Wallace keeps his hands off draft
By Mic Cullen
Thu 27 November, 2008
DRAFT day – it's when the future of your club is decided.
Also decided can be the careers of coaches, recruiters, football managers.
And players.
But that's usually not for at least a couple of years after the decisions are made, and on the date itself, Richmond coach Terry Wallace says he is very hands off.
"On draft day, it's Craig Cameron, it is," Wallace said.
"All I want to know is ... the combination between us is ... where do I believe football's going, where do I believe our list is at, and does he believe that's where it's at as well?
"There's ongoing discussions about our list, and list management, between the two of us, and that's where that side of it sits.
"Then it's him dealing with what he needs to deal with, because he has all the tools and all the understanding, he knows what I think we need to go forward, and then it's his job."
Best available or what you need? It's the perennial question.
"Best player or needs? I'm best player, but you have to have a strategy for both," Wallace said.
"You never let Ian Stewart go past to try to pick up Whale Roberts, no offence to Whale! Trying to get the ruckman and you let a champion go past, you have to be careful of that. All of us still have to have a calculation of where our list is at, and what we still need to get a better list."
Wallace acknowledged that drafting was a long process with no real beginning or end.
"The draft is a 12-month process – probably for the recruiting boys it's been a three-year process, following them from their under-16 teams, so really, by the last week, you almost get to the stage where you say, well, Wednesday or Thursday, that's shut-off date for us," he said.
"We've done everything that we can possibly do, we know and understand where we're at and we can't do any more.
"What we normally do is have a final day, normally around at my place, and invite the strength and conditioning guys, football managers, recruiting blokes and match committee, and go through our strategies, as much as anything else.
"'This is what we look at what we're likely to do, the match committee boys might ask a few last-minute curly questions like has that bloke got enough power to play that position, or is this bloke inside enough to really be an inside player, will he grow into it in three years, those sort of things.
"I believe it gets down to – the recruiters have seen them over that period of time, and it's their responsibility to pick them.
"As much as that impacts my job, which it does – one wrong decision ... but they're making a more considered decision than I can.
"And it's the football club's decision, not mine, but the football club's decision can be that if they don't like what they're doing over a period of time, well they've got to move them on and get somebody else to do it better.
"But while they're there, they manage their area, and they need to be able to manage their area."
Wallace has a simple philosophy when it comes to running a football team.
"Let your managers manage,” he said.
"It doesn't matter whether it's the bloke who's running strength and conditioning, it doesn't matter whether it's the bloke who's running recruiting – let your managers manage."
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