“You don’t get much tougher than last week,” Wallace said.
“I’m ready for it.”
After a week of intense media scrutiny the Tigers failed to handle the pressure against a young Demon outfit, coughing up an eight-goal second term before a valiant but futile second-half comeback fell eight points short.
Having asked the media to judge his team on its opening month of football, and not on its round one disaster against Carlton, Wallace expects judgements to be harsh.
“I think over the last week we were judged and I think we will be judged again over the next week again,” he said.
He said under no circumstance would he shy away from the challenge ahead.
“I wouldn’t expect my players to do so and I asked them exactly that question at half time and I don’t think they did,” he said.
“I think I would be a hypocrite if I was asking my players to do that (lift) and then decided to (chuck it in) because it was all too hard.”
Wallace lamented his side’s inability to win contested football and handle the pressure placed on it in the wake of a disastrous start to the year.
“The pressure of the situation needs to be handled,” he said.
“That type of pressure has brought down champion sportsmen all over the world, but this is a pressure-cooker environment and if you don’t want to handle it, and it’s too hot in the kitchen, then you’re not going to survive in this game.”
Now in his fifth year at the helm, Wallace said he felt the same frustration as supporters and to why a side, which went into the season with expectations sky high, is now one of only two winless teams in the competition.
“I could understand the supporters having 400 questions, as we (coaches) have 400 questions, because everyone looks to the senior coach for all the answers,” he said.
“All that I can say is that the only saving grace is that I went to them at half-time and said this has been diabolical and are you going to fight. I thought they answered that aspect of it and fought in a manner which you would expect them to.
“I reckon if we get our contested possession right we can get back into some area of form.
“Until we get that aspect of our game right, everything else goes out the door.”
Melbourne won the contested possession count 114-108 but hammered the Tigers in the match-winning second term.
While happy to talk team, Wallace was not about to publicly berate his playing group.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” he said.
“I’m the public face of the footy club and that’s the way it will be. Internally we’ll deal with how we handle our players, but I’ve never been someone who externally speaks about the playing group.”
Wallace said he would meet with club president Gary March, who was not at the game, and football manager Craig Cameron in the next 24 hours to debrief what’s been one of the darkest weeks in the football club’s history.
“Obviously he’s (March) been questioning of how we are playing and where we are going which is exactly the president’s right and should be his right,” he said.
Richmond has a six-day back up before tackling North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium next Saturday night.
