Wallace expectations

[the_boy_jake]

I was reading a Herald Sun article that said Daniel Jackson will be 23 if and when Terry Wallace's current contract expires. Given that we have a lot of young players on our list, and that we are about to have two selections in the top 6, it would seem that the rebuilsing process will be a long one. In light of this, these are my best expectations for Plough:

2005: 10th-14th would be about as good as we could hope for, anything else would be overperforming a bit. One of the disadvantages I thought the Bulldogs had was that their list was never good enough to make two preliminary finals and finals almost every year. I thought that this harmed them in the long run - when they lost a few inspirational players and a couple of others seemed to come back poorly from injury, get old or lose the huunger, they just didn't have any young quality coming through. I DON'T believe that Terry Wallace brought the club to its knees in terms of list management and short term decision making ala Frawley circa 2001, I think they just did better than they ought to for too long.

2006. Just outside the eight (9-12). You would expect a few of the youngsters to be pushing 50 games by the end of the season. You would also hope to have players like Kellaway, Brown and Johnson shouldering the leadership duties in their prime. The list will have undergone some serious change by now. I am more than a little worried by the so-called 'spine' of the team... Richo will be in his 30s with two dodgy hammys, Gaspar we can only hope returns to something near his AA form, Ottens is making all the noises (or not making any noise at all as it were) of someone who wants out, Stafford is OK but past his best by now, Marsh and Morrison should not be around....

2007. Should really be striving for the eight. 6-10 would do me realistically - as long as we were persevering with youth and not trading away the picks over the previous couple of seasons.
2008. Somewhere in the bottom half of the eight. We should see the draft decisions of the previous several seasons starting to bear fruit.
2009. Top 4.

I don't think this is too much to ask for. Its been a long time since a Richmond coach has taken the club to successive finals series, but equally a long time since a coach has been given such a backing by the men in suits and greeted with almost universal optimism by the fans.  If Wallace were able to do this, use the draft wisely and only trade away picks for players in or before their prime (and preferably some height at both ends of the ground) then we would have a solid base to work with for some time.

[julzqld]

Interesting to note that on White Line Fever a couple of days ago they did a poll amongst the bottom teams to see who had the best list and Richmond was voted as having the best.

[om21]

Worst way to look at things......

Im for trying to win everygame all the time and striving for success regardless of the list. You have expectations but you always aim to exceed, which is what excels you from the rest and Wallace has this driving attribute so talk about finishing wherever next year is out the window for me.

[Tigertailz]

Interesting thoughts TBJ.
I think all of us like to look in the crystal ball and whink what might happen.
I do feel that you should always set plans and goals in whatever you do in life.I'm sure Plough has but we wont know what they are for a while, if at all.He is way too smart to make outlandish statements that may come back to haunt you.
The most important thing is that we rebuild with a solid foundation to set us up for the future on and off field.
For arguments sake maybe we could use the saints and the cats as possible examples of time frames involved.

[Cain]

Each team has a core group of top line players. 3,4,5 or 6. The RFC has its fair share - Brown, Richo, Johnson, Bowden (of late) It’s not these players make a team successful. It’s the rest of the team. It has been the mediocrity, inconsistency and lack of belief in themselves that characterises our team. My expectation of Wallace is that he will instil confidence in the new crop of players so that when I go to see my team play, their heads are not bowed, their shoulders are not stooped and they run and run and run.

[mightytiges]

Each team has a core group of top line players. 3,4,5 or 6. The RFC has its fair share - Brown, Richo, Johnson, Bowden (of late) It’s not these players make a team successful. It’s the rest of the team. It has been the mediocrity, inconsistency and lack of belief in themselves that characterises our team.

Agree Cain. Our depth is shocking.

Our core group is fair but nowhere near the quantity and quality of the top sides. The best sides have a number of matchwinners- A graders. For us - Browny is one and Richo on his day can win a game off his own boot but his goalkicking is inconsistent and when the big fella is having an off day the whole team suffers. That's about it. Johnson, Bowden (this year) and Cambo (before the achilles) are reliable and every side needs these types but they aren't A-graders. Otto has the ability to get there but is still far short of the mark. Cogs when right was approaching the required level.

For the rest of the list they are either just average, too young to judge or plainly not up to AFL standard. We'd be wanting to offload the latter and trade some of the former to be free up space on our list for quality kids who have the potential, along with the kids we have, to dramatically improve our list and depth over the next few years. We need to draft and develop our own matchwinners. Obviously having the right coach(s), recruiters and support system is crucial for us to succeed..   

[mightytiges]

2005: 10th-14th would be about as good as we could hope for, anything else would be overperforming a bit. One of the disadvantages I thought the Bulldogs had was that their list was never good enough to make two preliminary finals and finals almost every year. I thought that this harmed them in the long run - when they lost a few inspirational players and a couple of others seemed to come back poorly from injury, get old or lose the huunger, they just didn't have any young quality coming through. I DON'T believe that Terry Wallace brought the club to its knees in terms of list management and short term decision making ala Frawley circa 2001, I think they just did better than they ought to for too long.

2006. Just outside the eight (9-12). You would expect a few of the youngsters to be pushing 50 games by the end of the season. You would also hope to have players like Kellaway, Brown and Johnson shouldering the leadership duties in their prime. The list will have undergone some serious change by now. I am more than a little worried by the so-called 'spine' of the team... Richo will be in his 30s with two dodgy hammys, Gaspar we can only hope returns to something near his AA form, Ottens is making all the noises (or not making any noise at all as it were) of someone who wants out, Stafford is OK but past his best by now, Marsh and Morrison should not be around....

2007. Should really be striving for the eight. 6-10 would do me realistically - as long as we were persevering with youth and not trading away the picks over the previous couple of seasons.
2008. Somewhere in the bottom half of the eight. We should see the draft decisions of the previous several seasons starting to bear fruit.
2009. Top 4.

Although I could accept that length of time if we got it right in the end, IMO I don't think it will take the whole of Wallace's 5 years to reach just the top 4 as I count this year as year 1 - drafted what appears like some quality kids and been able to get some game time into the likes of Schulz, Jackson, Hartigan, Moore etc even if it was under Frawley. Add the high picks we have this year and next (I agree with Jake we will still finish down the ladder in 2005) and in another 3-4 years (by 2007/8) when these kids are in the 50-100 game range we should start seeing the results of our hard labour. I'd reckon when we do finally hit our straps, like most sides, we will improve dramatically and move up the ladder quickly.   

[Struggletown]

I reckon we wont see finals for at least two years.
We have to repent for the sins of the last 3 or so years.
What I am looking forward to is the competitive fire back in the black and gold.
If we can be competitive for 4 quarters next year and still lose I wont mind as long as we stick to the process of rebuilding the joint the right way.
I think 2006-07 will see the rise of the RFC.

[RonBranton]

History tells us that it does not take very long to turn a club around.

In 2004, of the five teams that finished on the bottom in the year 2000, four will play in the finals.

From the bottom it was St Kilda, Collingwood, Port, West Coast and Fremantle. Only Collingwood will miss out, (assuming WC makes it, which is probable) and one can hardly argue that Collinwood are not competitive, plus they even played in a GF two years after finishing 15th.

We should also not accept that we are any more ruthless with coaches than other clubs. We
gave DF 5 years (one reason why giving TW the same is not an issue) and since his appointment all clubs except Essendon, Roos and Lions have sacked one or more coaches.

Have faith - when the Tigers are flying it doesn't get any better.   

[Jackstar]

At the end of the day, Terry wanted to coach the Tigers for the past 6 months. I would think we would make the finals next year.
He wont put up with underperforming clowns