Wallace feeding frenzy a disgrace
Mick Malthouse | April 18, 2009
I HAVE been disgusted by the media's treatment of Richmond coach Terry Wallace this week.
Three weeks into a 22-round season, already there is a media feeding frenzy, with many anticipating the imminent downfall of Wallace.
One Melbourne newspaper went so far as to run front- and back-page stories describing him as a "dead man walking" while football talk shows have been marred by repeated questions over whether he will resign if the Tigers lose to Melbourne tomorrow.
How ridiculous.
Some people obviously have a macabre interest in the Demons-Tigers match, given these teams inhabit the bottom two positions on the ladder and Melbourne finished on the bottom last season.
The popular theory seems to be that if Richmond loses tomorrow then Wallace, in the last season of a five-year contract, won't see out the year because the Tigers have failed to make the finals during his tenure as coach.
What is the obsession about sacking coaches? Why is there such blood-lust to plunge the proverbial knife into someone who is widely regarded in football circles as a good coach?
Is it to try to sell more newspapers or somehow improve television and radio ratings?
Wallace has every right to stay on and fulfil his contract to the best of his considerable ability.
Richmond president Gary March has already come out and said Terry will see out his contract.
While history tells us that presidential reassurances in football haven't always been worth very much, I take March at his word.
If anyone at Richmond has been behind some of the destabilising media coverage this week, the whole situation is even more disgraceful.
I have heard fanciful suggestions that Kevin Sheedy may return to Punt Road as some sort of conquering hero who will lead the Tigers to future glory.
Really?
I doubt that anyone intimately involved in modern football honestly believes that this would help Richmond's long-term future.
When a coach is sacked mid-season the team usually wins its first game under the replacement, such is the emotional high, but rarely does much change after that. Indeed, such a dramatic upheaval can be seriously destabilising to all concerned.
Richmond has a history of destroying its coaches part way through their contracts and what good has that done?
The Tigers have not won a flag for 27 years, not played in a grand final for 25 and have rarely made the finals since.
Football is a game built on courage and inner strength, and that applies off the field as well as on it. It is the strong and courageous administrators who stick to their chosen course regardless of how loud and unpleasant the baying becomes from the media and supporters.
We need only look back a couple of years to see the rewards for such courage.
Geelong president stuff Costa and chief executive Brian Cook faced enormous pressure in 2006 to dump Mark Thompson as coach after the Cats plunged from a finals side to 10th.
They stood firm and the following year "Bomber" guided the Cats to their first premiership in 44 years.
Now he is widely regarded as the best coach in the competition. There are people who become involved in football for the wrong reasons. It can give some with big egos a platform to parade around.
However, these people lack substance. They go missing when the going gets tough. All too often they are willing to bow to the populist cries of 'sack the coach' instead of showing support when it is needed most and making an informed decision at the end of the year.
There are seven coaches, including me, coming out of contract at the end of the season and we all know full well that our fate is out of our hands.
There's no point worrying about it. All we can do is prepare the team each week to the best of our ability and continue to look to the future of our club, whether or not we will be a part of it beyond this season.
Fremantle's Mark Harvey is also under pressure after three successive losses to start the season, but if anyone has put the future of the club above himself it is Harvey.
He has turned over 15 senior players from last season and is now playing a bunch of young players. This will not produce immediate results but he deserves enormous credit for taking a long-term view when it is likely to do him few favours in the short term.
So next time someone from the media or a jittery board member wants to sack a coach during the season, they should think long and hard about the consequences for all concerned. It will probably do more harm than good.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25348820-32103,00.html
