An old pro makes way for new era
Nathan Brown | June 7, 2009
IT MUST be a strange feeling going into a game as a coach knowing that this is your last game in charge of a team that you have controlled for 4½ years. A team that you have set up plans with, built relationships with, and ultimately had more down times than what might have been envisaged all those years ago.
It must be strange to be at the centre of that club at that time but in 10 minutes of football it's all going to come to an end and the rest of the club is going to go on without you Monday morning.
Take a minute to picture your own demise in this world, your funeral and last rights and then nothing. The world just goes on. If you knew this, would you do anything different?
Would your last outing be a big bang, an opulent extravaganza or would you stick to the same thing that you have always done? Hard question to answer, personally I'd go with the opulent big bang.
I was fortunate enough to sit in the coaches' box for Terry Wallace's last game as the coach of Richmond and it was business as usual, he coached with the same enthusiasm, passion and professionalism that has helped him to 501 games as a player and coach. He was still heavily ensconced in the game and showed no signs that life as the head coach was about to come to an end. Key players at risk of injury were even taken off to have them available for the incoming coach.
As a player it is a strange feeling knowing that next week there will be a new coach, a new voice maybe even a new strategy, but I don't think it affected the players.
When I was much younger and Terry left the Bulldogs I was too young to understand what was going on or why.
When you're young you are just loving playing football, being part of the AFL and having fun with your mates. Young players often aren't privy to the politics that can sometimes go on at football clubs or whispers in the corridor and nor should they be, at that age it is all about having fun and enjoying it.
It is the senior players that are affected by it more, they have been around longer and understand how football clubs work, shared passions and visions with players and coaches and want to taste the ultimate success that everyone is after. Maybe they feel more involved or take more blame but everyone is unquestionably doing the best they can, sometimes it just doesn't work out.
One era comes to an end and another era starts at the Richmond Football Club.
The era has started well, the transition of coaches went smoothly and was handled well by the board, president and everyone involved, in particular the secrecy of the appointment of the caretaker coach Jade Rawlings; which I did not know about right up until chief executive Steven Wright presented the decision the playing group at a meeting on Saturday morning.
Jade has a huge passion for the game and if you talk to people who have played with him at Hawthorn, Bulldogs or North Melbourne they all agree that he was born to coach. Lives, breathes and eats football.
As our forward line coach in 2008, Jade left you in no doubt what your role in the forward line was, how he wanted you to fulfil it and that it was imperative for the forward line to work that each player play his part. He demanded and earned respect very quickly.
Jade takes over a team that appears to be struggling on the surface but is bulging underneath with talent and youthful excitement.
We have been in a winning position in every game this year except round one, a few close games have been lost, sizeable leads with home ground advantage given up and some steep learning curves from mistakes have us in the position we are in at 2-9.
The win against the odds away from home against Fremantle was the start of learning how to win, we showed we learnt from the Port Adelaide heartbreak two weeks before.
Make no mistake, a new era at Richmond begins now.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/old-making-way-for-new/2009/06/06/1244234424309.html
