Wallace's post-match press conference

[mightytiges]

Wallace's post-match press conference:

* Disappointed we lost a game from being 2 kicks in front with 6 minutes to go. We thought if we had 10 goalkickers we could get across the line. We had eleven but that wasn't enough.

* Kick numbers dropped by half as we couldn't win the footy. 60 kicks to 30 in the last quarter.

* A journo said we played keepings off but Wallace firmly said the journo was wrong. If we had played keepings off our number of kicks for the quarter wouldn't have halved.

* A couple of crucial errors opened the door for Freo and with the home momnetum got them across the line. Quality up forward for them up forward was basically the difference - Pavlich, Medhurst, McPharlin, Headland chipped in for goals while we lacked that tonight.

* Polo's mark not paid hurt us but we need to look at it and if there's a need to ask questions we'll do that. Wants to look at a couple of others  Hall's running too far and Pettifer's deliberate OOB.

* There are positives (we tried hard, Paddy Bowden's first half) but disappointed we couldn't get the win.

* Freo has many 6-7 year guys compared to our 1-2-3 year guys. Extra polish made a difference. We would've loved to have Richo, Lids, Krak, Browny out there but that's the way things are.

* A chance to be taken and make critics who claimed other sides did things wrong against us to take notice but we didn't take it.

[one-eyed]

An opportunity lost: Wallace
12:31:46 AM Sun 4 June, 2006
Joseph Sapienza
Exclusive to richmondfc.com.au

Terry Wallace's team was just minutes away from recording a hard-fought win over Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on Saturday night.

The Tigers took a nine-point lead into the final term, and after Mark Coughlan (who had a stellar night with 35 touches and nine marks) goaled at the three-minute mark of the final term, the lead stretched to 15 points.

Nine minutes later, debutant Matthew White then scored a terrific snap to cancel out a Brett Peake goal and it looked as if Richmond would hold on for a gallant victory and its third on the trot.

It wasn't to be, as the Dockers scored the last four goals of the match to seal a 15.10 (100) to 13.11 (89) win.
 
Wallace admitted Dean Polo's mistake across the half back line which resulted in a goal for Shaun McManus at the 23-minute mark was the one that broke his side's back.

He also revealed what he told his team after the game and it couldn't have been said any better.

"(I just told them it was a) lost opportunity … cool heads need to prevail in a crisis.

"If the heat's on in the kitchen you've got to have cool heads (when the opportunity for a win is there)."

Wallace then lamented what went wrong for his brave charges in that final stanza before adding his "boys worked pretty hard and tried pretty hard, (even though they) were undermanned".

"In the last quarter we had some blokes who couldn't get hold of the footy," Wallace lamented.

"I think our kick numbers went down almost half what they (were) in the early half of the game and then (we) just made some poor decisions with the footy.

"We just couldn't get hold of (enough first use of the football), and (we) couldn't maintain possession of the ball from that stage (midway through the final term) onwards.

"A couple of errors opened that door back up and you know on their home ground with a little bit of momentum and desperate for a win, that was enough to get (the Dockers) over the line.


"We probably just lacked that little bit of quality polish and finish in our side as it worked out, but (there's) no excuses, because (with) six minutes to go, we were in a winning position," he said, after making note of Dockers trio Matthew Pavlich, Des Headland and Paul Medhurst's abilities to pop up and score a few goals.

http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=271053