From article: How do you tell Eade and Wallace apart?
31 July 2004
Herald Sun
Bruce Matthews
TERRY WALLACEWallace followed the next season after 254 games and took an assistant's job with the Bulldogs. ... enhanced higher coaching ambitions by utilising their often daring methods to snare reserve grade premierships and, inevitably, they joined the AFL senior coaches' club in 1996. Wallace took over at the Dogs.
"Plough had the determination. If he had one bad game, he was so determined to make amends the following week. His preparation is second to none and he ensures his players are the same." explained Hawk premiership teammate Russell Morris, now St Kilda's corporate sales manager.
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BULLDOGS players had encountered nothing like it at training . . . simulated match practice to clog the backline and then break out with a fast and furious counterattack down the ground.
The players had five days to perfect this alien game plan and, more importantly, then conjure the courage to implement it.
That required absolute, even blind, faith in the coach who convinced them this was their Trojan Horse for a shock attack on the seemingly invincible.
Doggie fans watched the miracle unfold under the Telstra Dome roof on a Friday night in late July, 2000 when the Wallace flood engulfed Essendon to inflict a stunning 11-point upset. It was to be the only glitch in the Bombers' premiership advance.
"He used to come up with themes of the week," former Dogs defender Steven Kretiuk said.
"That week I think it was Mission Impossible or something like that. I can't remember even doing the review of the week before and just went straight on to the planning for Essendon.
"That was pretty much our Grand Final. I hadn't played in any games like that before and to actually plan a strategy and have it pan out virtually word for word on what he said was special."
The sneak attack to outfox the old fox, Kevin Sheedy, unfolded with military precision.
"The players created the history, we were only part of the night. But if you actually read the document that was the plan, you would've thought it was written after the game," Wallace said.
"I think one of my key strengths is selling the plan, painting the picture of how we're going to get the game to unfold. Probably one of my weakest areas is skills and drills. I really like to have a good skills person alongside me. I think it's better to identify what you are and aren't and make sure you have people in place to work with you." Wallace's reputation for meticulous planning is revered by those who worked with him at the Whitten Oval.
"He was smart with the psychology of being able to get us up," another former Bulldog, Paul Dimattina, said.
"I remember one day we were playing Hawthorn at Optus Oval and we probably should have gone in as favourites. But there was like 19 of the 20 media experts picked Hawthorn.
"That was plastered up around the rooms. You walked in before the game and everywhere you looked you realised no one had picked us. It helped instil that we'll show 'em attitude. He would pick up on little things like that to have you ready to jump through a brick wall. We won that day.
"With the break from the game he would have had more time to watch sides like Brisbane, who are the benchmark, and analyse what they're doing. So I think second-time around, he'll be even better than the first time."
Brian Taylor, a specialist coach under Wallace, described him as one of the most tactically astute and motivating coaches he had encountered in a career which spanned three AFL clubs.
"You may sometimes struggle to find a reason to motivate players other than to win, of course. But that doesn't jell with the players week in, week out," Taylor said.
"You've got to come up with a different theme, a different reason to get it into the players' heads that they need to have a crack. And so from a motivational point of view, he's very strategic at planning that as well.
"On game day he's absolutely sharp. I'm sure all coaches are, but I would feel as a player under him coming to me at quarter-time, halftime, three-quarter time . . . he knows exactly what's going on. I would never doubt that because he oozes the aura of, `I know where this game is going and I know what I need you to do to win'."
Wallace has scrutinised every game this season and he believes he's freshened by the break which allowed him time to glean information from several NFL coaches at the 2003 SuperBowl in San Diego.
"I've had the opportunity to be more generalised with the games. When you're coaching, you can sometimes become very insular. You still watch a lot of footy, but you're watching it only for the fact of `how is my side going to stop this side? Who are we going to match on who?', " he said.
"Watching eight games a week gives you a broader base on what you actually think works and doesn't work, the competition structure.
"I've been watching the way everyone has been managing their lists. It has given me time to get a handle on those sorts of things."
And he has a mental dossier of the outstanding young draft talent after watching every game of the recent under-18 national championships.
"This year I called them for Fox, so you're sitting there with Terry Wheeler, Kevin Sheehan and those sorts of guys with their knowledge while some of the other coaches can only go to one game because they've got training sessions," Wallace said.
"It may seem one little advantage, but it may get you one player. And that one player may be the difference between winning a couple of extra games."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,10292281%255E19742,00.html
