Tigers act on player concerns
Caroline Wilson
The Age
July 14, 2006
RICHMOND players said they wanted to spend more time with Terry Wallace on the training track and have requested better off-field facilities as part of a detailed mid-year review devised by the coach.
Every member of the Tigers' senior list responded anonymously during the mid-season break to a questionnaire put forward by Wallace, in a first for club and coach.
On the eve of tonight's match against Melbourne, Wallace told The Age he was "amazed" by some of the thoughts and grievances of his players, which he described as a "review sheet" of every aspect of the club. He yesterday met club president Gary March to put forward a series of requests, largely on the basis of what he learnt from his players.
As a result of comments from the younger players, Wallace has asked the club to employ a full-time development coach to work exclusively with the younger players and to act as a conduit between the senior team and VFL affiliate Coburg.
"All I asked of the players was that they could, if they felt comfortable, put in how many years of service they'd had at the club," said Wallace. "It's a fine line between letting the inmates run the asylum and getting a genuine feeling from your most important personnel how you can improve.
"The younger players made it clear they need more help acclimatising and that they have felt a little lost in the process between Coburg and ourselves. The players overall talked about improved facilities, medical assistance and they really took trouble over it. I gave them a week's notice and then a full day to fill it in."
Wallace said the players' thoughts, along with the club's improved financial performance, would result in him spending the next month reviewing the Tigers' entire football structure and operation. "I won't tell you exactly what they said but I found some of their thoughts amazing and you will see changes here as a result," he said.
Wallace has also requested extra recruiting facilities — involving part-time experts interstate and improved technology to examine junior footballers. March said he had agreed in principle to both requests.
While Wallace had briefly outlined some of the players' thoughts to the board, March said directors would further examine improvements to the football department at next week's board meeting.
"Terry's submitted a wish list and obviously development of our younger players and recruiting are critical areas and he's already received a 'yes' from me," said March.
"Last year we were 15th in the AFL in football department spending. We won't be in the top four next season but we will have moved up a fair few spots. We've already started looking for the right people but we want a lot of what the players felt to remain confidential."
While reluctant to detail the review's findings, Wallace conceded one view put forward was that the team wanted to see more of the coach at training, an issue he said he would address during pre-season training.
"I took what they said on board about that," he said, "but my view of assistant coaches is a bit like recruiters; what's the use of having them there if you are not going to empower them."
Wallace also revealed yesterday that he had overhauled the team's game plan following Richmond's thrashing at the hands of Sydney in round seven. "When I came here, I had a game plan which was set; well, it changed completely after the Sydney game," he said.
"Having watched every single game during my two years out, I believed the way to go was a run-and-carry, flowing style … before that game we had one style of play; now we have three styles of play we can use within one game."
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/07/13/1152637806909.html
