Terry Wallace

[OldSchool]

A lot of the posters here believed that Terry could do no wrong and in fact some almost gave me the impression that they were more than comfortable for Terry to have the job for as long as he wanted. They never questioned where he was leading us and believed that he was totally loyal to the Doggies.
My question is:
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?

[Westy_Boy]

Originally posted by OldSchool

Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?

Nope.

My only disappointment is that one of the best coaches in the competition will be coaching another team next year. I hold no bitterness or feelings of betrayal towards the man himself.

Put yourself in his shoes for a second – or even draw a parallel with where you’ve worked. You’ve put your heart and soul into an organisation for 15 years, risen through the ranks to be the top dog, and while in charge, led them through one of their most successful periods of their history, totally changing their culture and image for the better. After 15 years, with the place in good shape and able to look after itself, you decide it’s time for change, saying your goodbyes without any malice or animosity, and leaving with nothing but good wishes for the organisation and its people you’re leaving behind.

What do you get in return?

“Thanks for nothing. Now f*ck off and don’t come back, traitor”.

I don’t think we’re the only ones entitled to feel a touch bitter.

[K9-54]

Originally posted by OldSchool
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?
I'm not a true believer by was a supporter of Terry.

His performances for the club over 15 years were characterised by total commitment and professionalism. And the results in terms of success, while not the ultimate, were better than any other since I started my weekly pilgramage to Bulldogs matches in 1970.

I'm not upset he's going as I haven't been convinved this year that we could win a premiership the way he was coaching. But I would have given him my support and hoped he proved me wrong if he had stayed.

If I had believed we could have won that premiership under him, then I would have been disappointed, but I don't think I would have felt dudded. He's entitled to behave as a professional employee and not as a supporter. It's just a fact of business life.

I also believe the club made the right decision to not let him coach this week and he misjudged it to expect the club to allow it.

[OldSchool]

Originally posted by Westy_Boy


Put yourself in his shoes for a second – or even draw a parallel with where you’ve worked. You’ve put your heart and soul into an organisation for 15 years, risen through the ranks to be the top dog, and while in charge, led them through one of their most successful periods of their history, totally changing their culture and image for the better. After 15 years, with the place in good shape and able to look after itself, you decide it’s time for change, saying your goodbyes without any malice or animosity, and leaving with nothing but good wishes for the organisation and its people you’re leaving behind.

What do you get in return?

“Thanks for nothing. Now f*ck off and don’t come back, traitor”.

I don’t think we’re the only ones entitled to feel a touch bitter.

In the industry I work in if you tell the boss and are going to work for the opposition you have about 30 mins to vacate the building and are led out by security. No good-byes.
If he was leaving to go to the media I could accept him coaching this weekend however, he was working to a bigger plan and basically said he had little faith that this group can get the job done so it really was a slap in the face to the club, players and supporters.
The players decision about not having him as the coach this weekend is correct and they will say their good-byes etc with him in due course however, the only way to focus on this weekends game was to get Terry out of the club asap.
Some of these players are playing for their future, Terry on the other hand has already orgainsed his.
The Maestro has orchestrated many outcomes over the years and I for one am glad that this one didn't go exactly to his plan.

[Captain Sensible]

Originally posted by OldSchool
A lot of the posters here believed that Terry could do no wrong and in fact some almost gave me the impression that they were more than comfortable for Terry to have the job for as long as he wanted. They never questioned where he was leading us and believed that he was totally loyal to the Doggies.
My question is:
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?



Was a great servant of the club for a long while. Moulded a team that almost took us all the way in '97, had one bad coaching performance in '98, had a fair tilt in '99 but realistically has been backwards since.


Something like this makes you assess things with a more critical mind. The more I think about his time had come. He had become predictable and rigid in his game plans and was getting outcoached a lot more often.

I also think that there is probably a lot more to come out. Some players had steam coming out of their ears at training yesterday and I heard a very nasty stream of abuse from one player. I am not suprised he is not coaching this weekend.

[Fansquad]

Originally posted by OldSchool
A lot of the posters here believed that Terry could do no wrong and in fact some almost gave me the impression that they were more than comfortable for Terry to have the job for as long as he wanted. They never questioned where he was leading us and believed that he was totally loyal to the Doggies.
My question is:
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?

Oldschool, he has always been motivated by money, he left hawthorn a successful premiership side for money at Richmond....the hawks have never forgiven him....he has always been a prick...i can remember the day he left Hawthorn in the mid 80's....he said it was because Jeans had told him that there was no place in the midfield for him....he really left becoz he wanted a better contract.

[OldSchool]

Originally posted by Fansquad


Oldschool, he has always been motivated by money, he left hawthorn a successful premiership side for money at Richmond....the hawks have never forgiven him....he has always been a prick...i can remember the day he left Hawthorn in the mid 80's....he said it was because Jeans had told him that there was no place in the midfield for him....he really left becoz he wanted a better contract.

I was under the impression that he left the Hawks because they played as a half back in the GF.

Not sure that he is always motivated by money but he has a way on inventing reason for his actions and appears to me to be one of the best self promoters in the game.
This would be OK but he does put himself ahead of the club

[campbell]

Poor bloke. He hasn't been paid regularly, because of the poor cash flow of the club.
The club is the one who instigated the timing of the press conferance, he wanted it to be after this weekends match.
The club were so angry that he was leaving, still are.

I think as an outsider, it seems that your playing group has too much say in the runnings of the club. When a similar thing happened at St Kilda they sacked Alves.
Your players should realise that the coach is the boss.Full stop, no ifs buts or maybes. If he wants stuff done by you, you do it.
Not have a hissy fit, as was reported one player did.
As for Chris Grant, I think he was upset that there were thoughts of him not being captain next year. He has had a real ordinary year by his standards, and maybe he should step back, and take the pressure off himself and just play footy again. Maybe some of the egos at your club are a bit prickly. Our club did this with Lynch, now look how great he is playing.

I think Wallace has been a terrific coach for you guys, and its disgraceful to see you guys turn on him.

[The Doctor]

Originally posted by campbell

I think as an outsider, it seems that your playing group has too much say in the runnings of the club.
Your players should realise that the coach is the boss.Full stop, no ifs buts or maybes. If he wants stuff done by you, you do it.
Not have a hissy fit, as was reported one player did.

As for Chris Grant, I think he was upset that there were thoughts of him not being captain next year. He has had a real ordinary year by his standards, and maybe he should step back, and take the pressure off himself and just play footy again. Maybe some of the egos at your club are a bit prickly. Our club did this with Lynch, now look how great he is playing.

I think Wallace has been a terrific coach for you guys, and its disgraceful to see you guys turn on him.

What do you expect the players say? "Oh good on you Terry. Yeah mate go ahead break your contract and leave us even if some of us signed on because of you. No worries we all signed on for less than what we could have got elsewhere. We 're not concerned about loyalty and sticking together for the common good of the club that gave aus a chance in the first place. No worries mate, thats ok you don't think we are good enough. "

Of course the coach is in charge but how can he be if he says he doesn't have the passion or the desire to coach them anymore. If a coach says these things and turns his back on players who thought they had a certain bond with him of course they'll get upset. Get realistic or don't you have emotions.

Chris Grant may have had an ordinary playing year (by his standards) but it doesn't mean he is not a good captain. He has stood up superbly these past few days and handled the responsibilities of this sudden and difficult situation with distinction. I doubt there would be many other captains who would have handled this situation any better.

Finally, if you read through our posts you will see that many of us have acknowledged the terrific contribution Wallace made to his club. As for us turning on him. Who did the U turn in the first place? What do you expect? If your high profile coach dumped on you for a better offer would you be happy about it?

[campbell]

I wouldn't expect the players to open their mouths and go to the board as a group and get the guy sacked. Sure they are upset, but, they should shut up. Really if it is as said that the club has put this in the media arena this week not next. Then it ain't Wallaces fault.
Are you guys really that insular to see that the club is at fault too. You have no idea what has happened to push him to look elsewhere.
He has been out there in the media to promote your club, non stop, at the instigation of the Board. Without this your club would be in dire straights. He has helped get the publicity needed to secure a future for your club.

As for Grant. I think he has been a terrific Captain, but his time is up, for his sake. He is not playing well. If someone else takes over as Captain, then he can focus fully on his footy for next year. That has to be better for him personally and the club. A fit, firing, focused Grant is better that how he has been this year. Without the distractions a Captaincy can give, he could have a Brownlow winning form year next year. Just a thought though.

[Dry Rot]

Given our lack of injuries to key players, the form of Darcy, Johnson, Brown and the proven ability of Grant to play very well at CHB, I still want to know how we ended up with the second worst defensive record.

Many posters far more knowlegdable than I have criticised Wallace's performance in a number of games this year.

Perhaps his heart wasn't in it for all of the season?

[Mr. Walker]

Originally posted by OldSchool
My question is:
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ?

I was a Wallace fan. I did raise soem questions about some of his decisions and actions but this was more to improve my own understanding rather than attacking Wallace.

I think he has been wonderful for the club and wish him all the best in the future. My criticism of him now relates to the timing of his announcement and my disbelief in the reasons he has given. he said himself that he had asked his mangement group about opprtunities next year, was assured he would coach and then he made his announcement about how he had lost his passion (but only for the moment, it will magically appear next year somewhere else). Seems like a cool-headed decision rather than a passionate one to me.

In the finals four years straight, two preliminary finals, and relatively good recruiting says to me that we were not dudded

[dogboy23]

Originally posted by OldSchool
A lot of the posters here believed that Terry could do no wrong and in fact some almost gave me the impression that they were more than comfortable for Terry to have the job for as long as he wanted. They never questioned where he was leading us and believed that he was totally loyal to the Doggies.
My question is:
Do the Terry Wallace true believers now believe they have been dudded by him ? I was a big supporter of Wallace but some of the criticism of him on this board was ridiculous.Every time we lost the first thing I would read is "Wallace was out coached" I can only think of 2 times off the top of my head where I thought Wallaces tactics played a significant part in a loss this season.

I think Westy summised it perfectly in his post.Football is a business and if you were in his position in your own workplace you would do exactly the same thing.I think no less of him for what he has done.

For the record in hindsight I think the players confidence in the game plan and general message from Wallace may have been starting to wane this season(understandable after 7 years) and a change is best for all concerned.When you consider we have probably 3 all australians,Westy averaging 26 possesions a game,Smith having his best year for a long time,a great batch of kids and the best injury list in my memory we probably have under achieved this season.As I said I think he has been good on match day so he must be lagging in other areas.

I think a new coach will throw Granty back to centre half back and obviously will play a more conventional game plan.The thought of a half back line with Grant,Smith and Murf in it and a midfield with Johnson,Brown,West and Darcy makes us sound pretty strong.Another thing is if a new coach arrives the first thing they will do is identify weaknesses in accordance with the way they will want us to play.I am sure this will lead to us trading one of our younger guys or even an older guy for a tall.I know Smorgon said we were not going to be active but that was when we were going with our former game plan.Our lack of quality talls at the forward end (I believe if Granty played back our defense would be brilliant) has to be an obstacle for any new coach.

Another issue with a new coach is that everyone has a clean start.This is good in some ways and also bad in others.For a guy like Alvey to go 5 years and then finally find the perfect niche for him in our game plan and then to cop this change of coach its got to be hard for him.You would hope that any new coach looks through each of our games and gets an idea of each players ability.I would hate for a guy like Hargy to start in the vfl because he looks gangly and uncoordinated.He has been good this year and has a bright future and I would hope any new coach would see that.I know all this has nothing to do with the thread but I thought hear was as good a place as any.

[Iso]

As I said before I think he has been a great coach and a champion player for the dogs. I do feel some resentment in the way he has gone about leaving and agree that he shouldn't be coaching this weekend, in no way to punish him but if his heart isn't in it, get someone whose heart IS in it.