Tigers should go distance with Wallace
Mick Malthouse | The Australian | August 15, 2008
TERRY Wallace is a realist.
He made the blunt assessment this week that if Richmond fails to make the finals next season during the last year of his five-year term as coach, then he would not be surprised if the Tigers replaced him.
He is just one of a host of coaches due to come out of contract at the end of next season, myself included.
As Terry said, we are senior coaches in an elite competition so we understand the ramifications of not producing the results the club's board and supporters require.
It was very wise of Adelaide to move a year early and shore up the immediate future of Neil Craig by extending his contract for two years.
During almost 4 1/2 years as coach of the Crows, Craig has a 62 per cent winning record, which is extraordinary in today's football.
Over a reasonable period of time, a 60 per cent record is an enormous achievement for any coach because teams ebb and flow, it doesn't matter how good you are.
We saw that with the great Brisbane sides between 2001 and 2004, when they played in four grand finals and won three premierships.
The Lions have not been in the finals since, yet Leigh Matthews still has a wonderful win-loss record.
The board at the Lions had the faith in Leigh to believe he could take the side forward again because this is probably his third group of players after inheriting a team, melding it into a champion side, and now basically starting again.
That's an assessment by the club's board of not what he has done in the past, as great as it was, but what he can do in the future.
In my eight full years at Collingwood, we have been in the finals four times and can hopefully play well enough over the remaining three games to achieve that feat again.
When I arrived at Collingwood for the 2000 season, I found myself in the same position as most long-term coaches.
It goes without saying that coaches are usually replaced when a team is struggling so when you arrive you have to assess the playing list.
At Collingwood, we had finished on the bottom with little coming through so I had to slash and burn.
Geelong is a great side at the moment. It will do a Brisbane in the next four or five years and eventually slide. That's the nature of football.
It will be up to the Geelong board to then reassess Bomber Thompson, and by that stage he may have won two or three premierships, who knows?
He will last if the Geelong board believes he can turn another young group of players into a successful unit.
Coaches don't have a lot of contact with each other these days, but I coached Terry Wallace at Footscray and have always enjoyed his company.
He's very pragmatic. He knows what he wants to do as a coach and he can also read the play. You need a board that can do the same thing; that understands where you're headed.
I've been very fortunate with support of the board at Collingwood. When my current contract expires I will have been here 10 years. Will we win a premiership in that time? I don't know.
You always have faith in your abilities but there are constant pressures from supporters demanding success, a media that is almost never satisfied, and most of all the board.
A strong board doesn't bow to public opinion but it can also read when change is needed.
I have the same view as Terry. These are things you accept.
You don't get too hung up over it. In 25 years of coaching, I've never been hung up about the attitude of club boards because they either want you or they don't.
Coaching can be a tough job. Sometimes you have to duck and weave but you always come up swinging, knowing it's your role to produce the best performance at every possible opportunity while keeping in mind the future of the football club.
You must always bring through a sustainable group of young players. No one should forget that Geelong finished 10th the year before it won the premiership, but it was stabilising that side with an elite group of players.
Terry has a good group of young players coming through, but what if a couple of key players get injured next year, he can't produce his best side and the Tigers miss the final eight?
Is that the end for Terry or is he a victim of circumstances? That's the thing boards have to keep in mind.
With new teams due to start on the Gold Coast in 2011 and western Sydney a year or two after that, there will be little chance to replenish existing sides because all the best talent will already be taken.
That will make coaching even harder over the next few years. You will have to develop what you have or recycle and hope that not too many good players retire in that period.
If Richmond does decide to change coaches at the end of next season, it has to assess who is ready to step up, because AFL coaching is an exclusive club.
We have seen this season with first-year coaches Dean Bailey, Matthew Knights, Mark Harvey and Brett Ratten, who started late last season, how hard it is to make inroads into the top eight.
New coaches require patience, but it is a tough gig with no ready-made replacements. I hope Richmond has the courage to go the journey with Terry Wallace.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24182358-16957,00.html
