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Terry Wallace had the Hawthorn coaching job in 2004

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Collingwood 4 eternity

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 16, 2009
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Dermott Brereton who was on the Hawthorn FC board back then , revealed on Sen Crunch Time , that the eight Hawthorn FC board members were so impressed with Terry Wallaces presentation to them that the coaching job was his if they heard from Terry that he wanted to coach Hawthorn.

But as Dermott revealed when Terry was asked by them "Do you want to coach Hawthorn FC"

Wallace , who had already had 5 meetings with Richmond answered "I'll need 24 - 48 hours to think about it"

Dermott said that members of the board were surprised , thinking that Terry would have said , yes I would love to coach Hawthorn. If Terry had of said those words , they would have started the contractual negotiations for him to be the Hawthorn coach then and there.

Terry Wallace was in he Sen studio when this story was told on air and confirmed it.

Pretty amazing how the fortunes of the 2 clubs and Terry and Clarkson has gone since that point in time.
 
I heard rumours of that at the time but about Gary Ayres coaching us. The board wanted a Hawks man to rebuild - not sure what swung it to Clarko at the end?
 

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Funny. I know another person on the Board at the time who has a completely different story. He told me that they only had one meeting with Wallace, it was informal, no decisions were made. Dermott wanted to appoint Wallace straight away, other members weren't so sure. The next day, Wallace signed a 5 year contract with Richmond .. and publicly slated Hawthorn for not offering him the job.

I think either Dermott's memory is playing tricks, or he's being mischievous for some reason.
 
As delirious1 said, TW was reported as saying that RFC had a better list that was further advanced than HFC.

I've been a member of HFC for 36 years and would have had to make a very hard decision as to wheather i would have re-newed my membership if he had been appointed.

At the time I told several friends that i wouldnt renew if he was appointed. Luckily i had that decision taken out of my hands.

TW is the most selfish person to wear a Hawthorn jumper.
 
Funny. I know another person on the Board at the time who has a completely different story. He told me that they only had one meeting with Wallace, it was informal, no decisions were made. Dermott wanted to appoint Wallace straight away, other members weren't so sure. The next day, Wallace signed a 5 year contract with Richmond .. and publicly slated Hawthorn for not offering him the job.

I think either Dermott's memory is playing tricks, or he's being mischievous for some reason.

I personally dont know the true story but i heard the same version as Dermott's at the time. I was told the job was TW's if he wanted it.

When i heard he took the Richmond job , i cried 'true tears of joy'
 
I personally dont know the true story but i heard the same version as Dermott's at the time. I was told the job was TW's if he wanted it.

When i heard he took the Richmond job , i cried 'true tears of joy'

I guess we'll never know for sure because it's one person's opinion against another, but I was told Dermie virtually had Wallace appointed from the moment he walked in. I was told three other board members considered Wallace wasn't the man for the job.

I have no probelm with Wallace's account of events because that is what happened. He was asked why he wanted to coach the Hawks, and he was honest, saying he needed to think about it. We have to remember, it was the first of what would have been several talks, but after he signed with Richmond the next day, that put paid to any future talks.

You may recall at the time that Wallace was critical of Hawthorn for taking so much time to decide upon a coach. There is no way known that Wallace was officially offered the job, he was merely asked why he wanted to coach the club.
 
At the end of the day, he chose Richmond because he believed they had the more talented list.

Not sure many know this, but Wallace stuffed the Crows around at this stage too. He had arranged for a meeting with Adelaide officials, a group of them flew down to Melbourne for said meeting. Once they got there they were informed by TW's wife that he had already signed with Richmond. Didn't even have the decency to let the Adelaide board know this was the case. Wasted their time like he wasted ours.

Very happy he chose Richmond.
 

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You may be right AH but i was told that Derm wanted Ayres as coach but others wanted Wallace with the exception of Dunstall who was very keen on AC right from the start.

Who knows the absolute truth ?

Im tipping that we'll never really know

I thought Derm removed himself from selecting as he was hell bent on Ayres? They're best mates, and Derm named his son Gary after him.

We'll never know the absolute truth.

On SEN this morning, Wallace complained that one Hawthorn director was late to the meeting back in '04. The director was late because he was apparently meeting with Rodney Eade for the job.
 
As delirious1 said, TW was reported as saying that RFC had a better list that was further advanced than HFC.

.
And in one draft he managed to destroy Richmond and provide hawthorn with two talented KPP players

I Think Terry was a good game-day coach, but from the outside it seems like he could not build a list to save himself
 

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I don't recall him saying we had a better list, if anything I remember him saying Hawthorn had a list that could be turned around quicker for a finals tilt.


i thought he said that he wanted to coach a big vic club. dont remember him saying a better list considerring he chopped alot of players. remember as well buddy still would have not been picked by richmond as we needed mids more than anything as the hawks already the makings of one at the time. either way i agree that he was a good game day/tactical coach but terrible list developer/teacher.
 
Amazing how many Richmond and Hawthorn supporters have opinions in this thread but prefer to believe there own version of events rather than what Dermie and Terry had to say today.

Dermie stated today that they were super impressed by Wallace in the first interview and tried to give every indication to Terry that he can have the job without actually saying it.

Terry said he needed to think about it and as he was already 5 interviews down the Richmond process he was pretty much guaranteed to get it.

It's like any job out there. When someone puts a contract on the table for a job you are applying for you tend to sign and not wait around trying to play others off it.

There's another Terry thread on this board which questions why people dislike him. I don't get it either. He's great in the media and he's very well respected in the footy circles.
 
It seems like Richmond supporters would like to blame all their woes on Terry Wallace. The fact is, he took over a side with a horrible list, internal fighting and a rotten culture. Any coach taking over Richmond when he did, would have suffered the same fate.
 
I always believed that because of the unrest around the hawks at the time with Don Scott and his friends that Wallace elected to go for more stability with the tigers as the hawks weren't able to really offer him anything until the board got sorted out.

So many stories - but tbh I don't understand why dermot and wallace would of raised this - talk about rehashing old news.
 

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Terry Wallace had the Hawthorn coaching job in 2004

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