View Full Version : Who has done more for the Cats?
Who has done more for the mighty Cats, Bomber or Gary Ayres?
I think Bomber because we have got great players now at Geelong. I think with Gary we only had a couple of good players and many bad ones.
C'MON THE MIGHTY CATS GET IT ON!
Thompson easily.
Ayres took over after we'd been in a GF,so we still had a healthy list at the time.
Then Ayres destroyed the club and Thompson and his merry men [Cook/Costa] are attempting to fix it.
In terms of results, Ayres.
However, on the other side of the spectrum, Thompson has got a young group of kids together with plenty of potential. Bomber has also tried his best to change the public's mentality of Geelong, and also rid the club of their dead skeletons - Culture wise, by appointing the past players as assistants, and fixing up the problem of Club Champions and the way in which their retirement is delt with.
I think all in all, Bomber has been more effective, but at times during the season, I had my doubts.
When you say 'who has done more? do you mean good or bad?
Ayres certainly did more bad. Took a team regularly playing finals, purged the list and turned them into a rabble. Bomber has been repairing the damage ever since.
However despite this rather damning statement, I tend to believe Ayres is the better match day coach.
catattack
8 Dec 2003, 17:11
Thompson.
Ayres had the success in his first three years, but that was largely to the draw we had carrying over from Malcolm Blight. Once several of those players left - some top players forced - we went downhill... 1998 and 1999 were bleak years.
Although Thompson's results haven't been overly attractive, the damage he had to fix has to come into consideration. It's hard to judge Thompson's worth due to inconsistent seasons. Next season is make or break, but at the moment I would say Thompson is the better coach.
Originally posted by catattack
Thompson.
Ayres had the success in his first three years, but that was largely to the draw we had carrying over from Malcolm Blight. Once several of those players left - some top players forced - we went downhill... 1998 and 1999 were bleak years.
Although Thompson's results haven't been overly attractive, the damage he had to fix has to come into consideration. It's hard to judge Thompson's worth due to inconsistent seasons. Next season is make or break, but at the moment I would say Thompson is the better coach.
What are you basing that on exactly?
You deride Mark Thompson, labelling his performances 'not overly attractive' and then go onto say he has fixed some monumental damage - or so I imagine its monumental as you are excusing him of 4 shocking seasons. Then, you say he is the better coach than Gary.
If Thompson had fixed the damage left by Ayres, I think we would have seen some improvement on the field by now. Case in question: Paul Roos. An immediate impact for the Sydney Swans.
Don't get me wrong, I like Mark...but i think he should have done more than he has.
gocatsgo
8 Dec 2003, 19:55
I haven't posted in a long time, but I felt obliged to answer this post.
If Thompson had fixed the damage left by Ayres, I think we would have seen some improvement on the field by now. Case in question: Paul Roos. An immediate impact for the Sydney Swans.
There was an immediate impact when Thompson took over with us winning six of our first seven games and playing in the finals in 2000, a similar scenario to Roos this year.
I think most new coaches go through some sort of honeymoon period, Peter Rhode even won his first 2 games as coach. 2002 against Collingwood and then against us in round one this year.
I've got no doubt that Thompson has been more beneficial for us despite the overall disappointing results than Ayres was.
Thompson has attemped to bring back the past players where Ayres threw them out on their ear. Think of the likes of Couch, Bairstow, S. Hocking, Brownless, Hinkley, Barnes, ABLETT. A group of stars in our era under Blight that Ayres had out of the club by the time he quit in 1999, all didn't want to go and probably had more to give as was the case with Barnes winning a flag in 2000.
The only champion player who Thompson has retired was Garry Hocking and he did that for Buddha's own good because he wouldn't have been able to walk.
As has been said, Ayres had a good team and ruined it. I could have coached the 1995 side into a grand final. You only had to see the results in the '95 finals leading into the GF, No-one got within 13 goals. He didn't exactly have a lot of work to do!!!!
As was the case under Blight, we ran into a better side. Never once were we favoured to win the flag in those four games.
Ayres had his opportunity to leave a mark in 96 and 97. 96 things went wrong in the last 2 weeks of the season when Carlton flogged us at home then we weren't competitive against North in the first final.
'97 he had a bit of bad luck, (with that mark). There is no-doubt Ablett would have made the difference in 1997 if he hadn't have played him in the reserves in the first game and he had have been fit for the season, we would have won the minor premiership by a street and had an easy passage through but it wasn't to be. Ablett was one of those players who didn't need to train, he made an example of our champion and I firmly believe we've been paying for it since.
98 and 99 were disasters with no young players coming through thanks to no recruiting during the successful years.
In 2000, Thompson got everything he could out of that side which was still hanging onto the likes of Barry Stoneham who's career ended the day he broke his leg against fitzroy in 1994.
'Bomber' saw the writing on the wall in his first year and braced us for a few years on the bottom. So to still be the only team that hasn't finished in the bottom four since 1987 (when Eagles and Bears came in) isn't a bad effort.
But the games have to be won in the next season, even if it is something like 10-12 or 11-11, we need to be ready to strike in 2005 or Thompson will join the likes of Ayres.
ScouseCat
8 Dec 2003, 20:30
Does anyone see similarities between what Gary Ayres did to Geelong and what he's currently doing to Adelaide??
Ayres took a team who regularly played in Finals and Grand Finals and left them in an absolute mess, and we've been paying for that ever since. Gary Ayres was the worst thing to happen to our club since Tom Hafey was lured to Sydney in 1986 and took Mark Bolton, Bernhard Toohey and Greg Williams with him.