Terry Wallace's coaching career of tinkering

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...012432,00.html

Terry Wallace's coaching career of tinkering with 112 wins from 246 games

RICHMOND president Gary March meant well yesterday, when he described Terry Wallace as an innovative football coach.

His participation in a well received documentary a decade ago, his enthusiastic co-operation with the media, his ability to pluck a tactical rabbit from his hat on occasion, March said, allowed Wallace that much.

It was a Wallace-coached Western Bulldogs side that engineered Essendon's sole defeat in 2000 and a Wallace-coached Richmond 22 that confounded Adelaide in 2006, the president pointed out.

What March declined to say, of course, was that Essendon won the flag with a 24-1 record nine years ago and Adelaide, befuddled for a day, got to within two kicks of a grand final in 2006 when the Tigers again finished ninth. That those sides were concerned with winning wars, not battles.

And so, as well intentioned as he sought to be, March only reinforced the view that, ultimately, Wallace's career as a coach has been superficial. That his achievements, such as they are, have been peripheral, amounted to little more than tinkering.

When Wallace finishes up this Friday night, against the Bulldogs, he will have coached for the best part of 12 seasons. In the last seven of those - two with the Dogs and five with Richmond - finals have eluded his teams.

It could, therefore, be argued that one of his finest achievements was to coach for so long without ever taking a team to a grand final. He got close with consecutive preliminary finals in 1997 and 1998, but was never a contender again. His overall record of 112 wins from 246 matches screams of mediocrity.

His Richmond years will be his last. It is worth remembering that Wallace preferred the post at Punt Rd over the same position at Hawthorn in 2004 because, as he said at the time, the Tigers' list was better.

Richmond has not played finals since and, at 2-8, seems certain to finish in the bottom four for the second time in three years.

The Hawks, admittedly a far more disciplined and financially able club, have already won another premiership and seem set to contend throughout the coming years, when the draft system that would ordinarily give the Tigers a helping hand will instead serve to establish new teams on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney.

Understandably, Wallace doesn't agree with the view that by taking the Tigers all the way from 16th to 15th in five years the club is in no better shape now than it was when he took over from Danny Frawley.

And yet, apart from Trent Cotchin and Brett Deledio, Richmond's best players are their oldest, players such as Matthew Richardson and Joel Bowden, who were principals for Frawley.

Wallace said that losing close games and not having his elite troupe available often enough this year had brought the club to its knees, and to yesterday's announcement. Of the four players he mentioned in that regard, only Cotchin is younger than 30. Richardson, Nathan Brown and Ben Cousins were the others he spoke of, all of whom could be gone by the season's end. What future then?

Wisely, Wallace made no mention of the recruiting pattern established on his watch that began with Mark Graham in 2004, built with Patrick Bowden in 2005, Graham Polak in 2006 and Kent Kingsley in 2007, and culminated in Cousins' arrival last December.

Even so, Wallace described the second chance granted to Cousins by Richmond as a proud moment, one of two that came to mind yesterday. The other was the decision to shift a 33-year-old Richardson to the wing last year, thereby giving the champion and veteran some respite from his key forward responsibilities in his twilight years.

"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," Wallace said.

A little later he added: "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."

It was at this point that a comparison made by Wallace himself to former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas made complete sense. Thomas, who gave rotating captains and managerial jargon to the lexicon of the game, didn't win a grand final or get any closer to one than a preliminary final, either.

Success eluded them both.

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Excellent article from Stephen Rielly in today's Australian. He has nailed Teflon's coaching career as well as any journalist has in the last 12 years, in particular the bolded sections.

Thanks Sedat. Great and an honest article. Take the emotion away for a moment, this article highlights a poor coaching career and highlights the many mistakes made along the way. He did leave of out Jordan for pick 19 (Ward) though. His coaching career has been poor, the facts and stats in this article show that and was written without bias or emotion. And he will leave with a decent payout and Richmond will be in a mess, i hope for their sake they don't get 2 years of Peter Rhode and his trading record. I wouldn't even wish that on Richmond.

Wisely, Wallace made no mention of the recruiting pattern established on his watch that began with Mark Graham in 2004, built with Patrick Bowden in 2005, Graham Polak in 2006 and Kent Kingsley in 2007, and culminated in Cousins' arrival last December.
That was my point when Wallace gloated about how he will enjoy watching the players HE drafted at the Doggies. No mention of those guys that were picked and did not last long (long list of names witheld)

A little later he added: "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."


This statement screams its all about Terry, so it didnt matter about what the team needed player wise to improve, it was about giving a player a second chance.

I wonder how Scott Clayton feels when Plough talks about enjoying watching the blokes 'he' drafted...

Terry took over in mid '96, and effectively walked just prior to the end of the '02 season...If he's so eager to take ownership of recuiting during that period here's a mischevious, admittedly selective sample of players he was also therefore responsible for bringing to the Dogs, whom I gather he'll likewise enjoy watching...in various country and amateur leagues, or with their arses parked on the couch.

B: Matt Dent (96) - Luke Penny (98) - Josh Mahoney (98)
HB: Ben Harrison (00) - Kingsley Hunter (98) - Jordan McMahon (00)
C: Nicky Winmar (98) - Mark Alvey (97) - Sam Power (01)
HF: Kieran McGuinness (01) - Patrick Bowden (99) - Andrew Wills (99)
F: Wayde Skipper (00) - Simon Minton-Connell (96) - Nathan Brown (96)
Foll: Daniel Bandy (01) - Shane Birss (00) - Jim Plunkett (96)

That's at least blokes who managed to grace the field in a senior AFL game at some stage.

It gets a lot less auspicious if you'd care to pick a 'magoos' squad...

B: Jay Solomon (98) - Anthony Aloi (97) - Robert Stevenson (97)
HB: Christian Macri (98) - Nick Burton (00) - Lincoln Reynolds (97)
C: Cameron McKenzie-McHarg (98) - Marcus Picken (01) - Nathan Saunders (01)
HF: Jacob Rhodes (96) - Patrick Wiggins (99) - Paul Digiovine (97)
F: Shannon Rusca (01) - Aaron James (01) - Scott Taylor (97)
Foll: Paul Dooley (96) - Adam Contessa (99) - Brent Colbert (01)
Int: Shaun Tinsley (97) - Luke Trew (96)

Talk that up Tezza.

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Originally Posted by Rocket Science

Cameron McKenzie-McHarg (98) -

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Well at least this guy changed his career aspirations to Rowing and went on to win a Silver Medal at Beijing.

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Originally Posted by BulldogBelle

Well at least this guy changed his career aspirations to Rowing and went on to win a Silver Medal at Beijing.

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Mildly surprised Terry didn't call a press conference to take credit for that too

:D

I don't know what would be more fun to watch, Nudie Saunders burning off Andrew Lovett on a wing or Nick Bruton out-muscling Jonathan Brown at CHB.

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Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon

I don't know what would be more fun to watch, Nudie Saunders burning off Andrew Lovett on a wing or Nick Bruton out-muscling Jonathan Brown at CHB.

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Ahhh. What could have been.

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Originally Posted by BulldogBelle

Well at least this guy changed his career aspirations to Rowing and went on to win a Silver Medal at Beijing.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rocket Science

Mildly surprised Terry didn't call a press conference to take credit for that too

:D

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LOL.

Matty Dent was good for us, as was Brown and Birss, Winmar did ok, so i suppose 4 isnt good in 6 years when 2 were already getting on, and the others?

Brown well you cant argue his abillity as much as people hate him for his personality.

Birss just didnt get a good go in my opinion, now we have heard of his illness its a shame i really liked him

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rocket Science

B: Matt Dent (96) - Luke Penny (98) - Josh Mahoney (98)
HB: Ben Harrison (00) - Kingsley Hunter (98) - Jordan McMahon (00)
C: Nicky Winmar (98) - Mark Alvey (97) - Sam Power (01)
HF: Kieran McGuinness (01) - Patrick Bowden (99) - Andrew Wills (99)
F: Wayde Skipper (00) - Simon Minton-Connell (96) - Nathan Brown (96)
Foll: Daniel Bandy (01) - Shane Birss (00) - Jim Plunkett (96)

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RS, thanks for pulling this together - Terry's All-Stars. What memories...

Someone needs to put together a highlights (lowlights?) package.

Browny gets a gig purely because he's cut from the same cloth as his coach.

Winmar was an unmitigated disaster any way you slice it.

Otherwise truth be known, I didn't mind Matty Dent...honest footsoldier who gave reasonable service. Much the same with Birss, who was a trier...but the remainder thoroughly earned their spots.

Why does perusing that squad make my throat feel oddly hoarse?