Sacking Wallace would be a mistake

[Liverpool]

Liverpool, I agree; the downturn has only just begun.
As Wallace keeps saying, Richmond have certainly turned over the list since his tenure - problem is, no club has been worse at selecting players in the draft than we have.
Our youngsters, in general, are not up to the standard required, and need to be turned over again.
If you started today with a blank canvas then I would keep less than a third of our current players. And that's being charitable.
So a lot of correct drafting and proper development required to be competitive by 2013 at the earliest.
Might as well get started...

I think it was SEN yesterday (or it may have been MMM)....where they went through out top-25 draft picks since 1994.
I won't go through them all on here as I am sure its been done to death already....but when you have commentators go through the list and you actually think about the drafting we have done.....my God.....its been a very poor return.
Some of these kids enever even played a single game for us and they were top-25 picks!
Mind-boggling, I know.

The players confidence is completely shot to pieces, the media are baying for blood, a lot of Richmond supporters are baying for blood and where is it getting us, absolutely no where.

Massai,
I went to the NAB Cup game against Collingwood.

Here we are...we have won 8 out of past 11 games of the previous season (albeit against weak opposition but you can only beat who is in front of you I guess)......a new season is upon us....we are talking of maybe getting into the top-8....we have drafted Cousins...and the whole place is buzzing.

What I saw that game is exactly what I am seeing now.
So its not a "confidence" issue because we played *smile* even when we should have had confidence in the club at sky-high levels!

I said after the NAB Cup game that if we play like that against Carlton we would get smashed.....and we did.

The way I look at it....it is a combination of poor drafting.....having unskilled players be expected to play a skill-based gameplan.....having players that are unfit/skinny and not the body to play hard footy.

If you are going to draft an agile/fast team with no skills....you at least have to have players that have a body that can play contested footy.
Or you draft agile/fast players with skills and we play more of an unaccountable gameplan.

The problem is we have neither and the results and what we are witnessing is a testament to this fact.

 

[josey]

The gameplan is the issue but it is not simply poor skills. Richmond do not turn the ball over any more than other teams do. I watch plenty of footy and even the best teams regularly kick the ball straight to the opposition, or out of bounds on the full or to a sitting duck. Wallace's problem is not turnovers, it is what happens after the turnover has occurred.

Yesterday, they came back into the game once Richardson moved permanently to Full-forward. The flow of goals from skill errors was stemmed by that move. Even Matt White, whose skill errors led to four direct shots on goasl early, only turned it over once during this period.

Last year's clever move of Richardson to the wing is this year's sucker punch. Richo playing on the wing depends on his ability to around behind the ball until his team win possession and then running forward at a rate of knots to become an extra forward. In 2008, coaches wouldn't allow him forward by himself and were forced to sacrifice a tall, speedy player to run with him. In 2009, they just let him run forward and use his opponent as the conduit once the turnover occurs. It is a party trick that is well-and-truly past its use-by date.

Wallace's gameplan of win the ball across half-back and zig-zag across the ground until you see an opening has also been well-and-truly sorted out, simply because they always try to advance through the corridor. Teams just concede space wide and sweat on any players in the corridor. They know it is going there and nowhere else. Couple that with the fact that most of the defenders are running forward of the ball during the zig-zag leaves everyone exposed.

Eventually they kick straight to the area where all the pressure is and when it turns over, no-one is home. Richo's in the goal-square, Moore and McGuane are running up the opposite wing, Bowden, Newman and McMahon are trying to run it through the centre and there is no-one left to turn the lights out.

Under pressure, we have become the team that floods its own forward line buts neglects to take the ball with them.

Good post TOT.

Wallace has a lot to answer for. For a supposedly good tactician he has been appalling this year.

Has he overestimated his players or misread the trend of todays game?

Either way, the way he is coaching gives us little chance.

 

[Hungry]

The gameplan is the issue but it is not simply poor skills. Richmond do not turn the ball over any more than other teams do. I watch plenty of footy and even the best teams regularly kick the ball straight to the opposition, or out of bounds on the full or to a sitting duck. Wallace's problem is not turnovers, it is what happens after the turnover has occurred.

Yesterday, they came back into the game once Richardson moved permanently to Full-forward. The flow of goals from skill errors was stemmed by that move. Even Matt White, whose skill errors led to four direct shots on goasl early, only turned it over once during this period.

Last year's clever move of Richardson to the wing is this year's sucker punch. Richo playing on the wing depends on his ability to around behind the ball until his team win possession and then running forward at a rate of knots to become an extra forward. In 2008, coaches wouldn't allow him forward by himself and were forced to sacrifice a tall, speedy player to run with him. In 2009, they just let him run forward and use his opponent as the conduit once the turnover occurs. It is a party trick that is well-and-truly past its use-by date.

Wallace's gameplan of win the ball across half-back and zig-zag across the ground until you see an opening has also been well-and-truly sorted out, simply because they always try to advance through the corridor. Teams just concede space wide and sweat on any players in the corridor. They know it is going there and nowhere else. Couple that with the fact that most of the defenders are running forward of the ball during the zig-zag leaves everyone exposed.

Eventually they kick straight to the area where all the pressure is and when it turns over, no-one is home. Richo's in the goal-square, Moore and McGuane are running up the opposite wing, Bowden, Newman and McMahon are trying to run it through the centre and there is no-one left to turn the lights out.

Under pressure, we have become the team that floods its own forward line buts neglects to take the ball with them.

Well done TOT70s, I think you're onto something.

I also think that what makes our turnovers worse is the way in which our players react to them. ALL teams turn the ball over occassionally, but our players' react by going into panic mode, pointing fingers or dropping their heads. Our on-field body language is the worst it has been in some time.

Remember, in life it's not what happens to you, it's how you react to it that counts. That applies to footy games as well.

 

[mb64]

Its best we let Wallace serve out his contract,theres nothing gained by getting rid of him now.

 

[GoodOne]

that was the wrost game ive ever seen by the yellow and black yesterday, and the coach is top of the club

Thought Carlton game was worse, just!

 

[Hungry]

And yes, sacking Wallace would be a mistake. Cool heads must prevail.

We must not get sucked in by the media - they just want stories.

We must play kids - already finals are gone so we'd be better off with a top 5 pick than coasting through to ninth again.

In line-ball decisions between established senior players and young-uns in need of experience, we must favour youth every time.

But of all our twilighters, we must persevere with playing Cousins - even at 15 mins a quarter he will teach our kids plenty about the game.

We must simplify our gameplan and start playing FOOTBALL. Our players might actually re-discover their passion for the game.

We must be totally honest on recruiting and development, and consider a VFL reserves side.

We must not be tempted to panic - good coaches are around this year and we'd forever regret wasting our future by reacting poorly to these events.

 

[the claw]

One possible scenario that would rescue this season somewhat is that Terry coaches out the year, starts playing a very young team, the performances become more competitive and the club gains long term credibility for not panicking and reacting to knee jerk calls for coach sacking.

here here colonel saunders. this is where real leadership from the board comes into it. they should be saying to wallace forget finals play the kids the should insist. if he refuses pay him out and put someone there who will.