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Richmond president Gary March has admitted some of the AFL club’s processes were “not great” when they chose Terry Wallace as coach.
Nearly five years after Wallace arrived at Punt Rd and one day after his tenure ended in failure, March said he was “not sure” that all of the board at the time had a hand in the decision.
March was a board member under then-president Clinton Casey when Richmond gave Wallace a five-year contract in late 2004.
Wallace resigned on Monday and coached the team for the last time on Friday night, when the Western Bulldogs thrashed them by 68 points.
Richmond have not made the finals since 2001 and the best results under Wallace were ninth in 2006 and last season.
They have just two wins from 11 games this season.
“I don’t think our processes were great, I’ve got to be honest about that – the processes we went through to appoint the coach back there probably weren’t great,” March told Triple M radio on Saturday.
“I’m not sure all the board were involved in that decision, but rest assured in the last two or three years we’ve gone through correct processes in everything we’ve done, in all our appointments.
“We went through an exhaustive process to replace (football director) Greg Miller, we’ve gone through a really good process to select a caretaker coach and we’ve got a really good process in place for selecting a senior coach in 2010.”
There has been only one change to the Richmond board since 2005, but March sees that as a positive.
He adds while the football team continues to struggle, off the field the Tigers have made big improvements.
“This year we’re heading to a seven-figure profit … we’ve turned the business around,” March said.
“We haven’t got the football part of it right, but we’ve made a lot of changes in the last 12 months and I expect to make a number more this year.
“It’s actually been healthy to have a stable board to put all of those things in place.”
Meanwhile, March said Tigers veteran Matthew Richardson was training well after his hamstring surgery and should return to the senior team well before the end of the season.
March also thinks Richardson will play again next season.
Richardson needed the surgery after the round-six loss to Sydney.
“I’m probably like most Richmond supporters – he’s probably been my favourite player over the last 10-15 years,” March said.
“I saw Matthew train this week and I was just staggered at how well he was running.
“He’s probably three weeks ahead of where the doctors thought he would be, he’s just a remarkable athlete.
“I expect he will play three or four games by the end of the season … I would expect if he wants to go around again, then he would probably go around.”
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