Right on cue ....Terry Wallace, fact and frictionDamian Barrett | June 06, 2009
THURSDAY was an ordinary day for some high-profile Australians.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon had a really bad one, cricketer Andrew Symonds a shocker.
State Planning Minister Justin Madden was left wondering where it all went wrong and a couple of once-squeaky clean soapie stars forced their PR people into overdrive.
Then there was Terry Wallace, who left it until late that night to also put himself in contention for Highest Profiled Aussie To Have A Bad June 4, 2009.
Wallace, simply, car-crashed his way through an interview with Sam Newman on The Footy Show.
It was only 11 or so minutes long, but unfortunately ample time for him to re-open many old wounds and almost certainly shut many potential avenues for future employment at footy club level.
Not enough was said about some key aspects of his past and yet way too much was offered about other facets.
Throughout there was awkward unease, as though every response to Newman's outstanding probing had the potential to blow up in Wallace's face.
Last night Wallace took part in his 501st, and seemingly last, match as a VFL/AFL player and coach.
On Monday, he and Richmond had announced their separation as part of a press conference that was also used by Wallace to apologise to his former club, Western Bulldogs.
During the Thursday night interview, he effectively undid that apology by revealing private conversations and dealings between himself and Bulldogs powerbrokers Campbell Rose and David Smorgon during his last weeks at the club in 2002.
When you're trying to seek public forgiveness for past actions, it's best not to unearth private and awkward matters from those times.
Amid all the conjecture surrounding Wallace's exit from the Bulldogs, the inescapable fact was that he chose to leave with two years and one match remaining on a contract.
We learnt Wallace felt it was only sometimes OK to publicly reveal details of private conversations, though, because he defiantly protected his right not to disclose what Tiger captain Chris Newman said to him two weeks ago.
We also learnt Wallace wanted credit for the Bulldogs' recruiting if he was going to be forced to accept responsibility for Richmond's.
Strange argument, that one, and surely a "don't go there" part of any interview for him.
Everyone in the football world has known for a long time that Wallace left the Bulldogs to pursue the main job at Sydney.
Wallace at least alluded to that in the Newman interview.
But why do so now when he had always dodged the real answer?
Like all good media performers, Wallace attempted on a few occasions to take his interviewer away from the question just asked, and we -- yet again -- got to hear how he inherited a "basket case" from Danny Frawley at Richmond, and of there being no significant player development structure.
Frawley, in his time at the club, took the Tigers to a preliminary final and aren't senior coaches themselves meant to develop players on their list?
Wallace always wanted a farewell from the Bulldogs, but rightfully, the club never gave it to him.
Richmond allowed him a final match, which is why he should have chosen next week, and not Thursday, to publicly address the many matters in his professional life requiring explanation.
For in agreeing to sit down with Newman, he became so caught up in years and years of his own spin that even he gave the impression he could no longer remember what was fact and what, simply, has always been an all too neatly presented version of it.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25594029-19742,00.html
