In a nice old back-hander leading into this weekend’s Richmond v
Geelong game, Terry Wallace has added hypocrisy to his preening vanity
by accusing former Tiger big man Brad Ottens of being greedy in turning
his back on Punt Rd and joining the Cats. Even more bizarrely, he finds
Geelong’s recruitment of Ottens offensive.

Wallace
claims Ottens assured him he was keen to stay at the club on his
arrival at Tigerland, but that was before Geelong came on the scene
offering more money to the one-time All-Australian ruckman (2001). Not
only am I unaware of it being a crime for players and coaches to
consider a better offer when one comes along, but this is rich coming
from the same coach who resigned in August 2002 declaring he no longer
had the passion to continue to coach the cash-strapped Western
Bulldogs, and who was then widely believed to be heading to greener
pastures and a fatter cheque as the coach of the Sydney Swans in 2003.
But that was before player power saw Paul Roos retain his temporary
position and force the Swans administration to back off the Wallace
appointment.

Is this also the same coach who encouraged his
former Bulldogs protégé Nathan Brown to accept just the kind of career
change and fatter contract to go to Richmond that attracted Ottens to
Geelong? So how can he possibly equate his support for the hugely
talented Brown quitting the struggling Bulldogs with this line
yesterday?

“Our club was down and Geelong were very, very happy
to jump in as quickly as they could and suggested to him (Ottens) he’d
be better off playing in what might be a premiership side rather than
wooden spooners. When we were down and out, sides were quite happy to
pick over our carcass. Our guys should take that as offensive, in terms
of where we stood in comparison to them.”

Try telling that to his Bulldogs coaching successor, who lost first Brown and then his job.