Miscellaneous press articles on Wallace going

[one-eyed]

Tiger coach Terry Wallace goes with amazing grace
Patrick Carlyon | June 02, 2009

A TIGERS flag hangs above the entrance to the Richmond Social Club at Punt Rd.

The flag is tattered and faded and ripped.

It droops at half-mast - whether through design or disrepair is unclear. Both theories are equally plausible.

Inside, in a room where club legend Jack Dyer's wake was held, in a building that will soon be demolished for redevelopment, Terry Wallace announces he will no longer coach the club.

Richmond coaches are routinely pushed, sometimes with the handles of two or three knives poking from their backs.

Yet unlike his bloodied predecessors, and despite almost as much scrutiny as a North Korean nuclear test, Wallace contrives to leave the club with grace.

This amounts to a triumph, of sorts, if also an anti-climax.

Two weeks earlier, given the club's leaks and an excitable media, everyone had assumed that Wallace was already gone.

That clamour served as a trial run for the inevitable fall.

Wallace, in a black pin-striped suit befitting a funeral, offers a far-ranging resignation speech -- without notes - that encapsulates his 32 years in football.

Only the occasional swallow of the throat belies the "confusion" he later concedes he feels within.

For 13 uninterrupted minutes, he speaks of a "mutual" decision between a club, players and coach. There is no anger, he says, despite the circus his tenure had generated.

Without rancour or shows of self-pity, Wallace explains his job had become "almost untenable".

Coaching is a "young man's game", he says, that he is unlikely to explore again.

Among the mistakes was his departure from Western Bulldogs. For that, seven years later, he apologises.

Wallace then thanks everyone he can think of.

When he gets to his family, he looks to his wife Kerryn, who stands behind a pillar. They have caught one another's eye again and again through the press conference.

"You can't do this job without having real stability on the home front, and I have been very, very lucky and fortunate in that way," he says.

Her eyes are wet, her mouth set, her arms crossed. Wallace later says he feels no relief. Yet his wife looks very pleased that this protracted drama - starting with Richmond's thrashing by Carlton in round one - has ended.

As an example of corporate spin, Wallace appears to have set a benchmark for all football clubs -- and the heads of all institutions - in how to leave a failed position with dignity.

Wallace keeps up the open smile as he kisses Kerryn moments after his press conference finishes. Their hands blindly reach for one another.

He leaves through a door marked "Exit".

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25572429-19742,00.html

[one-eyed]

Richmond Tigers fans worth more
Herald-Sun Editorial | June 02, 2009

TERRY Wallace and the Tigers will officially part company after Friday night.

But for all the denials and spin coming out of back rooms at Tigerland lately, Wallace was out the door two weeks ago.

He was gone from the time players, led by skipper Chris Newman, called for his scalp.

Fans could see it. The media could smell it. Nobody much believed the wait-and-see noises coming out of Punt Rd.

Yesterday's announcement pre-empted the review that was supposed to decide Wallace's fate.

It came after a come-from-behind win in Perth - hardly crunch time at Tigerland.

That only fuels widespread suspicions in footy circles that the deal was cut two weeks ago, when that real crunch came.

It raises issues about how straight Richmond officials have been with fans.

Wallace is prepared to accept that the buck stops with him, but it doesn't.

Many others were party to the club's decline from a power to a sideshow.

With Wallace gone, Richmond can regroup and rebuild, but not just on-field.

Its bosses have to regain the trust of fans because without them, there is no club.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25571715-24218,00.html

[one-eyed]

Former Richmond coach in running for Gold Coast job
Jon Ralph | June 02, 2009

TERRY Wallace is in the running for a job with the new Gold Coast team.

Richmond and the veteran coach earlier revealed their decision to part ways, with Wallace's last game in charge against his former side, the Bulldogs, on Friday night.

It ends a turbulent fortnight for Wallace in which he survived a player-driven crisis meeting, lost 4kg through stress, and won Saturday night's epic encounter against Fremantle in his 500th game in football.

The 50-year-old is determined to stay involved in football, preferably at club level.

His immediate replacement will come from one of the club's assistant coaches, with former Tigers captain Wayne Campbell the favourite to coach the club next year.

"No one is angry with each other," Wallace said.

"The club's not angry with me, I'm not angry with the club, I'm not angry with the players. It was just a mutual decision that this was the right time to step away."

Already potential jobs for Wallace have emerged, including football manager with the Gold Coast.

It seems a perfect fit for Wallace, his wife Kerryn and their eldest son Brent, who is in his final year of school.

Gold Coast boss John Witheriff confirmed the position would be filled within a month and he encouraged Wallace to apply.

Wallace's manager Craig Kelly said the coach was eager to explore any opportunity that would keep him in the AFL.

Wallace is likely to land a media role for the rest of the season, starting as early as next week.

But Kelly said Wallace was more than happy to move interstate next year.

Wallace conceded part of his decision to walk away from Richmond in mid-season was to be available for positions at other AFL clubs.

"I've got a strong corporate background," Wallace said.

"I'm really keen to stay in the game. I still see that there's many areas of the game that I could be involved in."

After a week off to clear his head Wallace is expected to throw himself into his former role as a media expert for the next four months.

Kelly said moving interstate was no impediment to securing a role as a head of football.

"He has said to me that he wants to look at anything, interstate included. Terry is really keen," Kelly said.

"He wants to stay involved in footy. It is up to Terry, but he will look at what's available in other clubs.

"He could be pivotal in that buffer role with a younger coach. It would be absolutely perfect for him."

Witheriff said he noted Wallace's determination to stay in football at a club level.

"He is welcome to apply," he said.

AFL Coaches Association chief executive Danny Frawley - Wallace's predecessor in the Richmond job - congratulated Wallace on his "outstanding contribution to Australian football".

He said Wallace had been "a wonderful ambassador for the game we all love".

"We hope that Terry, with his experience, is not lost to football, and we believe he would be a great asset to any club looking for genuine football expertise," Frawley said.

Other former senior AFL coaches to head up club football departments are Neil Balme (Geelong), Chris Connolly (Melbourne), Neale Daniher (West Coast), Peter Rohde (Port Adelaide) and Greg Hutchinson (St Kilda).

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25572432-661,00.html

[one-eyed]

Success story just a bit iffy
Mark Stevens | June 02, 2009

THE Western Bulldogs, for all their romance, are an "if only" kind of club. If only Bernie Quinlan and Barry Round had stayed. If only Brad Hardie had kept Leigh Matthews on the leash in the 1985 preliminary final.

If only Chris Grant had not been rubbed out in 1997 and won the Brownlow.

If only Tony Liberatore's floating shot in the final term of that preliminary final had been judged a goal.

And Terry Wallace, who spent 14 years at the Kennel, has finished as an "if only" kind of coach.

It is that Liberatore kick, and the events of the final term against Adelaide almost 12 years ago, that haunt him most.

The Dogs led by 22 points at the last change and lost by two.

Asked on the 10-year anniversary if that dirty day was the low point of his playing and coaching career, Wallace had no hesitation replying: "Absolutely, by that far it's not funny."

Losing a Grand Final as a Hawthorn player against a rampant Essendon in 1984 went nowhere near it.

"The preliminary final of 1997 was tenfold 1984. I didn't watch a video of it for six or seven years," Wallace said.

"Only twice for the year we didn't kick a goal in a quarter. It happened in the preliminary final. We only needed one goal.

"I thought we blew it as much as they won it."

That one goal, the Liberatore snap that several players on both sides thought had sneaked home, could have changed everything for Wallace.

The Dogs had beaten St Kilda twice in the home-and-away season that year. They would have been supremely confident in the big one.

Wallace, but for a centimetre or two on one kick, could have been a premiership coach.

That would have changed everything. Instead, Wallace will depart Punt Rd on Friday night unfulfilled.

But has his career been a success?

You would have to say yes, given there has been no easy ride. As Wallace pointed out last week, he took over the Dogs when they were 15th (above only the dying Fitzroy) and the Tigers when they were last.

Some coaches can catch a rolling wave. On both occasions, Wallace started with his legs stuck in the sand.

In his first full year of 1997, the Dogs finished third. You probably know that.

But what will be lost on many is the fact Wallace coached the Bulldogs to third, sixth and eighth in the next three seasons.

The Dogs were dominant in '98, being pipped for the minor premiership by North, but, again, stumbled against Adelaide in the preliminary final.

In '99, they made top four again only to be beaten by a kick in cyclonic conditions at the MCG against West Coast and being sent to Brisbane the following week.

Under the current finals system, the Dogs would have been handed another home final to redeem themselves.

In 2000, Wallace hatched a plan to conquer unbeaten Essendon. It came off, even if the Dogs were sent packing in week one of the finals a fortnight later.

Four finals series in succession stands out like a beacon in the Bulldogs' history, even if it might be topped by the current crop.

Wallace was looking at that four-year block yesterday when he muttered: "I look at someone like Grant Thomas and I think Grant is seen as a successful coach.

"My era at the Bulldogs was everything his era at St Kilda was. Only thing is I've now had another five years which hasn't been as successful."

Wallace opened the door to the media and injected some sexiness into the Bulldogs.

He did the same at Richmond, ditching the club-issue polo shirt for a tight-fitting black number on match days, but the smart look did not rub off on the players.

The Tigers' skills continued to be wobbly throughout Wallace's tenure. The consistency, from week to week and within games, just wasn't there often enough in four and a half years at Tigerland.

It was there for all to see on Saturday night against Fremantle. The Tigers managed wild fluctuations before hanging on thanks to a miraculous snap from a player, Mitch Morton, not necessarily doing the percentage thing.

And, despite that win, Wallace will finish just short of the 50 per cent career win strike-rate deemed a pass for coaches.

It is again a case of oh, so close and "if only".

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25573168-19742,00.html