Terry Wallace on Bowden point saga

The infamous rushed behinds late in the game from Joel Bowden that gave Richmond a win over Essendon in 2008 was a tactic that had been spoken about with the coaching staff.

Senior coach at the time Terry Wallace applauds the defender for having the composure to rush two behinds on purpose after being called to play on while taking a kick out when the Tigers were up by six points with less than a minute remaining.

“Joel is a smart enough person to look after himself, don’t worry about that and it was late, very late in the game,” said Wallace on SEN radio when quizzed about the passage of play.

“We’d had conversations about what to do at the end of games in team meetings and you sort of speak about all the things that happen.

“One of the things we had spoken about is don’t deliver the ball unless you’re absolutely certain because you have three or four chances before you pull the trigger.

“Well Joel was smart enough at the end of the game to do exactly that, have a look up, nothing on realise he could hold the ball until his time was allotted.

“Nothing to go to, so don’t give it back to a 50/50 so he just handballed the ball through several times and we won a game because we just milked the clock.”

Wallace pointed out that Hawthorn did a similar thing in the 2008 Grand Final when the ball was deep in their defence and there were no obvious targets to use further up the field.

“It was clearly Hawthorn in 2008 where they just kept shovelling the ball through,” he explained.

“Clarko, exactly the same, had come up with a plan not to give up the ball in the last line of defence.”

A few weeks ago North Melbourne defender Michael Firrito was controversially penalised for handballing through a rushed behind deliberately, despite being tackled at the time.

“I was a bit flummoxed by that one I must say,” said Wallace.

“Did he have prior opportunity? I think there is an argument he had prior opportunity.

“My take on it is, was he under pressure? Yes he was… I would have thought once you’re tackled you’re certainly under pressure.”