Tigers must lift skill level: Wallace
richmondfc.com.au
By David Reed 11:55 PM Fri 05 June, 2009
TERRY Wallace has delivered a stark prognosis for the club he has just finished coaching after watching his side concede 17 goals and eight behinds from direct turnovers on Friday night.
It was the major factor in the Tigers’ 68-point drubbing at the hands of the Western Bulldogs and the worst turnover-to-score count in Wallace’s 247-game coaching memory.
“That’s been the problem with the footy club more than any other problem,” Wallace said post-match.
“Until that can be rectified, that’s by personnel or by practice, the club won’t take the steps forward that it wants to take.
“I can’t remember a worse result than that. I think after half-time 10 of their 13 goals came from direct turnovers.
“It’s very, very difficult to sit in the coaches’ box and be able to do anything in regards to that.
“That’s a long-term thing; it’s a ‘have you got the right people?’; ‘do you need to have better decision makers and kickers involved in your team?’
“Or do you have to have strategies in place that don’t allow you to be so flippant with your turnovers?”
Wallace said the turnover malaise might have been the cause of Richmond appearing to not be able to run out games this season.
“There are a lot of issues that the club has got to look at but we haven’t run out games at all,” he said.
“[But] when you keep turning the footy over that makes you look like you’re not running out games because it’s all downhill running from there.”
Wallace said he planned to support two of his children who had just started Year 11 and 12 exams in the short term.
But by next week he would “hit the coffee set” and try to shore up his future career, hopefully in football.
Despite the shocking result at Docklands on Friday night, Wallace said he was glad he had been granted a final game at the helm and thought it benefited both parties.
Personally, he was thrilled to have a last game in front of family and friends after last week’s win over Fremantle in Perth.
Secondly, it gave the club’s as-yet-unnamed caretaker coach time to get organised after a short week, given the Tigers’ Friday night game following their round 10 trip to Perth.
“I didn’t think it was fair for an interim coach to get four or five days to prepare with a side that was very sore and tired coming back from Perth, and playing against the third-best side in the Bulldogs,” he said.
“At least he gets a seven or eight day break to structure it up. The club is playing an interstate club on the ‘G [so] it gives them a fair chance.”
The Tigers are expected to announce their interim coach on Saturday and after the game last night, players said they had no idea who it would be.
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