We'll be fine: Terry Wallace
Mark Stevens | June 14, 2008
IT can be a long, lonely drive back to the outer north-eastern suburbs as a loser.
Terry Wallace braced himself for transit torture the moment he accepted the job of rebuilding Richmond, but he still loathes it.
As the clock ticked towards midnight on Saturday, May 3, the journey was particularly painful.
Wallace spoke to a close ally, not just for company, but to also pick over the rubble of a three-point loss to St Kilda.
Jack Riewoldt failed to make the distance from 55m out after the final siren to win it. Less than a minute earlier, Kelvin Moore took a mark 30m out but his shot for goal swung late and slammed into the left goalpost.
"To be honest, to one of my confidants on the way home that night, I said: 'I think that might come back to bite us on the arse'," Wallace said this week.
"It's bitten us for the fact that we're now under the microscope. I reckon if we'd won that night we wouldn't be under the microscope as much."
The Tigers had a staggering 51 more contested possessions than the Saints, but wasted all their hard work.
"Turnovers hurt us. They just kicked some easy goals from turnovers," Wallace said.
"When your opportunities are there you've got to nail them, don't you? We missed chances that were really, really gettable."
Wallace is sitting in the Richmond Social Club, overlooking Punt Rd Oval, reflecting on the night the Tigers lost the seemingly unloseable match.
Fresh from fielding questions in his regular "Tuesdays With Terry" session, Wallace is dressed in a team-issue tracksuit top.
There was no need for a flak jacket at this week's media gathering, as the volley of questions was reasonably gentle.
But Wallace knows the heat is back on. That microscope is focused on Richmond, which confronts Melbourne at Telstra Dome tomorrow. The old term "must-win" doesn't do justice to the importance of the game.
The Tigers have three wins and a draw from 11 games and need a miracle to make the eight.
If Moore had threaded that goal, or Riewoldt somehow unleashed a mighty torpedo, their record would be 4-1-6.
If Bulldog Will Minson had also missed seconds before the siren a fortnight earlier, Richmond would be 5-6 and still very much in the finals hunt.
So given the close shaves, how does Wallace grade the season so far: A, B, C, D or E?
Wallace stopped short of offering a grade, but made it clear it is no pass mark.
"I'm disappointed. We're still at a fail rate at the moment. I don't think there's any question about that," he said.
"I think if we'd won the two games we had an opportunity to win, I think I'd be telling you a different story with the draw we've had.
"I reckon if we'd come out of the first half with that 5-6 scenario with a real chance in the run home, I would then have given us a pass rate.
"Coming off the back of 3 1/2 wins last year, I reckon that's a pass rate.
"The fact of the matter is, Minson kicks his and we miss ours."
Wallace has 33 games, or a season and a half, left on a five-year contract.
It is getting to the stage where pass marks will have a bearing on whether he gets the chance to finish the job he started or gets the flick.
And capitulations against Sydney and then Adelaide have been untimely, given the Tigers were finally starting to win respect (regardless of the cruel losses).
"You care. You know how many people are involved, a supporter, a member, coterie member, a board member," Wallace said.
"A lot of people put a lot of time into wanting things to work. A lot of them have been very good in the belief in our direction.
"You really start to make some ground and you see people almost rallying behind you. All of sudden, you hit another hurdle or little hiccup.
"That frustrates you. You know it's your message and your direction."
Asked if he was feeling the pressure, Wallace steadfastly replied: "No, not really."
Wallace reiterated that if his premiership coaching dream is to be realised, it will be at Punt Rd.
At 49, he has no interest in coaching anywhere else. He wants to be around to enjoy the rewards of the hard work.
"I still think that we've got enough youth and players coming through that once they've got that 100, 150 games and there's a lot of them, I think this club will be fine," Wallace said.
"I don't think this club has had that for a long, long time.
"I don't think it's had a group of 25 or 30 blokes all around the same age bracket, 24 to 26, for ever.
"We haven't got that at the moment. We're not there yet, but we'll get there."
Richmond talkback callers made a habit of feeling warm and fuzzy about defeats to the likes of St Kilda and Hawthorn this year. Even though they led by 19 points with three minutes left against the Dogs, Tigers fans were positive.
It says a lot about how battered the confidence is that supporters were becoming increasingly accepting of honourable losses.
But Wallace is adamant that, in-house, the Tigers did not get ahead of themselves, setting up the slap-in-the-face reality check at the SCG a fortnight ago.
"You can't control what happens externally, but it certainly didn't happen internally," Wallace said.
"Internally, we've never been that way. We're striving for something we haven't got yet. It's a long time since this club has played multiple finals.
"The first step is to get there. The next step is to stay there."
Wallace said he knew the size of the task when he signed on.
"I thought it would take a lot longer to turn around than some thought it would, just with the nature of the list and where it was at," he said.
"That's not blaming anyone. That's just facts of the matter.
"On arrival, we didn't have any ready-made 23 year olds that would now be sitting in the 26-year bracket. We knew that.
"I thought we'd do some hard yards. A few clubs have done that -- St Kilda, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs. It finally turns.
"Probably the thing that frustrates me or annoys me the most is people saying, 'You're not putting enough games into kids'.
"In terms of 23 and unders, we've put more games into that age group than any club in the competition. That (criticism) doesn't stack up. That's not right.
"I know no one ever cares, but our Coburg side is playing really good footy. Coburg reserves are playing really good footy. We believe that eventually flows through.
"It's the nature of the game that when you're losing, people analyse and criticise. When you're winning they don't look at many things at all."
It stings Wallace that people lump 2007 with 2008. It may be true that Richmond has won just six of its past 33, but Wallace said last year was one of out the box.
"I thought it was out of our control last year," Wallace said of a season cruelled by injuries.
The Tigers were last for tackles in 2007 and he is happy to admit the club was a "non-tackling" outfit.
Asked why he didn't put more work into that kind of defensive pressure, Wallace replied: "Last year, I was putting fingers in dykes.
"By the end, I was just trying to put games into kids. We had blokes falling over left, right and centre."
Wallace is far more comfortable being judged on wins and losses this year.
"Everything we've got at the moment is in our control. We haven't got major injures. There are no excuses (for) where we sit at the moment," he said.
Hawthorn is always praised for its "plan" to deliver a premiership. The Hawks are now universally given a tick for trading the likes of Jonathan Hay and Nathan Thompson and building from the ground up. Peter Everitt went eventually, too.
Did Wallace cut deep enough early in his tenure? His answer is an emphatic yes.
Why didn't Wallace, like Hawthorn, trade out some names for picks? He is adamant he had little, or no, bait and nowhere to move.
"We cut 25 in the first two years, I think," Wallace said.
"Everyone looks at us and says Hawthorn. The difference is we didn't have players people were jumping up and down to get hold of.
"We just didn't have them."
Wallace has no problem mentioning Matthew Richardson and Joel Bowden, who had undoubted trade value, to back up his argument.
"We had a couple of players that may have been (trade targets) that had massive family heritage with the Richmond footy club," Wallace said.
"For me to walk in the door and have blokes, whose parents played their heart and soul out for Richmond, thrown out the door straight away would have been a non-Richmond thing to do.
"No one ever asked the question at trade time, but the Joel Bowdens and Matthew Richardsons of the world will teach the Trent Cotchins of the world what it is to be a Richmond person.
"Jonathan Hay hasn't got the connection Richardson or Bowden had. It's massive. Nathan Thompson, the same.
"These boys (Richardson and Bowden) grew up watching their dads play premierships for the footy club."
With Richardson and Bowden staying put, Wallace knew it would always be a considered accumulation of talent, rather than an avalanche.
The Tigers did, though, trade Brad Ottens to Geelong. In return came picks 12 and 16.
Brett Deledio was taken at pick No. 1 in that draft: Tick.
Richard Tambling was taken at pick No. 4: He should get there, but -- like others -- the Tigers overlooked Lance Franklin and he slipped through to No. 5.
Danny Meyer was taken at No. 12. He has been hobbled by a hip injury and the next 11 weeks will determine his future.
Adam Pattison went at No. 16. As a big bloke, he has been slow developing, but should get there. Next up, Dean Polo went at 20. After showing promise in 2006, he has had a major setback with a shoulder injury. Jury's out.
On paper, picks one, four, 12, 16 and 20 loomed as a treasure trove. There has only been one raging success.
Wallace said Richmond would be far better if Polo and Meyer, in particular, already had 60 games to their name.
Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, taken at pick No. 8 the following year, has played only 16 games.
"Would you like to have 60 games into those three boys? Absolutely. We'd be a lot further advanced if we did. A lot further advanced," Wallace said.
"Should we have 60 games into them? There's reasons why that hasn't been the case. Of course, it could be better. No one bats 100 per cent at this thing."
Wallace knows he cops criticism for talking about his first coaching project, the Western Bulldogs, but brings up the club anyway.
"You look at your own history and past. You learn to understand about how to structure lists," Wallace said. "You saw the Dogs go down for a couple of years and then finally the young boys matured and developed enough to come back up.
"I see our process being similar.
"I think I said a few years ago we're probably four or five years behind the whole process of where they are.
"It will change. It will turn. I have no doubt it will turn.
"I don't like driving home as a loser every bloody week either."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23859907-19742,00.html
