Players carried winning approach
richmondfc.com.au
By Jennifer Witham 12:33 AM Sun 24 May, 2009
RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace believes his players approached Saturday night's Dreamtime at the 'G match against Essendon with a winning mentality, but lacked the ability to translate that into the performance required.
Wallace said the Tigers' second-half fade-out that cost them the game was not caused by an absence of psychological or physical strength; instead instigated by quality of finishing.
"We're No. 2 for contested footy in the competition at the moment and all our parameters for hardness have been reasonably up," Wallace said after the match.
"That side of it is there but when it goes to the parameters of genuine quality, we're running short and that's the reality.
"You can be as hard as you like and be cracking into the contests, but unless you can get some quality to go along with that, you're not going to get results.
"Clearly what's going out on the park right now can't get us the job done. I think it's trying hard enough most games. We've been in most games at some stage, apart from the round one debacle, so we're having a crack from that point of view."
Wallace highlighted a failure to capitalise on opportunities inside the forward 50 when assessing how his players' "right attitude" was let down.
"I thought they were on for the challenge and they were really looking forward to it. There were good signs in the initial part of the game," he said.
"Again, you've got to use that quality on the scoreboard and we just weren't capable of doing that."
Wallace was flanked by his wife and children when he faced the media post-match and made a hasty departure from the ground straight after the compulsory press conference.
Before he left, he said he embraced the challenge of fronting up for the game after a week which saw him incorrectly reported as sacked by the club.
He laughed as he said he was loving every minute of it.
"If you don't relish challenges in this game of ours, you shouldn't be in this game of ours," he said.
"It dishes up some fascinating things and it's dished up a pretty interesting week this week. Therefore that's an added challenge again you want to take on and that's the nature of the competition.
"You'll have your great times in the game and you'll have your horrible times in the game. It's the game that's important.
"I'm just doing my job and that's what I've said I would do. We're losing games and we've got to look at why we're losing games, and we've got to look at the personnel and see who can take us forward and who can't.
"That's the reality of our position at the minute."
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