Terry Wallace says Cats flag certainty
Jon Ralph | August 26, 2008
RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace yesterday declared Geelong the greatest premiership certainty in his three decades in football.
Wallace's bold claim carries greater weight as it was made without mind games or spin-doctoring from a finals rival.
Richmond has now bowed out of September calculations, and an honest Wallace - who started at Hawthorn in 1978 - was willing to voice what many coaches feel.
He compared Geelong to a rampaging Essendon in 2000, a side that only Wallace's Western Bulldogs were able to defeat that year.
"Anyone can be beaten on a given day, but I can't figure out how," said Wallace of Geelong.
"I think they are as good a certainty that I have seen in the competition almost the whole time I have been involved. I just didn't think Essendon could be beaten in 2000, and I see Geelong in the same manner."
Wallace's Tigers have been mauled by Geelong four times in the past two years, including a 157-point demolition in Round 6 last year.
They are on track to equal Essendon's one-loss season of early in the decade, the best single-season record ever.
The Tigers coach yesterday also had strong opinions about the other end of the ladder, reigniting the tanking debate.
Had Richmond beaten St Kilda in Round 22 last year, it would have been awarded pick three instead of two, the selection it used on star youngster Trent Cotchin.
"You talk about tanking and is it a problem? Our last game last year against St Kilda, we went driving to that game knowing if we won that match that Trent Cotchin would either be wearing a Carlton jumper or he would have been swapped to the West Coast as part of that Judd deal.
''Or if we lost that game he runs around in No. 9 for the rest of his career at Richmond," Wallace told SEN radio.
Asked if he was happy to lose, Wallace replied: "The coach was just happy to get it over and done with.
"It is a situation you don't want to be in. You can't win."
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