Richo, Terry & The Flaming Wreck

I was watching Richmond v Collingwood on Friday night football, and found myself, against my will, my football history and all better judgement, cheering for Matthew Richardson. You see, Richo is on my dream team, (a late round pick up, no-one else was going anywhere near him) and having no allegiance to either side, I was simply cheering for him to score me points, regardless of who won or lost.

But after watching the match in its entirety, and seeing the Tigers squander an early lead and then eventually capitulate against the ‘Pies, two things became abundantly clear; one, I probably shouldn’t have picked Richo in my dream team, and two, Richmond is in serious trouble.

In the first half Richmond pressured the undermanned Collingwood side, which at one point had Shane O’Bree guarding Troy Simmonds in the goal square, to lead by 20 points at half time. It should have been more but a certain dream team member of mine kept missing easy goals, and ended up with 3 goals, 5 points, one out on the full and about 15 pouts, which unfortunately, don’t score any points in our dream team league.

In the second half, Richmond were out pressured, their skills dropped away, and the pouting increased. As this was happening, I kept waiting for Wallace to pull the trigger on one of his famous ‘left-field’ moves, putting Richo in the ruck, or Pettifer isolated at full-forward (by the way, does Kane Pettifer have a permanent black eye, or does someone keep belting him?) but nothing was happening. Not even a conventional move, like putting Brett Delidio, one of your best midfielders, actually in the midfield, was forthcoming.

And after Anthony Rocca finally woke up and realised he had Joel Bowden on him, and started grabbing everything kicked in his direction, it took ‘Terry the Great’ a game-losing quarter and a half to give the stronger, taller, Graeme Polak a shot on him.

So I started thinking about Richmond and their fans and the media and everyone else who believes in Terry Wallace, and I thought; what if they’re wrong?

Wallace, rightly or wrongly, was hired as a coach with an excellent reputation as a gameday coach, an innovator and a guy who could, and would, get the most out of his list and turn around a struggling club. He has been selling everyone who will listen on the Richmond ‘re-building phase’ and the ‘5-year plan’ and now the ‘2011 window’. But nothings happening. And everyone’s eggs are firmly imbedded in Wallace’s basket.

The young players they’re supposed to be building around, Raines, Tambling, Polo and Krakouer etc. have not lived up to expectation, with Delidio perhaps being the exception.

The players they’ve brought in from other clubs, Polak, Patrick Bowden and of course the Kent of Kingsley, all have their obvious flaws.

The veterans, Tivendale, Kane Johnson, Ray Hall and Joel Bowden continue to make the same mistakes when the pressure is on and have their limitations constantly exposed. Not to mention a certain wayward dream team forward.

The only player of real class, one who is consistent, skilful and potentially game-breaking is currently on the sidelines still healing from a catastrophic broken leg that, quite honestly, I didn’t expect him to return from.

Terry Wallace will continue to spout key phrases at press conferences and continue to keep everyone looking at an impossible future and his team will continue to lose. And when it gets to 2011, or 2012, or whenever it is that Terry is aiming, and all his tricks have worn thin, Terry Wallace will jump ship and leave Richmond a flaming wreck.

Mrs. Watson and I are heading to the MCG on Sunday to watch Geelong play Melbourne from the comfort of the MCC members area and its full-strength beer. For Geelong there is no looking ahead. We have been down that road and we can see the 4 car pile-up lying in wait. No, the time for Geelong is now, the season for our coach is this one. If last year was an abomination, and it is truly behind us, then we should easily account for a depleted Melbourne squad. Let the good times roll.