Kellaway call defended
08 September 2006 Herald-Sun
Daryl Timms
RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace has defended the decision to sack veteran defender Andrew Kellaway, despite the Tiger wanting to play on.
Wallace said he could understand why some fans disagreed with the club not offering Kellaway a deal, instead suggesting he retire.
Wallace yesterday revealed on the club's website he was disappointed the 30-year-old did not accept an invitation for a farewell game in last week's final clash of the season.
"He had missed six weeks with a hamstring injury and we thought he might like to get himself up and play the last week," Wallace said.
"He trained for two weeks on the track and I had a couple of conversations with him in those last couple of weeks about where he was going and told him I thought it would be in his best interests to retire."
Wallace said the club did not want him competing for a senior spot in 2007 against young players such as Brett Deledio, Andrew Raines, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Matthew White and Dean Polo. Or against more seasoned campaigners in the Bowden brothers, Joel and Patrick, and Chris Newman.
"When you also have the likes of the taller Will Thursfield, returning from his knee reconstruction, and Darren Gaspar to add to our defence you can see that we have quite a few options back there," Wallace said.
Wallace said he wanted to clarify that it was never a Kellaway versus Gaspar contest.
"That's not fair on Darren, who has been a teammate and good mate of Andy's over the past decade," Wallace.
"Darren . . . is a key-position player in defence, while Andy has played a third man-in role at half-back. He hasn't lined up on the opposition's tall forwards for several years now."
Wallace said coaches had to decide whether to make the hard call on senior players or on kids who might have been in the system for only a couple of years and were yet to properly mature.
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