Wallace looks for stability
By Jake Niall
realfooty.theage.com.au
August 4, 2004
The capacity of Hawthorn and Richmond to recruit players and manage their political crises will be critical to Terry Wallace's choice of coaching job.
Wallace, who will make a presentation to the Hawthorn board tomorrow night, will be offered four-year contracts by both the Hawks and Tigers and similarly lucrative remuneration, but it will be other factors - particularly the stability of either club, the health of its salary cap and recruiting prospects - that will be most influential in his decision.
Wallace is understood to slightly favour Richmond ahead of his old club, but this is largely because the Tigers have already made their detailed pitch - including a four-year offer - and the former Bulldogs coach is yet to hear the full details of Hawthorn's counter-bid.
The Hawks remain confident of making a persuasive pitch, which will include their belief that former director and outspoken ex-premiership skipper Don Scott will not return to the board and that the club will return to its trademark stability.
Sources yesterday said Wallace was likely to choose his preferred club over the weekend and then sit down with his management and the chosen club and secure a deal. On current market rates, Wallace is certain to be paid in excess of $500,000 a year.
Hawthorn, meanwhile, has followed Richmond by contacting Rodney Eade and informing the former Sydney coach that Wallace is its preferred candidate. Should Wallace choose Richmond, the Hawks will then turn their attention to seasoned coaches Eade and Gary Ayres and perhaps assistants Mark Harvey and Gary O'Donnell.
Ayres last night confirmed that he held only "informal" discussions with his close friend, Hawthorn football director Dermott Brereton, about the Hawthorn coaching position and had not yet been formally interviewed.
Like Eade, Ayres will have to wait until Wallace has made his call before he can entertain the Hawthorn job. Richmond has made clear that Eade is its second choice and will offer him the job should Wallace decline.
Wallace is less concerned with the staffing situations at the two clubs, though Richmond - with virtually all its assistants and football department staff out of contract - will be able to give him a blank canvas on which to create his own future.
But it is the political volatility at both clubs and their recruitment prospects that Wallace will weigh up in coming days, as Hawthorn attempts to negotiate a peace agreement with Scott, who has given the board an ultimatum and threatened a spill unless it meets certain demands.
The Richmond board, which convened last night without its key decision-maker and director of football Greg Miller, has put its power struggle between president Clinton Casey and challenger Brendan Schwab on hold until the coaching position is settled.
Hawthorn will tell Wallace that while its salary cap for 2005 is tight due to the massive contracts in place for next year, such as the $600,000-plus committed to Nick Holland and other costly deals, the club will have enormous scope in 2006, when several hundred thousand dollars of room, if not more, immediately opens up.
Richmond, too, has some salary cap concerns, though its restraints relate more to finances - the club is set to lose $2 million this year and is cutting its football budget, with total player payments earmarked for a significant reduction. The club is currently paying, in effect, 100 per cent of the cap, plus veterans' allowances.
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