Terry Wallace able to draw line in sand
05 April 2006
Herald Sun
Trevor Grant
BEFORE a question flew yesterday at his weekly press conference, Richmond coach Terry Wallace calmly announced that he had exorcised last Friday night's demons and now wished to keep his eye on the road ahead, not in the rear-vision mirror.
He hadn't "binned" the 115-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, his worst defeat in his 171-game coaching career.
All he was seeking was some perspective. So, as this Friday night's match against St Kilda was now closer in time than the Bulldogs debacle, it made sense to talk more about the immediate future than the past.
It's a big ask of anyone, especially reporters and fans, to put a display of such rank ineptitude to one side, and an inquisitive media wasn't about to do so.
However, Wallace, through his upbeat manner and unerring focus, managed to achieve his aim of turning his weekly public appearance into a balanced examination of the event rather than a full-blown inquisition.
It is still to be determined if adversity is an imposter at Punt Rd this year. But it'll get no comfort from the Richmond coach, not even after a thrashing in which an opponent accused his players of giving up.
Whether it was at the Bulldogs, where he injected self-esteem into natural talent and oversaw a stunning transformation, or at his new club, where supporters have dumped on the coach in every imaginable way, including with a load of chicken manure on the club doorstep, Wallace's presence has always appeared to have a calming, binding effect on a group.
Indeed, he made a point of saying that the Tiger supporters had been "fantastic" since the defeat and, just in case we didn't know, he had word that Richmond guernseys sold as well as any other club's jumpers in the stores over the weekend.
We await the figures on the membership sales but, in the meantime, it's instructive to review Wallace's record in the wake of a belting.
Before last week's loss, the first time he's reached a century, he has suffered defeats of 10 goals or more nine times in his 6 1/2 seasons at the Bulldogs and one season at Richmond.
On six of these occasions, his teams have won the next week, and five times they have strung together a succession of wins soon after a thrashing.
Everyone talks about drawing a line in the sand when trouble strikes. It seems Wallace is able to do it almost immediately.
"Terry has always had a fantastic ability to digest what has happened, pick it to pieces, find the good and the bad, and then quickly re-focus himself," said his long-time right-hand man, and Tigers football operations manager, Paul Armstrong.
"He has great faith in his own coaching methods and processes. The players always feel as if he's got faith in them as well.
"He emphasises that losing by that amount doesn't mean they are worse people, all it means is that they stuffed up on the day."
Wallace said yesterday he had always concentrated on extracting emotion from the reaction to a heavy loss.
"If you get emotionally-involved you get mixed results," he said. "I want them to go out and still have the freedom to play, without restriction or hesitation.
"I've always had a saying, which I've used with them this week. 'I don't think you judge people on that game. You judge them on the next game'."
The next game couldn't provide a sterner test -- a top-four team coming off a loss -- but there is strong recent evidence to suggest the Tigers are not about to disappear into an abyss just yet.
Eight weeks after last year's opening round 62-point loss to Geelong, they had elbowed their way to third place, with a 7-2 win-loss ratio.
There's also the bounce-back factor to consider.
"In the past two years, sides beaten by 100 points or more -- 70 per cent have won the next week. It doesn't mean it happens automatically, but people come out pretty determined," Wallace said.
As he says, much more will be revealed this Friday night.
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