Plough draws on personal experience
5:04:40 PM Tue 4 April, 2006
Paul Gough
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond coach Terry Wallace has drawn on his own experience as a player in a bid to resurrect the morale of his shattered players following the club's first round humiliation at the hands of the Western Bulldogs.
The Tigers lost by 115 points and now face the task of bouncing back on Friday night at Telstra Dome against a St Kilda side that has beaten Richmond by an average of ten goals in their past five meetings - four of those at the Dome.
However Wallace vowed on Tuesday the season was not lost for the Tigers just on the basis of one defeat as he reminded his players of events that unfolded in his own career.
The year was 1983 and Wallace was barely given a touch of the ball in the opening round by Fitzroy tagger Scott Clayton at the Junction Oval yet six months later was part of a Hawthorn premiership side.
"It is only one game and I spoke to the boys about my own experiences and the best year I ever had in football was also the year I had my worst first round game," Wallace said.
"It put a bit of steel in the backbone for the rest of the season and ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me."
The Tigers have had to contend with comments from Bulldog Ryan Griffen that they gave up last Friday night as the players resorted to arguing between themselves.
However while Wallace does not believe that was the case, he said he would be disappointed if such talk did not spark a huge improvement in his players this week.
"Every player who plays this game has pride in their own performance and when that pride is dented - whether by the scoreboard or comments made publicly - that bites and hurts any player and you haven’t got any pride if it doesn't hurt you."
Wallace is under no illusions as to the task his side faces to bounce back this week against an opposition that has had the wood on the Tigers in recent times but he just wants to see an improved performance.
"We got into every game with the same willingness to win and what I expect from our blokes is what I expected in round one and didn’t get - a full-blooded effort for four quarters no matter what the scoreboard says."
Wallace also hopes the Tigers' long-suffering fans stick with the team this week.
"Our supporters have been fantastic this week, they have had a pretty torrid run and they wouldn’t have been expecting what they got Friday night and they handled it well."
"I'm just hoping this week, because it's a home game for us, they will really come out and support us."
Wallace admitted his team was better suited to the slower MCG than the faster Telstra Dome - a fact borne out by stats showing the club has won six of its past eight at the MCG but has lost six of its past seven at Docklands as the club tries to find ways to get more speed into its team, particularly in midfield.
"That is where we are heading and one of the problems I identified when I arrive here was a lack of pace and over the last two drafts we have tried to get more pace and run into the side."
Wallace said Nathan Brown had pulled up sore following his comeback game but was on target to play this week, although he could miss games throughout the season.
"I am still not sure how we will go with him, whether we play him for three games and rest him for one but we will just have to see how he pulls up each week."
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