Wallace comments NOT ON IMHO / Plough blasts Demetriou over draft system

[Ox]

can you imbeciles leave my behind alone....

we cant win no flag with the talent we have. we need to get early picks...Hawthorn did it, thats why they are today...on the verge of creating a long window of opportunity.

hawthorn will drop off after there lollies are taken away from them 

The Glenferrie Disco-bikkies

[cub]

What did he say dudes

[Ox]

From IDGAF @ BF

Said for the first time in being involved in footy at the elite level for 30 years that he has turned up to a game genuinely comprimised . Admitted that going forward we are better off losing today . ( not that we would deliberately do that )

Returned fire @ Dimitriou for saying that draft picks arent a panacea .. said that Chris Judd was a priority pick and look at what he has done for the eagles ... said our whole game plan today revolved around stopping Riewoldt who was a priority pick .... in a nutshell said that comment from Demetriou was rubbish ... gave other examples

To come bottom and get the leverage of the first pick in the PSD was huge ... gave the example of Freo having to trade Simmonds to us otherwise we would have got him for nothing , and were still able to keep our pick ... gave the same example as the Saints getting Gehrig under the same circumstances , and keeping thier pick for Hamill .

Said the AFL was run like the TV show "Happy Days" and called Demetriou "Fonzie" . meaning they make out at headquarters that it`s all sunshine and hassle free ... but .. said when anyone connected with the game makes the slightest negative comment reagrding the AFL they get called to task and fined for it ... but do you ever hear them put thier hands up and say they have got something wrong ... my interpretation of that was he is basically saying they are two faced and hypocrites .

[cub]

hmmmm

I gunna play tiger woods and have a think - pizzed of in a nutshell

[Ox]

hmmmm

I gunna play tiger woods and have a think - pizzed of in a nutshell

stuff demitriou,the fat arsed,turkey necked Mouno pano

[2JD]

If thats what he said....good for him, someone has to say it as it is, as you say Ox eff off demitriou, take a step back and have a good look at whats good for the game in the long haul, no quick fix band aid measures, get off your stubborn high horses and admit when youve made a mistake and try another way

[{X}]

i was sitting with an old greek mate of mine and my kids at the footy today.  mad does this greek dude hate the cyprian "fonzi" gonzales dimitrpupiso.

anyway , i dont often agree with ())(, but im with him on this,

terry had to say what he said, and how bloody obvious did we tank today, and in hindsight it was the best thing for the future of our club.

we had the aints on toast, joekl 12 touches in 12 minutes and gioes for a rest on teh pine, with guys like sugar, lids , newman etc all ghaving stints when it counted!

in the long run, terry used the rules to our advantage , and as a coach its his duty

its not his fault the afl has compromised the competition

now lets hope judd or someone really good nominates for the draft

we ghave 1st pick of any uncontracted player and also have some bargaining power now

f the afl, f carlton, and f dimitripoof

[julzqld]

example as the Saints getting Gehrig under the same circumstances , and keeping thier pick for Hamill .

Said the AFL was run like the TV show "Happy Days" and called Demetriou "Fonzie" . meaning they make out at headquarters that it`s all sunshine and hassle free ... but .. said when anyone connected with the game makes the slightest negative comment reagrding the AFL they get called to task and fined for it ... but do you ever hear them put thier hands up and say they have got something wrong ... my interpretation of that was he is basically saying they are two faced and hypocrites .

  So nice to hear someone tell the truth.

[one-eyed]

Review priority draft pick: Wallace
8:21 PM Sat 1 September, 2007
By Jason Phelan
Exclusive to AFL BigPond Network

RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace has called on the AFL to review its priority draft pick system following his team’s loss to St Kilda at the MCG on Saturday.

The Tigers stood to lose a precious extra pick at the end of the first round of this year’s NAB AFL National Draft if they had beaten the Saints, which was very much on the cards early in the last quarter of the match.

Wallace argued the system as it stands leaves clubs struggling at the bottom of the ladder in an untenable situation in the dying stages of a season; open to unfair scrutiny and unjust innuendo. 

“For the first time in 30 years that I’ve come to a game as a player or coach I felt compromised in my position and I never want to be in that position again,” Wallace said.

“I thought it was not fair, not right and shouldn’t be the way that we play the game.

“Young people who are coming up and growing up playing our great game with the notion that somebody might be going out not to play because there might be bigger prizes; I don’t think we should be teaching our young people those lessons in life in general.

 “I felt compromised … myself and I thought I was put in a position where I was going to get scrutinised more heavily, if the game finished up the way that it finished, than what we deserved to be.”

Joel Bowden and Nathan Foley, important ball winners for the Tigers, spent time on the bench when the game was up for grabs on Saturday.

Using them as an example, Wallace said he resented being left open to scrutiny as to his motives in that situation, explaining Bowden was a spent force and Foley was resting as a part of the regular midfield rotation. 

“I thought our players and our football club showed that we were at least honourable in everything that we did,” he said.

“We put players out on the ground who we could have put away quite easily - Tuck with a broken thumb, King had a massive ankle [problem] last week - but we wanted to play. Our players wanted to put their best foot forward for their supporters in what’s been a really tough year.

“We decided that we didn’t want to go down a pathway of being perceived, under any circumstances, of not trying to win a game of football.

“I couldn’t look my players in the eyes if they wanted to win and I was doing things to be going against their endeavours in the game.

“Others have got to live by what they’ve decided to do and they can have a moralistic view of whether they think that’s right or wrong, but the Richmond Football Club … we just refused to go down that pathway.

“I thought we were at least honourable in everything that we did, but we shouldn’t be in that position. It’s a tough position to be in and personally I think something’s got to be done about it.”

Wallace said the ramifications of a Richmond win would have been far-reaching for the future of the club and that a priority pick was an unhealthy incentive to lose and could prove too tempting for some clubs.

“For people to say that a priority pick doesn’t necessarily win premierships or change the flow of where a football club’s going; the premiership was won last year on the back of Chris Judd playing magnificent football and what’s Chris Judd? He’s a priority pick,” Wallace said.

“One of our biggest problems leading into today was how are we going to stop Nick Riewoldt and guess what? He’s a priority pick. It makes an enormous difference to the way things are structured up.

“If we had won the game of football today, we lose control of the first uncontracted player in the [pre-season] draft and the negotiations around that [as well].

“What that meant for St Kilda going back a few years when they were in that position, they were actually able to secure Aaron Hamill and Fraser Gehrig from the one trade period through being in that position.

“The last time we were in this position we got Trent Knobel and Troy Simmonds out of exactly the same position.”

Wallace did not put forward an alternative model but did suggest outgoing Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy should be drafted into an AFL think-tank to explore better ways of aiding teams that regularly under-performed.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=6301&newsId=50278

[mightytiges]

Said the AFL was run like the TV show "Happy Days" and called Demetriou "Fonzie" .

[mightytiges]

Ch 10 just replayed Plough's comments. In all seriousness Terry shouldn't have called Andy D "fonzie" as it cheapens his point but he's right to say the AFL live in fairyland. Whether it be tanking, new stupid rules, the standard umpiring in general or the illicit drug problem, the AFL just puts a cone of silence on everyone and thinks by sweeping everything under the carpet, the problems in and with the game will just go away.

Furthermore, Carlton manipulating/cheating the system and the AFL has cost us again at the draft table. First with pick 4 becoming pick 2 after trade week and now with us most likely being the first club ever to not get the first pick ever despite finishing last. The sooner Andy D and AA pee off the better.

[bluey_21]

Said the AFL was run like the TV show "Happy Days" and called Demetriou "Fonzie" .

just another example of how the AFL has become a  :'(joke

[one-eyed]

Wallace takes swipe at Demetriou
02 September 2007   Sunday Herald Sun
David Reed

RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace has slammed the priority pick system saying he felt compromised in yesterday's Round 22 clash where a loss offered far more to his club than victory.

"It is not fair, not right and shouldn't be the way we play the game," Wallace said.

"If we had won today what we would have lost as a football club is massive for our future."

He said he expected his every coaching move to be scrutinised after his side gave up a last-quarter lead and went down by 10 points to St Kilda at the MCG to claim the wooden spoon.

It means the Tigers receive a priority pick at the end of the first round in the November draft and they have secured the strong bargaining chip of the No. 1 pick in the pre-season draft.

That top pre-season pick gives the club first crack at any uncontracted players and has previously been used to coerce other clubs into trading.

"In 30 years in the game I have never had those mixed emotions coming into a game," Wallace said.

But he insisted his club did not tank the game and took the "honourable" approach and went all-out to win.

"Our players were at least honourable in everything we did - we put players out on the ground who we could have put away quite easily, (Shane Tuck) 'Tucky' with a broken thumb, Jacob King had a massive ankle last week," he said.

"The players wanted to put their best foot forward for the supporters."

Wallace said there was nothing suspicious about him taking Joel Bowden and Nathan Foley from the field in the last quarter.

"You can speak to Joel yourself, Joel was so spent after his first 10 minutes, he had it 10 times in the first 10 or 12 minutes but he actually asked to come to the bench and rejuvenate because he couldn't go," Wallace said.

"Again you are asking me questions that I shouldn't need to be asked in that situation."

His comments followed a pre-match attack on the priority pick rule on Triple M when Wallace light-heartedly compared the AFL with TV sitcom Happy Days and likened its chief executive Andrew Demetriou to "the Fonz" because he could never admit he was wrong.

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said clubs were entitled to disagree with rules and Wallace would not face any penalty.

And Keane said Demetriou was not upset to be called Fonzie because "the Fonz was always cool".

"(Demetriou) said it would have really hurt if he was called Potsie," Keane said.

The tanking issue will be prominent again today with Carlton needing to lose to secure first choice in the draft as a priority pick and Melbourne needing to lose to claim three picks in the top 20 instead of one.

Wallace refused to enter any discussions on what Carlton or Melbourne might do, but said history had shown how important draft picks were.

"For us to win today we lose a priority pick, which is pick 18 . . . for our supporters that is probably your next Adam Pattison or Dean Polo not at the club," Wallace said.

"Not only does it do that, it has us in a position where we are to negotiate with an uncontracted player.

"To put it in St Kilda's terms, when they finished on the bottom a few years ago, they were able to go to the West Coast Eagles and say, 'Well, if you don't give us Fraser Gehrig, then we will pick him up for nothing'.

"West Coast had to trade because if you don't trade you get nothing. So St Kilda was able to turn around and get Aaron Hamill off Carlton as an uncontracted player."

"The AFL say that the priority picks doesn't make any difference and you don't win premierships off them; well, I tell you the biggest difficulty we have got today is how we stop Nick Riewoldt. He is a priority pick.

"The West Coast Eagles won a premiership last year off the back of Chris Judd. Guess what? He is a priority pick. Priority picks do matter. So we have got to fix the rules.

"I think the AFL at times live in Happy Days.

"And 'Fonzie' Demetriou . . . when are we actually going to get someone to say perhaps we haven't actually thought this one out right, and let's have a look at it, so we don't get put in this position."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,22346918%255E20322,00.html

[one-eyed]

Demetriou has called Plough's comments sour grapes because we hardly won any games this year.

Demetriou hit back on Monday saying the system would not be changed.

"It's not just my stance, it's the view of the AFL commission," Demetriou said.

Demetriou also hit back at Wallace, saying he should concentrate on improving the performance of his club, which slipped from ninth to last this season.

"The Richmond Football Club didn't win enough football matches this year and shouldn't be in that position," he said.

Demetriou also described as 'nonsense' Wallace's claims the AFL could not admit when it was wrong.

"Last year when we had Sirengate in Tasmania we admitted we were wrong," he said.

Full article at: http://sportal.com.au/default.aspx/afl-news-display/no-changes-to-priority-picks-demetriou-34918

[Moi]

What an absolute prick!