Here's a really rough summary:
Wallace on On the Couch
0-3 – will he resign. No. He wouldn’t expect players to step aside and say it’s all too hard, so why should he. Given a task to do and will continue to do to the best of his ability.
Does he feel like he’s on death row. Given March’s comments that we would have to make the finals to keep his job, is it just a matter of time? Plough says he’s unsure whether he put it on record or March did that he would resign if he didn’t make the finals.
He said in the fifth year, with the supporter base being patient, if we didn’t have gradual improvement, commonsense that it would be the outcome he’d resign.
38% win rate, is it good enough? No, it’s not. But when you look at percentages at any stage you can read what you want. When you have one year when you have 3 wins for an entire season, that blows everything out of the water. Certainly, one of those years really was a disaster for us.
Did Wallace go too hard too early? 10 wins in 2005, 11 wins, then 3 wins. Should we have cut harder earlier? Plough was asked that question earlier. We cut 25 players in the first two years, with other players on one, two and three year contacts. You don’t have control over previous decisions on contracted players. Choice is then do you play them. Those early years with Gaspar and Kellaway, should we have played them. They are there and they’re stalwarts of the footy club so you do what you do.
Sheahan says we’re still doing the same thing now with guys like Tambling, Schultz, King, blokes making the same mistakes week after week. Plough says what do you replace it with.
Do you stick with blokes that aren’t going to deliver. Re Tambo. In the Carlton game he thought Richie was one of the few who had a go. He had a poor game today, but tough last 72 hours with the birth of his kid and no sleep.
Game v Carlton – Gerard says it shows they’re not ready to mentally improve. You build up and you build up to a game, and when you lose hope and all of a sudden you realise you’re not going to win, all of a sudden the air comes out of the tyres and you wonder what you’ve done for two hours. Our build up was such that we thought we’d win the game. They got there and made mistakes early and it all fell apart.
Coaching for the future and players know he’s playing for his future, does it create tension with the players? Certainly it can, and he things your ability to not lose your players when the pressure’s on. And if you take the pressure and try to apply the pressure just smack bang onto the playing group and try and deflect it, he thinks no doubt it can happen. But we should be rowing the boat together. We’re three weeks into a 22 round season, and we’ve got to continue to row the boat together. He’s still has to have the ability to call a spade a spade. He should be able to call it when a player’s not towing the line and they have t have the ability to take it.
After round 6, where did he expect us to be? A lot of people would have thought it was 50/50 v Carlton. And noone over the last couple of weeks would have expected us to win.
Lack of competitiveness is more the issue. First game was a disaster. Today he thought we were beaten by our use of the football. Our 2nd quarter was the worst part of our game today. Our inability to hit targets.
Sheahan says it’s the same players week in and week out that make the same skill errors. Terry – if they’re not good enough, they won’t survive in the game. When we go to match committee again, we’ll be looking at it again.
Where do you find good kicks that want to compete? We’re hoping to get a few back, like Cotchin, Connors, McMahon.
Is it skill, decision making or combination of both? Shane Edward’s kick last week Gerard said was the worst kick he’s seen all year. Terry says, he wasn’t thinking. There were no targets down forward, so he should have held the ball and look laterally for players coming down the ground. In the game against Geelong, we used the middle corridor well and that’s why were able to compete.
Thought the Bulldogs were as good as Geelong. Thought Geelong were a bit flat.
Jeff Bond’s(sp), psychologist, ex AIS. What’s his role? He’s there for players and staff members. What he does is he takes Terry’s coach’s notes and analyses what’s going on from the perspective of how we’re dealing with players. He’s there to be dealing with players and being involved in all aspects. All clubs have that kind of person.
Who has improved since he’s been at the club? Moore, Foley from rookies. Luke McGuane has come on. Mattie White.
Can we make the finals? Yes, of course we can. We’re three rounds into a comp where we’ve played the top three or so sides in the business. We’ve got to beat the sides that are going to be around the same mark as us, knock them over and start beating some of the better teams.
Can we be 3-3 after round 6? Possibility, but we’ve got to do it. The ball’s in our court.
If they’re all losses or it’s 5 and 1, will he have to be tapped on the shoulder or will he walk? He thought he answered that at the beginning of the program.
