Training Pre-Season 2026 chat

[Munich]

Just saw Stengle at my local Cafe in Richmond. Looked OK to me. Is he still not training?

 

[Goggin Our Best]

109 games, premiership player, AA, multiple top 5 B&F finishes including in a premiership year.

Either Stengle is dedicated or your statement is wrong.

Mate dont embarrass yourself defending AFL players questionable behaviour off the field , instead just enjoy their football skills and talent

I mean look at the Cats and the starting eleven

Who is going to open the batting for us - well Jack of course , Jack Steven just gets stabbed in the pre- season

Then Ablett Snr involved in that tradegy with the young lady

Darren Milburn accidently kills someone in a head on collision , loses concentration , drifts accross the median strip and hits the poor person head on

Steve Johnson goes 135 in a 50 zone through the roads of East Geelong Golf Course

Shannon Byrnes our current club runner is in the front seat with Johnson so he is just as big an idiot as Johnson

Mark Bairstow Capt of Geel at the time on the morning of the 92 GF - gets kicked on the knee by a racehorse , which just happened to be owned by the club president Ron Hovey - i mean this stuff is so stupid you couldnt make it up

Gary Sidebottom misses the bus to the 1981 PF at Waverly , which Geel narrowly lose , probably cost us a flag - his replacement Peter Johnson ( who had no idea he was playing ) so on the way to the ground , he has had a Cheese Burger , a Big Mac , some fries , and washed it down with a Strawberry thickshake , i mean this stuff is just hilarious

Stengle is found unconscious and thus taken to hospital in an ambulance

Stokes nearly brings the club to its knees getting involved with Cocaine

Andrew Wills when playing with Geel gets convicted ( but no jail sentence ) for stealing several thousand dollars from his Grandmothers passbook bank accounts

And lets not forget the coach , the all important coach , Mark Thompson convicted of drug possession , MDA, Ice , LSD and Xanax

Like i say mate , just enjoy AFL Players for their talent on the field

 

[jim boy]

Mate dont embarrass yourself defending AFL players questionable behaviour off the field , instead just enjoy their football skills and talent

I mean look at the Cats and the starting eleven

Who is going to open the batting for us - well Jack of course , Jack Steven just gets stabbed in the pre- season

Then Ablett Snr involved in that tradegy with the young lady

Darren Milburn accidently kills someone in a head on collision , loses concentration , drifts accross the median strip and hits the poor person head on

Steve Johnson goes 135 in a 50 zone through the roads of East Geelong Golf Course

Shannon Byrnes our current club runner is in the front seat with Johnson so he is just as big an idiot as Johnson

Mark Bairstow Capt of Geel at the time on the morning of the 92 GF - gets kicked on the knee by a racehorse , which just happened to be owned by the club president Ron Hovey - i mean this stuff is so stupid you couldnt make it up

Gary Sidebottom misses the bus to the 1981 PF at Waverly , which Geel narrowly lose , probably cost us a flag - his replacement Peter Johnson ( who had no idea he was playing ) so on the way to the ground , he has had a Cheese Burger , a Big Mac , some fries , and washed it down with a Strawberry thickshake , i mean this stuff is just hilarious

Stengle is found unconscious and thus taken to hospital in an ambulance

Stokes nearly brings the club to its knees getting involved with Cocaine

Andrew Wills when playing with Geel gets convicted ( but no jail sentence ) for stealing several thousand dollars from his Grandmothers passbook bank accounts

And lets not forget the coach , the all important coach , Mark Thompson convicted of drug possession , MDA, Ice , LSD and Xanax

Like i say mate , just enjoy AFL Players for their talent on the field

And that is only the stuff in the public domain. Footballers are people, they ****, they shit, some are not nice people, others are great. As long as they don't lead to there into a drop in football standards, then clubs are incredibly tolerant. There is a line of course, and that can vary. Allen jeans famously said that if the difference between a premiership or being also rans is whether he plays the axe murderer in the team, then he was playing an axe murderer. That line may be different for others, the test last year was whether Bruhn crossed it. He didn't, at least in the court of public opinion. Tarryn Thomas did.

Never meet your heroes

 

[Footy Smarts]

Mate dont embarrass yourself defending AFL players questionable behaviour off the field , instead just enjoy their football skills and talent

I mean look at the Cats and the starting eleven

Who is going to open the batting for us - well Jack of course , Jack Steven just gets stabbed in the pre- season

Then Ablett Snr involved in that tradegy with the young lady

Darren Milburn accidently kills someone in a head on collision , loses concentration , drifts accross the median strip and hits the poor person head on

Steve Johnson goes 135 in a 50 zone through the roads of East Geelong Golf Course

Shannon Byrnes our current club runner is in the front seat with Johnson so he is just as big an idiot as Johnson

Mark Bairstow Capt of Geel at the time on the morning of the 92 GF - gets kicked on the knee by a racehorse , which just happened to be owned by the club president Ron Hovey - i mean this stuff is so stupid you couldnt make it up

Gary Sidebottom misses the bus to the 1981 PF at Waverly , which Geel narrowly lose , probably cost us a flag - his replacement Peter Johnson ( who had no idea he was playing ) so on the way to the ground , he has had a Cheese Burger , a Big Mac , some fries , and washed it down with a Strawberry thickshake , i mean this stuff is just hilarious

Stengle is found unconscious and thus taken to hospital in an ambulance

Stokes nearly brings the club to its knees getting involved with Cocaine

Andrew Wills when playing with Geel gets convicted ( but no jail sentence ) for stealing several thousand dollars from his Grandmothers passbook bank accounts

And lets not forget the coach , the all important coach , Mark Thompson convicted of drug possession , MDA, Ice , LSD and Xanax

Like i say mate , just enjoy AFL Players for their talent on the field

I'm confused what you're arguing here

You said "To play Afl Football you have to be dedicated , and Stengle isnt". Now you're giving me a list of people who lacked dedication but played great footy. Are you just trying to prove my point?

I don't know much about Stengle. He's clearly made some ordinary decisions off field. But he's also played some great football for us. Vastly better football than he's been remunerated so far.

Maybe things go south fast and he goes the way of Jack Steven. Or maybe he goes the way of Stokes. Assuming the worst and labelling him lazy at the first news of things going wrong after he's played 4 really good seasons for us is pretty ugly.

 

[Mr Meow]

Mate dont embarrass yourself defending AFL players questionable behaviour off the field , instead just enjoy their football skills and talent

I mean look at the Cats and the starting eleven

Who is going to open the batting for us - well Jack of course , Jack Steven just gets stabbed in the pre- season

Then Ablett Snr involved in that tradegy with the young lady

Darren Milburn accidently kills someone in a head on collision , loses concentration , drifts accross the median strip and hits the poor person head on

Steve Johnson goes 135 in a 50 zone through the roads of East Geelong Golf Course

Shannon Byrnes our current club runner is in the front seat with Johnson so he is just as big an idiot as Johnson

Mark Bairstow Capt of Geel at the time on the morning of the 92 GF - gets kicked on the knee by a racehorse , which just happened to be owned by the club president Ron Hovey - i mean this stuff is so stupid you couldnt make it up

Gary Sidebottom misses the bus to the 1981 PF at Waverly , which Geel narrowly lose , probably cost us a flag - his replacement Peter Johnson ( who had no idea he was playing ) so on the way to the ground , he has had a Cheese Burger , a Big Mac , some fries , and washed it down with a Strawberry thickshake , i mean this stuff is just hilarious

Stengle is found unconscious and thus taken to hospital in an ambulance

Stokes nearly brings the club to its knees getting involved with Cocaine

Andrew Wills when playing with Geel gets convicted ( but no jail sentence ) for stealing several thousand dollars from his Grandmothers passbook bank accounts

And lets not forget the coach , the all important coach , Mark Thompson convicted of drug possession , MDA, Ice , LSD and Xanax

Like i say mate , just enjoy AFL Players for their talent on the field

Try a slice of empathy for once. Your incessant whinging about Geelong players on and off field is growing tired fast.

Professional footballers, like all humans, make mistakes and undergo struggles. Nobody wants to see them in situations where they harm themselves or others. Stengle was a discard who we backed in and has provided excellent value on field.

It's up to him and the club, who have all of the relevant information, to decide where to go from here. Why don't we try to refrain from childish and over the top statements in the meantime?

Ironically it is you that isn't taking your own advice to simply enjoy players on field displays, with remarks like Stengle not being dedicated enough to play in the AFL.

 

[Tony Barber]

Gary Sidebottom misses the bus to the 1981 PF at Waverly , which Geel narrowly lose , probably cost us a flag - his replacement Peter Johnson ( who had no idea he was playing ) so on the way to the ground , he has had a Cheese Burger , a Big Mac , some fries , and washed it down with a Strawberry thickshake , i mean this stuff is just hilarious

Technically Sidebottom did miss the bus.
But it wasn't his fault, it was Goggins.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Technically Sidebottom did miss the bus.
But it wasn't his fault, it was Goggins.

Just out of interest , can you actually tell us what was the story - because it has never been told

Sidebottom lived at Lara so the bus had to pick him up on the way to Melb

Ian Nankervis ( on that Grumpy old men show - with KB and Bobby Davis ) said the previous week Sidebottom played in the 2nds in the 2nd semi at Waverly , and got terribly drunk on the bus on the way home and some players basically had to carry him off the bus when they got home

Goggin would have found out about that and would have been livid , and he didnt like Sidebottom anyway because he wasnt dedicated off the field

So please tell us what actually happened , i mean this has been the biggest cover up of all time , i mean at one point not that long ago the Team Manager threatened to sue Billy , if Billy inferred that it was the team managers fault that Sidey missed the bus

So TB please tell us what actually happened !!!!!!

 

[Commando]

Just saw Stengle at my local Cafe in Richmond. Looked OK to me. Is he still not training?

According to today's paper No.
Also no sign of the Loch Ness Monster - Conway

 

[MisterMarcus]

Maybe I know more than you do.
But I’m glad you went the moral high ground

Only pre season and we're already playing these bullshit "nudge nudge wink wink, I'm not sayin I'm just sayin, I know everything but oh no sorry can't share it" games....

Whoopie

 

[cats_09]

A trip well made, while those back home would have enjoyed the 2am watch party

 

[cats_09]

 

[Sticksman]

If anyone finds some game vision please post a link here.

A decent highlights clip is up now

 

[cats_09]

 

[MacStradbroke]

Must be hard work being an Irish commentator (my throat hurts just thinking about talking like that)

 

[Pollywaffle]

Must be hard work being an Irish commentator (my throat hurts just thinking about talking like that)

For the first few moments watching highlights I thought I’d had a stroke.
Didn’t realize it was in Gaelic

 

[Tony Barber]

Just out of interest , can you actually tell us what was the story - because it has never been told

Sidebottom lived at Lara so the bus had to pick him up on the way to Melb

Ian Nankervis ( on that Grumpy old men show - with KB and Bobby Davis ) said the previous week Sidebottom played in the 2nds in the 2nd semi at Waverly , and got terribly drunk on the bus on the way home and some players basically had to carry him off the bus when they got home

Goggin would have found out about that and would have been livid , and he didnt like Sidebottom anyway because he wasnt dedicated off the field

So please tell us what actually happened , i mean this has been the biggest cover up of all time , i mean at one point not that long ago the Team Manager threatened to sue Billy , if Billy inferred that it was the team managers fault that Sidey missed the bus

So TB please tell us what actually happened !!!!!!

Mate, I'm still friends with Gogg's son so I'm sure I could get the full story if it's really needed.

Personally, I forget a lot of what happened. I didn't know about the drinking thing BTW.

But early in the week Goggin wanted to give Sidebottom motivation so he gave him a kick up the butt by telling him he was out.
And he was never going to be out.

For some ridiculous reason (and I dont remember why this happened), Sidebottom was never actually told that he was in.
Thats why he wasn't there for the bus.

 

[GlenMiddlemissed]

Ah, the good (bad) old days of Geelong in the 70s and 80s, always thinking they were one good key forward away from contending. In '74, Rex Hunt was recruited for this, he lasted 32 games and 2 seasons. In 75, Phil Baker had a 1 year 9 game go before heading back to whence he came (Nth Melb). In 1977, it was Peter Ruscuklic from Fitzroy who was to be the saviour, he lasted 4 games. So then it was Sidebottom in 1981, 1 year and 7 games (surprising how few games he gave us for being so relatively well known, which is why I looked all this up...). In 1984, probably our worst recruit ever (not for his football, he could play a little bit) in idiot Mark Jackson turned up for 31 games over 2 years. Thankfully, it all turned around in 1984 when a little known country boy who would kick 1000 goals for us quietly arrived (quietly for about 5 games I think!).

 

[Spearman]

Where's Swampy the Stat Zombie? How many Irishmen or Irishwomen have both a Premiership Medal and an All-Ireland Medal?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

According to today's paper No.
Also no sign of the Loch Ness Monster - Conway

Reckon we were estimating full training for Nessie as mid season for full training if it was the surgery we thoughg it was

 

[CatToTheFuture]

For the first few moments watching highlights I thought I’d had a stroke.
Didn’t realize it was in Gaelic

It's easy to forget English isn't their first language

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

A trip well made, while those back home would have enjoyed the 2am watch party

Hopefully he stays there.

 

[Pollywaffle]

It's easy to forget English isn't their first language

At least they have an excuse. Sometimes it’s hard to understand our guys when they are speaking English

 

[MacStradbroke]

Hopefully he stays there.

Hahaha what? Gave Rayner a bath in the granny, one of very few winners.

 

[cats_09]

From this at 2am... Even a sighting of Loch Ness



To hitting the training track a few hours later

 

[cats_09]

A couple more premiership Cats were in the crowd to watch O'Connor