos
The Age
July 20, 2005
Richmond coach Terry Wallace yesterday said veteran ruckman Greg Stafford had six weeks to "knuckle down" and show his worth to the Tigers.
Wallace said the key tall, who has served a two-game suspension for a jumper punch against Sydney's Jason Ball, was not an automatic selection for the clash against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.
"He's been out for a couple of weeks, his form wasn't great, we have to have a look at what the weather is doing over there," Wallace said. "They are big strong-bodied side which makes you, I suppose, a little bit more inclined to have a look at him … we'll factor in whether they're likely to play two or three ruckmen and make our own decisions accordingly.
"He's got a pretty big six weeks ahead of himself as well. He is now around the age of 30 and been in and out of the side this year for varying reasons so he really has to settle down and knuckle down and get something out of the last six weeks for himself."
Asked if Stafford needed to improve to stay on the list next season, Wallace replied: "No, it is because at 30 years of age you would want to make sure that you are doing all the right things coming to the end of any year, I would think no matter who you are.
"You get to that stage of your career that you've got to show that you are worthy person to be around the place, I don't think that's anything that's out of school. That would be happening at 16 AFL clubs around the board."
With a goal of 13 wins to secure a finals berth, Wallace is working to plug the holes in his defence left by injuries to key defenders Andrew Kellaway (broken jaw) and Darren Gaspar (hamstring).
The coach said possibilities for the job on Port spearhead Warren Tredrea included promoting Jay Schulz from the reserves, giving veteran Mark Graham a chance or moving ruckman Troy Simmonds to defence. "He (Tredrea) has just been in incredible form over at AAMI stadium so it does make for a real difficulty," Wallace said. "But crisis creates opportunity and it gives the chance for someone else to put their hand up and have a crack at it."
Wallace also said that blowouts in recent losses, including against St Kilda last Saturday, were a product of continuing an attacking mindset against superior teams instead of closing the game down for an honourable loss.
"I said after the game that maybe that's where we are at," he said. "We've been competitive against sides around the same sort of ilk as us and when we've come up against the ones that have got sheer class through the middle of the ground at this point of our development we mightn't be able to match it with those.
"Where we are at the moment, percentage is not going to play a major factor in where we finish. I think it will be a situation of either the wins won't get us there or the wins will get us over the line."
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