Wallace hoping there's a twist in the tail
Stephen Rielly | July 16, 2007
DESPITE a loss to Hawthorn at the MCG yesterday, which suggested that even the spirit to compete has been lost to Richmond, Tiger coach Terry Wallace said a "vibrant" finish to the season remained essential and that the club's annus horribilis was still better than a mid-table finish with a group capable of no more than mediocrity.
Wallace watched a nine-point half-time deficit turn into a dispiriting 53-point loss, a 13th defeat for the Tigers in 15 rounds, and conceded that the rout was not an acceptable way to lose, even by Richmond's standards in 2007.
"We were beaten badly in the second half. They just outran us. I thought their work levels, particularly from the back end, and their skill level was far superior and once they started getting that overlap footy (going), we had no answers," said Wallace, who revealed that he spoke with his players after the match about the respect that will be lost if the last seven rounds of the season are meekly surrendered.
"There is still a long way to go in the season and you want to be known as competitive every time you go out there … I wouldn't question the first hour of the game, I wouldn't question it at all. Certainly in the second half, it wasn't where we want to be."
The defeat was the Tigers' heaviest since round six, when Geelong mauled them by 157 points, and the team's second-worst loss of the season.
Equally, Richmond managed to create more possessions than Hawthorn for a return of 21 fewer entries inside its 50-metre arc, a reflection of an inability to kick well enough and a game of inefficient handball and survival, which that weakness often inspires.
Wallace-coached Western Bulldogs teams of the past were highly polished, quick and skilful, but to date, after almost three seasons, the Richmond coach hasn't been able to reshape the Tigers in the same way. Meanwhile, he has watched Hawthorn make that transformation.
"They were terrific. They've come a heck of a long way in a short period of time," he said of the Hawks, who seem to be justifying the most extreme draft-led makeover in the game's history.
"Whether you talk premierships … certainly, they're as good a running side, I think they are the most skilful foot-skills side going around in the competition at the moment, especially from the back end. Their use of the ball is outstanding and they hurt us all day from that area of the ground. Certainly, skill-wise, I think they're up with any side in the competition. Where it goes from there, who knows, I mean there is a long way to go still, isn't there?"
Too long, perhaps, for a Richmond team that included 11 players with fewer than 50 games' experience. One of them, Richard Tambling, sat out much of the last term in a clearly disgruntled state of mind and, according to Wallace, will be spoken with during the week. His immediate future is in question.
"We've said that from day one, that at least a vibrant finish is very, very important. We've still got to go over to Perth and play there, we've got to play Sydney in Sydney and we've still got to go to Geelong, so it's pretty tough on the way home, but it's very important how you finish that off and making sure you're keeping vibrant in the way you are as a group," said Wallace, who argued that Richmond was a better club today than it was when he took command at the end of 2004.
"We're not where we want to be. Clearly, we're in a situation where we won games over the last two years with guys … Richmond supporters sat there saying they were sick of finishing ninth.
"Well, we're getting beaten at the moment — and we don't accept the way we were beaten today — but we're getting beaten today with young boys, a dozen or so with less than 50 games. We're not getting beaten with the same blokes that this club was getting beaten with for six, seven, eight or nine years. So we see it from that point of view that those guys will get better."
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