Players ignoring axe talk
Glenn McFarlane | April 19, 2009
EMBATTLED Richmond coach Terry Wallace said the hysteria surrounding his future was not a distraction.
Speaking before training at Punt Rd yesterday, a joking Wallace said he wasn't an "axe murderer" given one headline this week suggested he was "on death row".
He admitted he thought there had been little perspective shown, but acknowledged he and his players were open to criticism given they were winless after three rounds.
"We can't control that, all we can control is to what we need to do better," Wallace said.
"It's not about me. My head might be the one in the paper on a pretty regular basis but, three rounds in, it's all about the footy team, getting wins on the board and what we are trying to achieve as a club.
"We've been the news over the course of the week. Inside the club it hasn't really been about any of my circumstances at all, it's been about us just getting ourselves organised."
Asked if he feared being sacked if the Tigers lost to the Demons today, Wallace said: "That's just ifs, buts and maybes -- you only deal with things that you can control."
He said he was conditioned enough to cop the criticism, but said he appreciated the support of several coaches this week.
"That support's great," he said. "No matter what happens along the way, it's a pretty tight industry.
"It's my turn this time (to feel the heat) but you'd hope that that would be the case no matter what happens.
"(We're) at war once, maybe twice a year against each other, but then we are the only ones who know what each other go through.
"There are probably not that many people in life or society who get put under that much scrutiny."
Wallace said he had been able to control the impact of the criticism on his family, but said it had been tough.
"I did say to somebody earlier in the week that perhaps if I had great-grandchildren and they only looked at the clips they might have thought their great-grandfather was an axe murderer rather than anything else," he said.
"To be honest, I've been in the game long enough where I don't really take it all that seriously."
The Richmond coach said the players had worked hard this week to curb the number of turnovers.
"If you take the first game out (the loss to Carlton) and look at the other two games (Geelong and Western Bulldogs) in isolation, I don't think it has been anything about the players' attack on the ball," he said.
"It has more been the turnover scenarios which has been the biggest thing that has been hurting us.
"That's the thing we need to work on and get right."
He said the players understood that "it's a tough competition, and the acid is on everyone".
The Tigers have made four changes for today's game with the highest profile casualty being the much-maligned Richard Tambling.
Jordan McMahon returns after a stint in the VFL, while Andrew Collins will make his debut.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25352695-19742,00.html
