Former Richmond coach Terry Wallace remembers Shane Tuck as tough, resilient Tiger
Terry Wallace coached Richmond for 99 games. And the only player to line up by his side for all 99 was Shane Tuck. The AFL Hall of Famer has paid an emotional tribute to his fiercely loyal Tiger with a hard country core.
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I was honoured to coach the mighty Richmond Football Club for 99 games in a tumultuous period.
All the players I coached did their best to turn the fortunes of the club around, but I only had one warrior over those five years who represented the club in every single one of those 99 games — Shane Tuck.
“Tucky” was super tough, resilient and had a hard country core.
Every club has them — in local, country and AFL footy — the player that nobody wanted to be opposed to in match-play at training.
Everything was a full-blooded contest.
He was a meat-and-potatoes footballer, and in fact, person.
There were no airs and graces to Shane in any way — he lived his life as a genuine, down-to-earth great bloke.
He loved his mates and always had their back and he lived to compete.
It did not always come easy for him as the son of one of the AFL’s most decorated players — if not the most decorated in history — Michael Tuck.
Living up to massive expectations is difficult for any son of a gun, but when your lineage is the surname Tuck on your fathers’ side and Ablett on your mothers’ side, the expectation must have been totally unreasonable all through his junior career.
When I first arrived at Punt Road there were doubts surrounding Shane’s ongoing career.
After having been let go by Hawthorn without playing a senior game at the end of 2002, he was drafted by Richmond at the end of 2003 and debuted in Round 14, 2004 — the season before I arrived.
He had not been offered a contract and was on trial when I took over coaching the club.
I can vividly remember driving down to Gippsland to play Essendon in a practice game, hoping to find a couple of players that might lift our fortunes.
That day I walked away knowing that I had two players who showed that they were comfortably up to AFL standard.
The first was David Rodan, who starred and then unfortunately did his knee, and the other was the big, strong, robust midfielder Shane Tuck.
From that day onward, his career took off.
I always had the sense that both father and son were pleased that Shane could make his own history at Tigerland without the massive expectation that obviously would have followed him at the Hawks.
This is not saying anything about either club, but simply that some young men need to find their own pathway in life.
I have always loved the Tuck family.
As a teenager, having a locker next to Michael Tuck for nine years was a privilege.
We were so different — Tucky, the Gippsland plumber, and me, the city boy in leather pants.
Tuck and his lovely wife Fay they were always so warm and giving.
To then have the opportunity of watching their son blossom in his own right is one of my fondest memories in coaching.
Unfortunately, times are now extremely difficult for everyone.
At a moment like this football clubs, teammates and fans should be coming together to support each other, which currently we cannot do and many will be devastated as I am.
For those that didn’t know Shane, can I leave you with the footballer that would do anything for his club and teammates which meant hurting himself or playing hurt for the jumper.
The man? Well, he loved his family and was loyal to everyone he knew. He was a kind-hearted soul who saw good in every person he came across.
Football is a family in itself and at such a tragic time, the entire football community reaches out to the Tuck family.
— Terry Wallace played in three premierships with Hawthorn and was senior coach at Western Bulldogs 1996-2002 and Richmond 2005-09.
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