Full transcript: Terry Wallace press conferenceGary March“Thanks everyone for coming. We’re here to announce that after ongoing discussions last week and over the weekend, this will be the last game that Terry will coach as the senior coach of the Richmond Football Club. It was a mutual decision made in the interests of both parties. It’s always been the intention of the Richmond Football Club and Terry Wallace for him to see out his contract, however, given the club has a number of important decisions to make over the coming months, we all felt that it was appropriate that he finish this weekend.
“I’d like to thank Terry for his four-and-a-half years’ contribution to the Richmond Football Club and, in particular, I thank his wife Kerryn and their family for embracing the Richmond Football Club and becoming great friends to all of us – I really thank them.
“I also thought it was appropriate at this time to reflect on the contribution that Terry Wallace has made to the game over the past 32 years. As a player, he played in three premierships, he won four Best and Fairests at two clubs, he was three-times All-Australian, he’s a life member of the Hawthorn and Bulldogs Football Clubs, and of the AFL. In terms of coaching, he was the All-Australian coach in 1998, he’s transformed the lists of both clubs that he’s been at, and his work to develop many young stars of the future.
“If you had to define Terry Wallace as a coach, it would be that he’s been innovative. Off-field, such things as the behind-the-scenes look at football through ‘The Year of the Dog’ documentary. On-field, he was the guy who introduced pre-match warm-ups as part of all football these days. You never know what you were going to get when you got a Terry Wallace-coached side, whether it be a crunch game, whether it be the uber-flood in 2000 against the Essendon Bombers, or whether it was the infamous ‘basketball crap’ game against a rampaging Adelaide at the Telstra Dome. Terry has always been an innovative coach, and he bought a lot of innovation to the Richmond Football Club. We thank him for his time at the Richmond Football Club.”
Terry Wallace“Over the last two weeks, myself and the club have had an opportunity to reflect on where the club was going and where I was going in the future. The real answer to that is that I don’t know where I’m going in the future, but certainly one of the options that I felt I had available to me in the future with the corporate background that I come from, having been state sales manager of Sky Channel for 10 years and obviously the football background that I have ... one of the opportunities that I thought still presented itself for me if I wanted to stay in football was in club-land, looking to go to another club in maybe a different role or a varying role which a few of the senior coaches in past years have done.
“Once we had those discussions that that could be the likelihood of where I could be going in the future, it got to a situation where both the club and myself ... it was almost untenable really to stay in this role. If I was going in a different direction, if I was going into corporate-land, what we had spoken about in terms of lasting out the season was no problem.
“If I am actually going into football and the club is making decisions on recruiting, and I’m involved in those meetings, if the club is making decisions on list management and player trades, and I’m involved in those meetings, and then I step away with that information at some stage to another club, I don’t think that’s fair on the club, and I don’t think that’s fair on me either to be involved on those types of conversations.
“To not be involved in those conversations is even more difficult. In the last week, I’ve found that you’re starting at this stage of the year to deal with players’ careers, and to be able to sit there and tell a player as a coach that he’s not actually going to go on and be there the following year, and telling him that you may be finishing him up or you’re not going to give him another opportunity for the season, the player could turn around to you and say ‘you’re making decisions on my career, and you’re not going to be there’. I thought that was going to get difficult for the club and myself to deal with.
“What’s happened over the last couple of weeks from a media perspective ... I’m somebody who has been in the game for 32 years, so I can deal with that side of things and have no issue with it. But it gets overwhelming for the playing group – you’ve got guys at 21, 22 to have cameras in their faces on a regular basis, and I felt for their sake as well that the relief of a decision being made and the relief of going on with the rest of the year is a good thing.
“So they were the decisions that have been made. No-one’s angry with each other - the club isn’t angry wth me, I’m not angry with the club, I’m no angry with the players – it’s just a mutual decision that this time was the right time to step away.
“So the long journey of 32 years has finished.
“I’ve said publicly that it’s probably more unlikely than likely that I’ll coach again. I say that because this five years hasn’t exactly worked out how we would have liked it to work out, and obviously it’s a young man’s game. As opportunities come up in the coaching world, they come up for those assistant coaches who desire their chances.
“I’ve still got a real passion for the game – that’s one thing that has never been lost – and I was really keen that the situation of the last few weeks ... I was never going to let the last eight weeks sour the 32 years I’ve had in the game. I haven’t taken anything that has been written personally at all, and I’ve seen it as part of the bigger picture. If it had happened in year eight of a 32-year career, you would have almost forgotten about it by now.
“I’m really keen to stay in the game – I still see areas of the game that I think I could be involved in – and I’m really strong with my passion to stay involved in the game in some regard.
“Because it is probably my last public opportunity, I’d like to have the opportunity to thank a few people. I’d like to publicly thank the Hawthorn Football Club – they were the ones who gave me my opportunity originally. When you’re a young bloke trying to make your way in the game – I was a Fitzroy born-and-bred person who never got the opportunity to play there – and Hawthorn opened the door for me to be able to play football at the elite level.
“I can’t thank them enough for that chance to become a part of what was such a magic era. Also, more for me, they taught me professionalism, and I grew up there. It was a big part of my growing up – we all make mistakes and you mature as a person, but certainly I learned from those mistakes and I think I was a better person for being at the Hawthorn Football Club.
“Next up, I’d obviously like to thank the Western Bulldogs. I had 14 wonderful years at the Western Bulldogs, and one horrible week. I haven’t had an opportunity publicly, due to the circumstances of stepping into a new club, to go on public record of apologising to the Western Bulldogs fans and to David Smorgon and the playing group for the way that the last week worked out.
“It was never my intention for it to go down the pathway that it did. My kids grew up at that club, I’ve got some of my greatest friends that I’ve had in the game at that club, and I hope somewhere along the line that those wounds will heal, as I just think it’s a fantastic footy club.
“It’s ironic that my last game will be against the Bulldogs. The players don’t probably realise and understand that the guys that I drafted back in those early years at the Bulldogs that were playing such fantastic footy – you follow their careers, as I will do with the Richmond boys ... you follow their careers behind the scenes 100 per cent, and it will be my honour to have my last game against those guys that I drafted at the Western Bulldogs.
“Lastly, I’d like to thank the Richmond Football Club for giving me the chance to get back into the game. I didn’t want that opportunity at the Bulldogs to be my last chapter in the game, and the Tigers were the ones to give me the chance to go back on.
“I had two stints at Richmond – obviously one very quick one as a player and this coaching stint – neither of them worked out exactly the way I would have liked them to, but I came back for all the right reasons.
“I came back with some unfinished business because it hadn’t worked the first time around. I came back here for a reason – the reason that every single Tiger fan is dreaming about still – to come back here to see the Tigers get back on top. Unfortunately it didn’t happen in my reign, but I’m sure it’ll happen somewhere along the line very shortly.
“I’m proud to have coached this club as it’s a big four club, and you’ve only got to see by the media who do follow it over a period of time that it has that appeal about it. This club will get it right. I’m proud of some of the decisions we made along the way – the decision we made to put Mathew Richardson up onto a wing 12 months ago. You only had to go to the Brownlow Medal last year ... the whole of the public and footy people got to see what a magnificent athlete Matthew is. I think people realised it, but they didn’t quite have the comprehension as to what sort of an athlete Matthew was. The way that they cheered him home in last year’s Brownlow Medal was testament to that.
“Earlier this year, I said that if the last decision I made in football was to give a champion of our game one last opportunity, that would be something that I would live with very comfortably. To give Ben Cousins another opportunity to play the game was, I felt, the right thing.
“Certainly from a football aspect, we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks that he can seriously still play the game. He’s still got something to offer to the game. More importantly, I think that the game needs to treat its people in the right capacity, and I think that the Richmond footy club gave him that chance, and I was more than pleased to give him that chance to continue to play on.
“I know there have been some people who have said that I’m not leaving the place any better than when I arrived, and I don’t believe that. I look at when I arrived, and people said ‘don’t take the job on’, (but) I was always up for a challenge.
“At that stage, we had no players at this footy club that were aged between 21 and 23 who were likely to have 10-year careers. You have a look at what ran around at Subiaco the other night which was young and exciting, and there are some young backline players and very young forward-line players coming through. I think whoever takes on the role next-up has an exciting footy club to go forward.
“The club was a basket case off the field when I arrived. The work that the board and management have put in to turn that around ... the next generation of players are there, but the next generation off the field is there. Unfortunately I won’t be sitting in this facility – it’ll be fantastic for the club to have new facilities.
“In finishing, I’d like to thank the board and management of the Richmond footy club, not only for giving me the opportunity, but more particularly over the last few weeks in the manner they’ve treated my family. It was not lost on me at all, and I really appreciate their kind thoughts and efforts in that regard.
“To all the staff and the playing group and the coaches you work so closely with ... you spend more time with the staff than you do with your own family ... that’s the nature of footy. To all those guys, the professionalism of all the coaches – I couldn’t thank them enough for their efforts. For all the ancillary staff – so many people have put in so many man-hours in football clubs all around Australia, but particularly in the AFL clubs and get no credit for it – I thank them for all of their time and efforts.
“More particularly, to my family – it’s been a long journey and a long ride. You can’t do this job without having real stability on the home front, and I’ve been very lucky and fortunate in that way.”
Wallace on the difficulty of the decision to stand down:“To finish off anywhere where you’ve got a passion is difficult – it’s a difficult scenario. When you methodically go through where it sits – and it was only a fortnight ago that I said that I was comfortable to see it (the year) out – I’m comfortable to do what I think is right for the footy club. We’ve made a mutual decision – we’re all comfortable with that – and I think that’s the right time to do it rather than drawing it out to something or holding onto something that’s not there.”
Craig Cameron on Richmond’s future coach:“With Terry coaching on Friday, we’re not going to make announcements on any caretaker coach until Saturday, so we won’t talk about that or the process at this stage. The process is ongoing, but it (a decision) will be made this week.”
Wallace on where the season has gone wrong:“In this competition, you can’t afford to lose close games. We’ve had opportunities to win games from the start of the season – we had a run-down opportunity to win a game in Sydney with all the momentum going our way, we had a game over at Port Adelaide that was almost unloseable that we got beaten in.
“Basic scenarios like that cost you, and the other factor is that we haven’t had our best blokes on the park. We went into the season expecting (Ben) Cousins and (Trent) Cotchin to have a massive part of the midfield – they haven’t been on the ground. We’ve lost Mathew (Richardson), who was such a key player in last year’s success. I know he’s 34 years of age, but we were still planning at the start of the year that he’d have a reasonable role to play. We haven’t been able to get Nathan Brown fit. If you get those four blokes up and running, it’s probably a different season.”
Wallace on whether Richmond’s next coach should be an experienced or untested coach:“It’s certainly not my decision. Certainly with Craig, I’ve passed on my thoughts as regards to what still needs fixing around the place. Every club is a work in progress, particularly this football club as we’ve come from such a low base a few years ago.
“When I first walked in the door, for two years we didn’t have a recruiting officer. It was the end of the third season when we got our first development coach. We were a long way behind a lot of the other clubs, and we’ve caught up a lot of ground.
“It’s a winning game, and premierships are what it’s about. I look at someone like Grant Thomas, and I think Grant is seen as a successful coach. My era at the Bulldogs was everything that his era at St Kilda was. I’ve had another five years (at Richmond) that haven’t been as successful. I say that I’ve added to the game – history will show whether I’ve added to the Richmond football club.”
Wallace on Richmond’s recruiting and list management over his time as coach:“It’s probably the most fascinating part of the whole game. You sit back and look at the two clubs that I coached – did I get any credit for what happened at the Bulldogs or is Scotty Clayton getting all of the credit, and do I take the pain and punishment for decisions at Tigerland?
“It is the unknown, but the bottom line is that the buck stops with the senior coach, and I’ve got no issue with that. My management style has always been to let the decision-makers make their decisions, and I’ll stand by that at either club. They either make great decisions to keep you employed, or they make not-so-great decisions that have you in scenarios you don’t want to be in.”
On his feelings immediately after the decision to stand aside:“Probably confusion. It all happens so quickly ... you try to get it summarised in your own head. There are so many other people involved in it. It’s certainly not relief.”
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