Wallace irate at Tigers' efforts
6:23:07 PM Sun 18 June, 2006
Jason Phelan
Exclusive to richmonfc.com.au
Richmond was poised to take a big step in its quest to play finals this season against the undermanned Hawks, but barely managed to fire a shot in Launceston on Sunday.
It was a match that the Tigers were favoured to win and perhaps should have won with the carrot of seventh place on the ladder up for grabs. It's a scenario that's all too familiar for the yellow-and-black army, and Terry Wallace feels that his charges let slip a golden opportunity to send the club down a new path.
"Our supporters worry about those sort of games and we sat there and said, 'we need to be professional enough that our supporters don't need to worry about those sort of games (anymore)'," a visibly angry Wallace said from Aurora Stadium after the 41-point loss.
"That we'll be good enough and strong enough in the mind to be able to get the job done when you need to get it done. I'm not taking anything away from the opposition at all, but the reality of it was that they came here with about seven of their senior blokes out of their line-up and our blokes just didn't come to play - that was my message (after the match)."
Skipper Kane Johnson - who Wallace praised for his tireless efforts in curbing Luke Hodge - was the only Tiger to earn any plaudits from the irate coach who snorted disdainfully when asked specifically where his team had fallen down.
"Where do you want to start? I mean we just never got our game going at any stage at all. The worst element was that we wouldn't put our head over the ball and win it," he replied frankly.
"I don't have any issue with (Johnson's) mindset or where he was at, but the rest of the group need to have a look at themselves. You know a little bit of publicity - it doesn't take much - there were just a few little sounds coming out of the rooms over the week, a few things have been said that (indicated) perhaps a couple were getting a bit ahead of themselves and you learn a very, very harsh lesson in this competition if that's the case."
Unheralded Hawks Rick Ladson and Tim Clarke were among the chief architects of the Tigers' demise - gathering 53 disposals and 21 marks between them - and Wallace used them as prime examples of the differing mindsets on display on Sunday.
"Blokes with perhaps not huge reputations, but with enough to prove and that was the difference," he said of the two.
"I just thought we were appalling in our ability to man up, I mean I thought we had some guys who were more worried about what their numbers read at the end of the day in relation to their own stats than what they were worried about playing two-way footy and you don't win any game of football unless you're prepared to do it both ways.
"We've had our highs, our lows and we've had our shocking moments in the season - this goes down as one of them - and we've had some really strong moments.
"But what (this) shows you is that in this competition - (where) we were good enough to beat Adelaide who were absolutely flying when our disciplines are right, when everyone's dotting the Is and crossing the Ts - if you want to get ahead of yourself anywhere along the line, you'll come back down to earth with a thud."
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