Terry Wallace has built his reputation and career on the '97 and '98 years with the Dogs.
The general perception is that he, as a genius coach, took a shabby list of perennial losers into two consecutive preliminary finals.
Let's diagnose this perception.
The Bulldogs had already made the finals in '92 (prelim) '94 (1st semi) and '95 (Qual).
So after the disaster of '96 Terry inherited a team that had played finals 3 out of the last 5 years.
This was a good list and a good team. 3 Brownlow medalists. ( Wynd, Libba and Chris)
Young gun leaders in West Johnson Smith and Darcy, and a solid line up of finals experienced players. '96 was an unexplainable aberration. '97 prelim was a tragedy I'm still not over, but '98, when he left Smith on Robran, and Robran,( who was never really a GREAT player) tore us apart was unforgivable. Robran was about 2 foot taller than Smith so they just bombed it long to him and Smith just had to cop the humiliation as Robran kicked 6 easy goals on him.
After that we slipped from 6th to 8th to 10th to 12th (Terry jumped ship) to WOODEN SPOON.
Along the way he traded away Loved players like Leon Cameron and Brett Montgomery,
which damaged the very fibre of the club. ( I know Eagleton FINALLY came through, but along the way Monty collected a best and fairest, an all Australian and a premiership.) Wallace also (we all know) STOLE Nathan Brown. He persisted in drafting skinny midfielders year after year and that's one of the reasons why we still have no key forwards today.
Then came the fanfare of Terry signing a 5 year deal with the Tigers ( surprise surprise, see above accusation).
At the time he said he chose the Tigers over the Hawks because the Tigers list was more advanced and closer to premiership success.......... But then last year he told impatient Tiger fans he had " inherited a train wreck of a list and don't expect any success until 2011". Meanwhile the Hawks look genuine top 4 material.
Hello?!?!?
And once again he is insistent on drafting wave upon wave of skinny midfielders.......
His win loss ratio since joining the Tigers is 36%
Myth busted?
Any thoughts?