Richmond utility Richard Tambling has paid tribute to beleaguered coach Terry Wallace for continuing to show faith in him.

Wallace's first task upon being appointed Tigers coach at the end of the 2004 season was at the national draft, where the club selected Brett Deledio at No.1 and Tambling at No.4, one spot ahead of Hawks superstar Lance Franklin.

Tambling admits the constant comparisons to Franklin were a burden early in his career.

But the 22-year-old has moved on and is now playing career-best football as a lead-up forward.

And for that he gives a lot of the credit to Wallace, who is under extreme pressure to hold onto his job in the final year of his contract with the Tigers boasting a dismal 1-7 win-loss record.

Tambling turned up to training on Tuesday to discover that Wallace and the club's leadership group were absent as they attended a "clear the air" meeting.

There were rumours that Wallace would be sacked, before club officials said they were sticking with the plan of reviewing the position during the mid-season break.

"The boys are as tight as they have been all year," Tambling said on Wednesday during the launch of Saturday's annual Dreamtime at the `G match against Essendon.

"We know who our coach is and hopefully he's going to be there for the rest of the year.

"Obviously we've copped it a lot this year with (Ben Cousins) coming over and Plough (Wallace).

"We just treat every week as it comes and that's the only thing we can control - we try and control the controllables.

"The focus is strongly on the weekend and Essendon is our focus."

Tambling said he owed Wallace a lot as the person who drafted him to Punt Rd five years ago.

"He's given me opportunities that may have bypassed me if I was with any other club," said Tambling.

"He's been a very important figure in my career so far.

"He's always had faith in me.

"Even when he told me I had to go back to the seconds he said `play well, go back and get your confidence up and you're straight back in the team if you play well'.

"He's definitely been an important person in my career."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP