Richmond cult hero Jake King details explosive final moments of Terry Wallace’s coaching reign at the Tigers

Richmond cult hero Jake King says he almost came to blows with his former AFL coach Terry Wallace during the final weeks of his tenure in charge at Tigerland.

Wallace stood down as Richmond coach after slumping to 2-9 against the Bulldogs — ironically his former club — in Round 11 of 2009.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Richmond cult hero tells explosive story about former coach.

The Tigers had hit rock bottom and Wallace had lost the trust of the playing group and board.

It was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at Punt Road — and it did.

King, who was taken as a rookie ahead of the 2007 season, struggled to see eye to eye with Wallace, who had effectively discarded him as a player in the ‘09 season.

Speaking on Clubby Sports’ Footy and Friends show, the diminutive hard man has recalled an explosive day at the club when he had to be held back by senior players and staff from punching the coach.

“I was going to f****** kill him,” King said on the podcast.

The 40-year-old, who went on to carve out a productive career after Wallace’s departure, says the pair have since broken bread and shaken hands.

“I actually spoke to Plough (Wallace) probably about 3-4 years ago — actually it might have been a bit longer — you hold on to things and then every now and then as you get older you’ll realise it’s easier to just let it go,” King said.

“I bumped into Plough and had a chat and I actually asked him, ‘Mate, with all the s*** that happened in that last year...’ — and he apologised, he actually apologised for everything.

“But then he actually said thank you. I said, ‘What for?’ And he goes, ‘You boys never actually stopped playing’.

“We shook hands and went our own ways, and we’ve spoken ever since. But it was a very bizarre and odd scenario at the time.”

Time heals all wounds, as they say.

But the wounds were gaping in June of 2009, as King explained in detail on Footy and Friends.

“I’ve actually never spoken about this, but I’m happy to, no issues,” he said.

“Originally, you had the leadership group, you had the younger kids at Coburg. There were a few things that had happened (and) it happened on two occasions; two players got told they were playing (in the AFL team) on the Monday, parents flew in, come to Friday and the captain’s run, players all then got told, ‘No, you’re not playing now’, and then there was an injured player who was available so they picked them.

“It got announced that a player was playing, it went in the media, it was in the papers, and then the kid doesn’t get a game.

“He goes (and) plays at Coburg that weekend and he was gutted, played s***house, and copped an absolute baking in front of everyone — which, that was rare; Plough wouldn’t (normally) be going at any of the twos players. I used to go down and watch them a fair bit.

“And then it happened a few times. Then there were more things going on with the board, so the board had issues with Plough.”

King went on to explain how Wallace had told him that there wasn’t enough room for him in the team if midfielder Andrew Raines and defenders Jordan McMahon and Alex Rance were playing.

“I don’t want all four of you in the same team,” Wallace had said to King.

King went back to Richmond’s then-VFL affiliate, Coburg, and dominated the next three games.

He says he got best on ground in each of those games, and then each of the three players mentioned had either got injured or been dropped from the AFL side.

“And I remember going up to Plough and I said, ‘Well, can I have a game now?’ And he goes, ‘No’. I said, ‘Why?’ and he goes, ‘Mate, I just don’t think you’re good enough to play in this team and you won’t be playing in it whilst I’m coaching’,” King said.

“I said that’s pretty f***** up and then told him what I thought and the words that came out, there are some words that probably you don’t say, but they were said.”

Tensions continued to bubble away and King, among other young players, continued to feel disgruntled with Wallace.

The explosive meeting

That was until a night where, by accident, King found himself with a gilt-edged chance to tell the coach exactly what he thought.

“I remember this one night — I used to box a lot with Sam Soliman at the club, so I was back training with him,” King said.

“And Chris (Newman, who was captain at the time) went home from training and then came back, and he was pacing up and down non-stop. It was giving me the s****, so I’ve turned around and said, ‘Mate, what are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’ve got a meeting with Plough — the board’s asked me to talk to him about handing in his resignation’.

“I actually grabbed Chris and said, ‘No, we can have our issues with Plough, we can hate the bloke, do whatever it is — but as players, mate, you don’t have any rights to tell the coach to hand in his resignation. That’s not happening’. And he goes ‘Oh, well the meeting’s going on now’, and and then I said, ‘Well come with me’.

“So, we went down and spoke to (then Richmond footy boss, now Gold Coast list manager) Craig Cameron and I said, ‘Craig, mate, he’s not saying that — you’re stitching him up, you’re going to put him in a position that’s going to f*** him’.

“Plough stuck out and said, ‘Righto you blokes, come and have this meeting’. Craig’s looked at me and I said, ‘Well I’m getting the arse, so it might as well (be me), I’ll tell him he’s a s*** coach, let’s go’.

“And I said to Chris, ‘Don’t ask for his resignation, you have no right’. Chris was trying to be political about it and speak in a way that he wasn’t going to upset Plough.

“I said to Plough, I said, ‘Look, the board’s asked him to do something which he’s got no right to do, it’s got nothing to do with us. As players, we won’t ask for you to resign. You made a comment a long time ago that if you ever lost the respect from the playing group, you wanted us to tell you. Chris is happy to tell you that, and mate, I’ll tell you straight up, you’re just a f****** s*** coach.

“You promise the world — everyone here at the moment doesn’t know whether they’re getting a game, they’re not getting a game, what we’re doing this week, next week. Players are getting a game because you’re trying to save your a***. To tell me I’m not going to play again after Round 6, go f*** yourself’.”

It’s fair to say the response King got from Wallace was not the one he expected.

“Plough actually stood up and shook my hand. I looked at him and he goes, ‘Well, it’s about time someone actually told me the truth of what they really think rather than have all these meetings that you don’t think I know about’,” King went on.

“So, he had known there was a lot that had happened.

“I said, ‘Well, mate, as a playing group, as long as you’re here, we play for the jumper (and) we play for one another. I can’t stand you, but if I get a game, I’ll play for the players and the jumper, so nothing changes’.

“I think the last game he coached, we won, so even though the players thought the way they did of him, it’s not like they stopped playing, it was just a shemozzle the way it all happened. (They actually lost to the Bulldogs in Wallace’s last game but they did win the week before against Fremantle).”

Wallace’s impending departure from the Tigers was the AFL’s worst-kept secret that year. Everyone had known it was coming for some time.

Leaked to the media

Knowing that himself, Wallace sent tensions between himself and King, in particular, into overdrive, after that meeting.

“There was only three of us in that meeting, and I remember next day I woke up fresh as a daisy, I was rapt, I got it off my chest, I’m good. I open my door, I kid you not, there would have been 30, 40 cameras, cars, everything out the front of my house,” King recalled to Clubby Sports.

“I’m (thinking), ‘What’s happened here?’ And then they’re like, ‘Jake, did you tell Plough he had to resign, or else?’

“I shut my door — I’ve s*** bricks, I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’”

Details of the meeting had been leaked to media, and it became a massive story at the time.

That was unbeknown to King, who had switched off and took a breath of fresh air.

“I had a lot of mates that would ring me all hours of the night, so I’d turn my phone off of the night time. I turned the phone on and I had about I reckon 15 missed calls from Craig Cameron saying, ‘Mate, call me as soon as you get this, call me, call me’,” King said.

“I said, ‘Mate, what’s going on?’ He goes, ‘You need to get into the club but you need to come through Brunton Avenue’.

“I got in my garage, got in my car, reverse my car out, and they (the media scrum) wouldn’t move. I had this SS ute, it’d been all done up, so I’ve revved it, revved it — nah (it did nothing). Next thing you know, I put in reverse and ... I ran over a cameraman, kid you not.

“So then I got out. By this stage everyone’s got right out the way, so I’ve fanged it to the club. I remember parking my car on Brunton Avenue, rang Craig, I left my keys in it. They came and grabbed my keys because I went through the merchandise shop.

“I got in, walked up to Newy and I was going to kill him because there were only three of us, and I thought it was him (that leaked it). And then Newy’s tearing up, he’s like, ‘Mate, they were at my house too’.”

That’s when it dawned on him that it was Wallace himself who had deliberately leaked it — which Wallace admitted to King some years later, when they reconnected.

“I remember looking down the hallway and Plough’s come walking in, so I’ve gone walking towards him, I remember opening his door, went off my head,” King said.

“I actually went to grab him, I was going to f****** kill him, and then Newy (and) Kane Johnson grabbed me and said, ‘Don’t, don’t’, and then Craig Cameron’s come in — so the boys actually grabbed me because I was fuming.”

Keeping his career alive

King was told to leave the club for two weeks while Wallace’s departure took place.

The AFL veteran was coming up to his 500th game as a player and coach, having had a decorated career with Hawthorn and the Bulldogs as a player as well.

The Tigers were willing to get him to the milestone but both parties had mutually agreed to part ways thereafter.

Cameron told King that if he could disappear during that period, and not get himself into any trouble for the rest of the year, he’d get another 12-month contract.

King obliged, but through gritted teeth.

“Because I was ready to either punch the s*** out of Plough and leave — and that was my mindset: if I’m going out like this, I’m going out the way that I knew all the boys from where I grew up would be proud of me, because I’m about to walk away from AFL, so I might as well get me name the way it was back at North Heidelberg,” King said.

“So, my head was just (saying) ‘belt him’ and leave, and then when Craig sat me down he actually said, ‘Mate, look Plough’s coming up to his 500th game as player and coach, he’s going to do that game and then he’s gone. Keep your mouth shut, go and play at the VFL, if you keep your mouth shut and play there, the door’s not closed’.

“So they behind closed doors actually said, ‘Don’t do anything silly, the moment Plough’s gone, we will play you the first first week that he’s gone’.”

King went on to play another 74 AFL games under new coach Damien Hardwick.

The small defender was repurposed as a pressure forward and became a crucial member of the Tigers’ pre-premiership dynasty era.

“That’s one of the most genuinely unbelievable stories I’ve ever heard,” Dylan Buckley said after King was finished telling the story.