Tigers have tapered: Wallace (RFC site)

[one-eyed]

Tigers have tapered: Wallace
5:54:21 PM Tue 2 August, 2005
Scott Spits
Sportal for afl.com.au

Richmond coach Terry Wallace believes one of the main reasons for the fade-out of the Tigers in the second half of the season has been the club's key midfielders tapering off.

Coupled with the number of seasoned players on Richmond's list and the young stars who are making an impact, Wallace admits the club is lacking players in the middle bracket who are capable of delivering wins late in the season.

The first-year Richmond coach said midfielders such as Mark Coughlan and Shane Tuck, who were instrumental in helping the Tigers to a 7-2 record, were legitimately tiring at this stage of the season.

"Mark Coughlan hasn't played a full season probably for three seasons of footy. Shane Tuck in midfield is in his first season of AFL footy. It starts to catch up with a couple of those guys. They're not seasoned campaigners," Wallace said.

"Are they excuses? You can use them as excuses if you want to, but it's a reality of where we are. When we were alive and alert and had everyone up and running early in the season and we met a few that weren't that way, we were able to get over the line and win games.

"We've had a few injuries and a few guys just sort of tapering off - that's affected our performance. The nature of the competition is that it's so close and if you have anything that affects your performance, you're going to get beaten."

Wallace raised the statistic of the number of first-year players the Tigers had blooded this season, as well as six players with fewer than 20 games of AFL experience who took the field in the loss to Carlton last Sunday.

"We aren't a team yet that is an established side. We've played more first-year players than any other side in the competition, bar Collingwood," Wallace said.

"We have top-end blokes - 30 years of age - and we have bottom end blokes. We don't have much in the middle. It's those middle guys, blokes who are 24 to 26 years of age, that are seasoned in the body and not worn out yet, that usually win you finals, win you games late in the season.

"Is it a worry for us? No, it's not a worry for us. We came 16th last year. If you're in business, our graph is on the rise. So we'll finish where we finish and deal with it."

However, Wallace expects further improvement from players such as Tuck, Coughlan and star youngters Brett Deledio and Richard Tambling in order for the Tigers to deliver a more sustained performance in 2006.

http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=219814

[Captain__Blood]

We good read. I agree with most of that.

If you want to be a good footy side you need your core, say 23-27 to be your most important players. Our most important players are the mature crop: Richo, Gaspar, AK, Brown, Chaffey, Johnson, Bowden etc. whilst we have a number of promising kids.

However, the sides 'core' age wise is the likes of; Hilton, Tivendale, Knobel, Morrison etc, below par footballers.

However with the likes of Cogs, Tuck, Newman, Hyde, Schultz, Hall, Peffier entering this core group over the next 3 or so seasons hopfully we can develop a strong neculis of the side whisle the Bowdens, Johnsons, Browns become the clubs true leaders both on the feild and age wise.

At this time you hope the likes of Deledio, Tambling, Meyer become similar to the current Luke Ball, Judd, Wells, Kelly, Ling etc. types.

Cogs and Tuck were poor on the weekend but they have been great all year. They are amousnt the last people u have a look at when doing a season review.

[one-eyed]

Wallace: Tigers not yet good enough
By Mark Fuller
The Age
August 3, 2005

As pleased as he was to announce that Matthew Richardson and Darren Gaspar would play in Saturday's match against Fremantle at Subiaco, Richmond coach Terry Wallace was just as happy to give the expectations of Tigers supporters a serious hosing down yesterday.

Wallace says the signs have been positive for Richardson since he was concussed in the early moments of last Sunday's loss to Carlton, and he says Gaspar is likely to play after his hamstring injury caused him to be a late withdrawal on Sunday.

But as much as this may be a double bonus for the Tigers as they attempt to return to the top eight with victory over the surging Dockers, there were sobering words from Wallace for Richmond fans expecting a swift recovery from the club's poor form that has yielded just two wins from the past nine matches.

The coach's message was simple: we over-achieved early and it is time for a reality check.

Wallace said the Tigers caught sides underdone early and did not deserve to be a finals contender unless they did something special, particularly in the run to the finals. He said despite a win away over the Brisbane Lions and a gutsy victory over the emerging Swans, they had not yet done so.

And he gave notice that expectations of Richmond doing so in its remaining four matches should not be too high, revealing that some of his key midfielders were struggling to go the distance.

"We've got a few blokes that are legitimately tiring as the season goes on," Wallace said. "Mark Coughlan hasn't played a full season for probably three seasons of footy. You've got Shane Tuck in the midfield who's in his first season of AFL footy. It just starts to catch up with a couple of those guys.

"Is it excuses? Well, you can use it as excuses if you want to, but it's a reality. I think that a reality of where we are."

The reality for last year's wooden-spooners, says Wallace, is much as it was at the start of the year. "What's changed? Perception changes. Perception changes all the time," he said. "Because we're up there and because we're a chance, the perception's changed about our footy club, and that's good. We wanted perception to change, we don't want to be rock-bottom and down there and feeling sorry for ourselves and having our supporters not expecting to win."

He also said that finishing just outside the eight again would be no disgrace for the Tigers.

"I think sometimes they've finished ninth when people have expected them to finish fifth, and that's where the ninth has really hurt them," he said. "We finished 16th last year. If we actually finish ninth that's a pretty fair incremental increase on where we've been."

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2005/08/02/1122748634687.html

[JohnF]

The coach's message was simple: we over-achieved early and it is time for a reality check.

Glad he admitted it.

Thought as much myself earlier in the year.

http://oneeyed-richmond.com/forum//index.php?topic=1629.0