Game's up as wily fox backs into a corner
Trevor Grant | April 21, 2009
THE fox in Terry Wallace has always kept him well ahead of the chasing pack.
From the moment he was told he was too slow to play in the centre at Hawthorn in the 1980s, he got crafty and took charge of his destiny.
After an unhappy 11-game stopover at Richmond, he resurrected his playing career at the Bulldogs, winning the best-and-fairest twice.
Then, after retiring in 1991 and becoming an assistant coach at the Bulldogs, he positioned himself perfectly to take over the senior role from Alan Joyce in 1996.
If you believed Joyce at the time, Wallace did more than position himself.
Indeed, you can bet that Joyce, so disillusioned with footy that he went off to run a corner store in Broome, will appreciate the irony of calls for Wallace's head after four games, given Wallace replaced him mid-season.
Wallace was able to dodge any mess and emerged with a reputation as a coaching revolutionary.
He promoted the club and himself brilliantly, breaking a century of tradition by allowing cameras into the inner sanctum and giving interviews 30 minutes before games.
His counterparts blanched, and occasionally sniggered, but he was clever enough to be successful while eschewing so many conventional theories.
Then one day he decided he'd had enough of the Bulldogs. It seems Sydney came calling via his back door in 2002, and he was happy to talk turkey.
He went so suddenly he barely had time to say goodbye, not that most of his aggrieved players were inclined to do so.
His reason, or excuse, depending on your view, was that he felt the Dogs could not give him the resources to make a go of it any more.
Word soon leaked he'd signed with Sydney but, eventually, was stood up - not without financial compensation, according to sources - when Paul Roos' popularity forced the Swans to break team rules and do a U-turn.
Again it was a messy business that might have stained Wallace's reputation, and left him out in the cold.
True to form, he not only emerged unchallenged and unscathed, but with a dream coaching appointment - a five-year contract and carte blanche to resurrect a struggling club with money and perceived potential.
All the way along he had done things on his terms, and Richmond was the perfect vehicle for someone as self-assured as Wallace.
The Tigers have been so battered for so long that they have lost touch with reality. Instead they fantasise about success. (The Ben Cousins signing is the latest example.)
It has made them gullible and weak. It follows they have no strength of purpose in important places such as the boardroom.
While they gave Wallace a free hand on a hope and a prayer, Hawthorn was smart enough to construct a template for the long term and get a coach who would fit in with it.
It's based on the principle that the club is forever, a coach for a few years.
Hawthorn kept control of its destiny. Richmond handed its club to a man who has a history of controlling his own destiny.
Finally, though, the game is up. Wallace is cornered and not even the fox within appears able to find a way out this time.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25362204-19742,00.html
