How We Can Take The Next Step
Terry Wallace
The Fighting Tiger Bulletin
December 2005
A year has passed since I first wrote in the 'Fighting Tiger Bulletin' about my experiences of returning to the Richmond Football Club and the pathway for the future.
In my first season with the Club as coach, I again witnessed the highs and the lows that AFL Football brings.
When I reflect back to over a year ago, realistically the two key objectives of the Club were, off-field, to turn the finances around and, on-field, to become a competitive football team again.
Within the space of 12 months, I think CEO Steven Wright and his off-field administration team have done an outstanding job in restructuring the finances and giving the Club a genuine future to look forward to.
On-field, I believe that we were able to develop a far more competitive mind-set and game plan, which enabled us to either defeat or get within a kick of three teams - Sydney, West Coast Eagles and Geelong - who either achieved, or were close to, premiership glory in '05,
Consistency of performance, and being able to extract the most from a club's playing list, is critical to success. We are all well aware that on any given day there is not a great deal between each of the 16 AFL clubs.
So, one year on, where to from here?
Once again, both on and off the field, it is going to be an important 12 months in redeveloping the confidence of everyone at Tigerland. The aim must be to take the next step forward, which is not always an easy task.
In recent years, we have witnessed clubs take one step forward, and then a couple backwards. At times, this occurs because of injury, poor fixturing, the age of the playing list and, possibly, complacency.
Why would a group, who have played precious few finals over the past quarter of a century, and have suffered their fair share of humiliation in recent times, become complacent after a less than 50% winning season?
Well, the answer is that they shouldn't!
Ifs human nature for teams to react strongly to the first year with a new coach. After that it gets down to self-motivation, rather than being on the edge, which is often what's experienced when a new coach takes over.
Simply put, it will be up to each individual on our playing list to work hard to improve in 2006, or certainly the team will not improve. We should expect the players to have a greater understanding of our team plan and style of play after another intense pre-season.
STYLE OF PLAY
The Club's key performance indicators were on the rise in most areas of the game last season, but we were still only mid-range in many key regions. We were the number one team in the competition at winning the hard ball at stoppages, but need to develop more pace into the team when the ball spreads and players run.
Many of our quick players had little or no in-put into our 2005 season, however, the return from injury of both David Rodan and Nathan Brown, plus improvement in players such as Brent Hartigan and Richard Tambling, will help increase our run and speed around the packs.
The style of play we introduced also had us just behind the top four sides during the '05 season, in terms of getting the ball inside our forward 50 area. This helped the team become far more attacking.
When the 2006 season kicks off, there should still be a strong part of our game structure where players enjoy the freedom to run, carry, and take risks. The nature of the game these days makes it even more important that all players are now fit enough to rotate, high up the ground, to add to the running capacity of your team. Hard, gut-running must be a key component of the Richmond side, if we are to achieve success. . .
The team's skill level and decision-making still lets us down. So often throughout the '05 season we worked hard to win the ball and pump it into our attack, only to see a turn-over or poor decision-making (such as kicking to a one-on-three situation) result in the ball returning the length of the ground for an opposition goal. With the amount of time we had the ball inside our offensive 50 area, we should have finished with a far better result on the scoreboard over the course of the year.
The biggest change to AFL football in 2005 was the defensive aspect of the game. More than ever, teams displayed the ability to stifle the opposition's flow, which resulted in several low-scoring games. The overall scores in the competition were no different from recent seasons, but the top four teams on the ladder, were also the top four teams defensively.
Not a lot has changed in AFL Football. . . it is simply a matter of getting that natural balance between attack and defence which is crucial. We will spend plenty of time over the summer months trying to get that balance of attack and defence right for the start of the 2006 premiership season.
There are 15 other sides in the AFL, who are all trying to improve their game, just as we are at Richmond. In a professional competition, everyone is looking for the winning edge and, from a playing list perspective, some are further advanced than others.
As senior coach, I am responsible for both the team's performance in 2006, as well as the development of young players at the Club for the future. We must have our eyes firmly set on both aspects, as your senior players wa nt to play for the moment, while we realise that time and maturity will assist those who have been in the AFL system for only one or two years. It's a fine line we tread, especially with an imbalance on our playing list, graded towards youth.
I, like you, look forward to seeing the boys put in an intense summer on the track, enjoying Christmas and New Year with our families, and then getting stuck straight back into the 2006 footy season.
It can't come quickly enough. . .
