Sheedy never part of Tigers’ plan, says March

RICHMOND president Gary March says Kevin Sheedy has no role to play in his club’s football department, despite ongoing speculation about the coaching future of Terry Wallace.

The Tigers are 0-4 after four rounds, with Wallace under fire and expected to front the Richmond board tomorrow night when it meets for its regular monthly meeting.

Wallace, in his fifth and final year of contract at Punt Road, is under extreme pressure to hold his position with only a finals spot set to save his job.

But March, who wasn’t at the MCG for Sunday’s loss to Melbourne, says there are no other reasons behind Sheedy’s appointment at the club this season to a marketing position.

“Kevin Sheedy’s not part of our contingency and never has been.” March told SEN radio on Monday morning.

“Kevin came back to the football club and he made it clear to me he didn’t want to be involved in football and I made it clear to Kevin that we didn’t have a role for him in football, so that’s never been a part of the plan.”

March said the Tigers had always intended to review Wallace’s coaching situation in the middle of the season and that hadn’t changed despite being winless in the first month of the season.
 
However the president said he wished he knew why the club was performing so poorly.

“At the moment they’re just playing awfully, I think that’s probably the only way you could describe it,” he said.

“Our form’s terrible at the moment and we’ve got to do something to snap them out of that.”

The Richmond boss also defended his own absence from Sunday’s game.

Some have suggested March should have been present at the game during the club’s difficult start to 2009, but the Tigers president defended his position.

“I think I’ve missed four games in five years,” he said.

“I went to the wedding of a guy I’ve known for 30 years. He’s worked for me since I started my business 15 years [ago].

“There’s some things in life that you actually have to put ahead of football, it’s a game … had we been 3-0 going into this game no-one would have said anything.”