Terry Wallace: Tiger forever (AFL)

[richmondrules]

I'll never coach anyone else: Wallace

IN THE final instalment of our exclusive four-part interview with Terry Wallace, the Richmond coach says he'll never coach any other club but the Tigers.

In a revealing conclusion to our series, Wallace tells Luke Holmesby that his passion for Richmond is born of the idea that the club is a sleeping giant and gets attacked so much from the outside because people don’t want it to wake up.

He says there's a fear in the competition about what would happen if Richmond got on a roll and all its passionate supporters came on board.

He said by the time his contract is up in two years he hopes Richmond will be as well equipped as any other to prepare their football division for matches and look after their players.

Read part four of the interview in full.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsid=56905

[Stripes]

I thought I would respond quickly before the usual barrage of attacks against our coach begins.

I, for one, believe TW deserves to be retained as coach for the length of his contract regardless of how we preform on the field this year. I believe he deserves to see out his plan and I believe it would folly to dismiss him part way through the process that the club has unified behind.

TW stated that he would not coach any other team - and I believe him. You may say it is because noone else will take him but I don't believe that. What he says about the club being a sleeping giant rings true and I believe, we, as passionate, frustrate and impatient supporters have caused our own demise countless times over the journey.

If our coaches had of had the confidence to rebuild in the past rather than sell of draft picks to top up to attempt to appease the media and supporters in the short term and thus save their own positions then we would have seen much more success over the journey.

The fact that we had to settle for Spud whn no other available quality coach would risk taking on the position because of our terrible coach history I believe was the final wake up call for the club. It was also the reason why Sud was allowed to see out his contract to attempt to change the culture of our club internally and preception of the external observers also.

TW has been true to his word. Besides a few minor recruiting slips he has begun to rebuild our list across the ground. Not all of them will make it but if even half do then we will become a power once again.

I have faith in TW and faith in his vision. I am proud that we have not turned on ourselves over the last few years and stuck true to our aim to redevelop. We all new there would be more pain coupled with this process. TW would have known that this was the brave and toughest path to begin, he could have taken the same tack as the majority of our other coaches did over the last 25 years but he didn't. I applaud him for that.

TW is media savy which was exactly what we needed to keep the olves at bay to allow him to undertake this process. If he had not been able to sell the message to the suporters, media and board we would have swayed by now, made a rash decision and undid all the hard work we had done.

I really DO believe TW and I really DO believe it the list he is slowly developing and regardless of what happens in the future, I know this is the right path to follow to achieve success. I feel that in would be an injustice to get rid of TW this year only to have the next coach come in a reap the rewards of all his hard work.


The board is behind him. TW is going no where.

Stripes

[wayne again]

  Well said stripes.
 One comment TW said a year or two a go was he would prefer to loose with a new bunch of young players than loose with the same old bunch of players. He had a good point and i beleive that he has done really well in changing the list.
Now it is time for his coaching of the new list a couple of years older to start winning a few.
Fingers crossed i do think that we are on the up from this season on.

[blaisee]

wallet is a alot more honest than he is given credit for.

[Smokey]

Great post Stripes.  I got sick and tired of beating the same drum - good to read that others see it for what it really is too.  The usual suspects will no doubt chime in spewing their vitriol and hatred of all things Wallace but he has shown more strength of character in his 3 years back at our club than any of his predecessors in the past 25 years.  If you want to talk about culture then this guy has raised the bar within the whole club through his efforts and attitudes more than any other person.  And I wasn't even a fan when he first got appointed - thought we had better options available - but I am very, very comfortable saying that I was wrong and this guy has earned every single cent we have paid him, regardless of whether he achieves ultimate success with us or not.
 

[WilliamPowell]

Stripes & Smokey...

   

Well said.

Very objective and balanced - giving reasons for your views

Got no problem with people not happy with the Coach, that's people right but the any arguement sits better with objective reasoning 

[richmondrules]

... good to read that others see it for what it really is too ...

Can't say I am an expert on how it really is, but you needn't worry, there are plenty who are quietly watching what is going on without feeling the need to carry on about how bad everything is.

It's easy to find evidence of the wheels falling off, it is far harder and less safe to look at a plan and speculate where the plan will ultimately lead. I have got into trouble before for stating that it is far easier to take a negative stance. If you are wrong people are too busy being happy and having warm fuzzy feelings to worry about what was said earlier and if you are right then you can crap on as if you are some sort of genius expert.

I must admit I posted this as a bit of a fishing expedition expecting to hook all the usual customers. I had a wry grin as I pressed the post button. I am pleasantly surprised to find that the first half a dozen or so comments have been positive ones.

[Little Jackie]

I could but I wont

[Mr Magic]

Sure is easy to take the negative stance. For good reason too after last season's debacle.
I'm sick to the eyeballs of reading puff pieces and verbal rhetoric. It's the 4th year, time for action Terry.

Wallace will be judged on his results.
If they are no good he will be punted. If they are good he will be kept.
It should be as simple as that.

[Little Jackie]

Sure is easy to take the negative stance. For good reason too after last season's debacle.
I'm sick to the eyeballs of reading puff pieces and verbal rhetoric. It's the 4th year, time for action Terry.

Wallace will be judged on his results.
If they are no good he will be punted. If they are good he will be kept.
It should be as simple as that.

Correct. his goal will be to win more games than he loses, anything else and out the door as far as I am concerned.
5 years at $600,000 a year,

[richmondrules]

Wallace will be judged on his results.
If they are no good he will be punted. If they are good he will be kept.
It should be as simple as that.

In the end of the day results must be assessed and someone needs to be held accountable for better or worse. I suppose it depends on your assessment of when a plan has failed and it is time to try a fresh one.

By the way MM I hope you didn't take my last post personally. I realise that your post are not always positive but I have always found you to be more realistic than anything. IMO you give credit where credit is due, but are quite happy to point out when you think things are not up to scratch. I certainly have no problem with that. 

[Mr Magic]

By the way MM I hope you didn't take my last post personally. I realise that your post are not always positive but I have always found you to be more realistic than anything. IMO you give credit where credit is due, but are quite happy to point out when you think things are not up to scratch. I certainly have no problem with that. 

Certainly not RROFO.
I'll always try and look for the positive but won't dress up the negs either.
TBH I am afraid Terry Wallace is tipping the scales towards the wrong end after last year but there's only one way for him to address it and last Thursday night was a great start.

This might sound crazy and ambitious but if we have some luck with injuries, I am of the belief we should be aiming to make the 8.
Anything else would be a disappointment or at least it should be.
Brown, Richardson, Simmonds, Bowden, Foley, Deledio, Johnson are as good a core group of players as many teams have in the competition.
Soon enough some of those key guys won't be there and we need to make hay right now.

Can Terry get us there this year? If he can then I will believe he is a great coach.
If he can't, then after 4 years without a finals birth, he is just ordinary.

[richmondrules]

This might sound crazy and ambitious but if we have some luck with injuries, I am of the belief we should be aiming to make the 8.
Anything else would be a disappointment or at least it should be.
Brown, Richardson, Simmonds, Bowden, Foley, Deledio, Johnson are as good a core group of players as many teams have in the competition.
Soon enough some of those key guys won't be there and we need to make hay right now.

Can Terry get us there this year? If he can then I will believe he is a great coach.
If he can't, then after 4 years without a finals birth, he is just ordinary.

You definitely have a point. I don't think it is crazy to want to make the finals. After all, what's the point of a football team if you are not playing to win. We are getting to the stage where we should be expecting finals. If it wasn't for last years complete shambles we would be absolutely demanding finals this year. It is only because we finished 16th last year that people are even considering missing the finals as an acceptable result for 2008.

From my point of view I am still trying to work out just what went wrong last year. There are a lot of theories and many different excuses but I find I have not yet got enough information to come to a conclusion I am comfortable with. In my job I deal with situations where I occasionally have to take a step back and assess that what I have been trying to do is just not working. I have to pull the plug and start again. I am not yet ready to make that call in regards to TW and the RFC. I believe it is fair to give him the agreed term, but I am 100% certain we will know the correct course of action at the end of the 5 years.

Whatever the result in regards to TW coaching I am happy that the players we have coming through are of a better quality than the players we have seen on our list in recent history. The talk of 2011 is probably realistic in terms of when our players will at the height of their powers. In this regard I do not feel we are damaging our long term prospects by showing a bit more patience at this time.

Is Terry a great coach? There is nothing to say that he is. When he was at the Bullies I always feared playing them but I never regarded them as a team likely to win the whole bloody thing. TW still has a lot to prove IMO, and I really REALLY hope he can prove it.

[one-eyed]

Loopy Crackers Keenan reckons in I.F. he's heard Wallace is on $800k a year (he also says he doesn't believe it) and that last week the "rumour mill" was saying a wealthy individual at Richmond would foot the bill to pay him out if he didn't do better this year. By winning Plough's kept the wolves from the door and a few more wins will have everyone smiling at Tigerland.

[Moi]

Loopy Crackers Keenan reckons in I.F. he's heard Wallace is on $800k a year (he also says he doesn't believe it) and that last week the "rumour mill" was saying a wealthy individual at Richmond would foot the bill to pay him out if he didn't do better this year. By winning Plough's kept the wolves from the door and a few more wins will have everyone smiling at Tigerland.

Why doesn't this so and so just donate the money towards facilities for the club if he wants to see improvement