The Tigers paid a price for moving from one of the oldest to one of the youngest lists, but Wallace said they always knew it would be a long process.
"I think legitimate people who are Richmond supporters are still reasonably happy with the fact that they now see that the right young men are now in playing for their footy club," he said.
"They weren't around to be played earlier – that was the reality.
"We made 25 changes to the list in the first two years – you can't make 40 changes to the list in the first two years.
"We had 17- or 18-year-olds running around who are now 21 or 22, and it's just taken a little bit of time.
"But I knew that when I took on the job – we always knew it was going to be a long process; that was the reality of it."
Wallace said he hoped to be around to reap the rewards of the seeds sown, unlike Denis Pagan at Princes Park.
"I know Denis did a lot of work at Carlton, and now they're starting to bear some of the fruits, and Denis will never get any credit for that whatsoever.
The new group that come in take control of it and that's where it runs, but somebody has to do the hard work, somebody has to say: 'This is broken, we're going to try to fix it and change it'.
"If that means that's all you do, well, so be it, but that was the task that I took on, and I was comfortable to take on that task, knowing it was going to be difficult.
"What you need to do is get a core group of blokes, all around the one age, to give yourself the best try.
"Whether you've selected the right blokes, with the right ability, at that time, will make the determination of how far you go.
"But without a core bloke of groups at the one age, all coming through together, all wanting to have success together, you've got no hope.
"So that's our aim."
