Bomber Thompson cost us the 2008 and 2010 Premeirships

[Jhye Clark 13]

He says things started to head this way about a third of the way through that season.

Around the same time I was told he had agreed to head to Essendon.

 

[Sttew]

Around the same time I was told he had agreed to head to Essendon.

We were and still are dirty on Bomber for his treasonous act. But if he’d stayed I doubt we’d have won in 2011 and who knows what Might have happened after that? We might have ended up like StKilda or Collingwood

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

If Bomber was mentally done + burnt out as a senior coach, why did he accept the position to join Essendon? Sure it was in a guiding role, still, he knew he was returning to Essendon in June 2010.

There is more to this Bomber story than we know. It has to do with the conflict with GAJr. Didn't Bomber complain that the senior players did as they chose?

Bomber may have been mentally done from Geelong but he wasn't mentally done from the game. I've said this before but I worked with a leading Essendon trainer at the time and he informed me in May of 2010 that Bomber had agreed to join Essendon.

The exert I just read from SJ's book and our subsequent demise in the 2010 prelim now makes a hell of a lot more sense.

 

[Partridge]

We beat Pies game 1. It went downhill that year for us. That loss against Saints mid winter when we scored zilch after half time was scary.
Yet how did we win 11 with virtually a 2010 list minus the near GOAT?

Because every year is different. Some players are incrementally better. Some are incrementally worse.

Although the 2010 Prelim is always invoked (I suspect for trolling purposes and nothing else), it's almost completely forgotten that we smashed Collingwood in the same game 12 months earlier in 2009. With a much bigger final margin too - 73 points. So the same two teams, with minor changes in personnel, had the roles completely reversed a year later. And then in late 2011, it reversed itself again when we won by 96 points. It happens.

 

[Willo_]

helping another member of the board with a request.

GO Catters

well I worked this out about 2 minutes after I made that smart arse post

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Not sure if I should breath new life into this thread or not ...but as I am reading Stevie J's book at the moment.........

On the 2010 season, from Stevie J's book - "Everything had been meticulously planned between 2007 and '09, but now it felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants. Our team meetings were really lacking in detail. Rather than tell us what the plan for an upcoming match was, he (Bomber) would just look at us and say, 'What do you reckon boys?'......He seemed a bit blasé."

He says things started to head this way about a third of the way through that season.

Around the same time I was told he had agreed to head to Essendon.

So Bomber did cost us the 2010 flag.
OP semi vindicated

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

So Bomber did cost us the 2010 flag.
OP semi vindicated

After reading that exert it appears his heart wasn't in the last 2/3 of the year.

 

[Boxhead_31]

We beat Pies game 1. It went downhill that year for us. That loss against Saints mid winter when we scored zilch after half time was scary.
Yet how did we win 11 with virtually a 2010 list minus the near GOAT?

Think Scarlo clarified this in the GF recall on Fox I think, was Scott coming in giving a new message that stoked the fires within the group for another push

 

[Sttew]

Think Scarlo clarified this in the GF recall on Fox I think, was Scott coming in giving a new message that stoked the fires within the group for another push

So Chris Scott was our saviour?

 

[Pollywaffle]

Scott's more defensive mindset/strategies helped, but the general 'writing off' of the team was just as important in stoking those 'fires' in a proud group of champions.

 

[BotsMaster]

We beat Pies game 1. It went downhill that year for us. That loss against Saints mid winter when we scored zilch after half time was scary.
Yet how did we win 11 with virtually a 2010 list minus the near GOAT?

Hard to say really. The team coached themselves?

 

[Vdubs]

So Chris Scott was our saviour?

affirmative

 

[Landgraft]

So Chris Scott was our saviour?

Or just a very naughty boy.

 

[Spazz Cat]

So Chris Scott was our saviour?

CS was so great that year. Seemed to care even more about playing young players and development than winning, but we just kept winning anyway.
A Crows game at KP comes to mind as a real highlight.
Also destroying Collingwood's/ Malthouse's game plan just before the finals was another.

 

[Vdubs]

I'd say the players attitude has a lot to do with it as well as Scotts tweaks also freshened the group and a few young players were injected into the side for the year, a proud group was humiliated in the prelim, then had their coach and star walk out on them... new coach = fresh message, someone to prove themselves to... And the desire to make up for the year before.

Of course.
It transpired that way.
Pretty amazing though that the correct attitude lasted 25 weeks in 2011.

 

[Willo_]

Of course.
It transpired that way.
Pretty amazing though that the correct attitude lasted 25 weeks in 2011.

Well it's not like we were a bad team before 2011, a slight change of mindset AND i mentioned tweaks made by Scott. Was a bit of a perfect storm.

We also had some pretty handy and important footballers retire after 11 as well which made it harder going forward

 

[Vdubs]

Well it's not like we were a bad team before 2011, a slight change of mindset AND i mentioned tweaks made by Scott. Was a bit of a perfect storm.

We also had some pretty handy and important footballers retire after 11 as well which made it harder going forward

Agree with all of that.
And we are still being touted today as a flag chance- CS IS still the one.

 

[Hello Kitty]

Why did Malcolm Blight accept the Saints coaching role? Why did Malthouse go to Carlton? Ego and big dollars

Did Blight + Malthouse say they were burnt out + didn't want to coach?

Yes, agree "Ego and big dollars" + Bomber probably went to Essendon for the same reason.

The point I'm trying to make is that Bomber said he was mentally done, burnt out etc, which to me suggests you don't want to coach, well for a while + you need a break. Yet, Bomber knew in June he was going to the Bombers, so why used that as an excuse? Why not say, it's been great at Geelong, but I've been offered a role at Essendon + I resign. Geelong would have wished him well, no acrimony.

 

[Hello Kitty]

We were and still are dirty on Bomber for his treasonous act. But if he’d stayed I doubt we’d have won in 2011 and who knows what Might have happened after that? We might have ended up like StKilda or Collingwood

Apparently all is forgiven + Bomber was welcomed back to Geelong in 2016.

Still, some of us are still sh!tty with Bomber. No matter what rational, reasonable facts are presented to me, I will always blame Bomber for Ablett leaving Geelong! No need for anyone to throw cogent arguments at me! I refuse to listen!

Now that Gaz is back at Geelong + Bomber is not at Geelong, I am totally vindicated!!!

 

[Hello Kitty]

So reading the bump, the reason we lost the 08 flag was that Hawthorn had a bloke secreted into the ground to know that we played through the corridor?
Wouldn't have watching the previous 40+ weeks of our games have told him that?

Oh how can you rain on their parade, with logic, destroying a good story?

 

[Hello Kitty]

So Chris Scott was our saviour?

We beat Pies game 1. It went downhill that year for us. That loss against Saints mid winter when we scored zilch after half time was scary.
Yet how did we win 11 with virtually a 2010 list minus the near GOAT?

Must have been Chris Scott's coaching!

*ducks for cover*

Yes! I'm claiming that one Sttew

Definitely Scott's coaching, in fact we should begin a thread about his coaching. . .oh wait!

 

[Hello Kitty]

CS was so great that year. Seemed to care even more about playing young players and development than winning, but we just kept winning anyway.
A Crows game at KP comes to mind as a real highlight.
Also destroying Collingwood's/ Malthouse's game plan just before the finals was another.

Rd22 2011 was one of the best games -
Geelong 22.17 149 -v- Collingwood 8.5.53

I remember the media waiting for the Pies' players to arrive for training the next day. When asked about the loss, Dane Swan said it was great + hoped they'd lose by 100 points in their next game.

 

[Turbocat]

To me , the revisionist type article continues the spin of Clarkson etc being the wonder kid and really was a miss reading of the way I remember it. I don't believe Bomber cost us the 08 (as in 100% his fault) unless you say Bomber and the team and the club cost us the flag etc... It was way more than just one man , just like it was when we won it in 07.

The truth is you almost always go with what works till it does't , the mantra of not changing and or doing anything different in high pressure games meant that on the end of what I think was our best season in that era we were not going to do anything bar play the highway. In the end it probably caught up to us a bit due to the fact that we were two seasons into playing a method of play that in its self was a counter to the stodgy play of 05 and 06. In spite of that , I still feel our method and our talent was good enough to overcome and to win if we had been more efficient and if some other flaws within our structure had not been there. for eg. Players were rightly keen to play but playing when carrying injuries is risky.. but in the end we just failed to convert the chances we developed.

Luck plays a part. In my history of watching Geelong a thing like losing our AA chb on the eve of the 07 finals was just the sort of thing that prevented us achieving..yet in 07 it was just a hiccup. Sometimes stuff like that can just be absorbed , disruption and things less than perfect yet the package still works In 08 , the lack of our conversion was the main cause of loss to my mind , and just like us in 09 , Haw made the most of it. The so called shark thing that was so "brilliant" is hardly a super effective effective method if we had so may chances to score. Mooney carried his half time shot with for the rest of his career. The mantra of just keep getting it there and it will turnaround just failed us

Thompson like so many high achievers was and is flawed. So what. Even in 2010 when he was on his way to Ess half thru the year..is that much different to so many players that are linked to other clubs thru their last year. Danger inspite of being mentally linked to a return home performed well in his last year so I do not think being linked to a move means you must perform less than your best.

 

[Boxhead_31]

To me , the revisionist type article continues the spin of Clarkson etc being the wonder kid and really was a miss reading of the way I remember it. I don't believe Bomber cost us the 08 (as in 100% his fault) unless you say Bomber and the team and the club cost us the flag etc... It was way more than just one man , just like it was when we won it in 07.

The truth is you almost always go with what works till it does't , the mantra of not changing and or doing anything different in high pressure games meant that on the end of what I think was our best season in that era we were not going to do anything bar play the highway. In the end it probably caught up to us a bit due to the fact that we were two seasons into playing a method of play that in its self was a counter to the stodgy play of 05 and 06. In spite of that , I still feel our method and our talent was good enough to overcome and to win if we had been more efficient and if some other flaws within our structure had not been there. for eg. Players were rightly keen to play but playing when carrying injuries is risky.. but in the end we just failed to convert the chances we developed.

Luck plays a part. In my history of watching Geelong a thing like losing our AA chb on the eve of the 07 finals was just the sort of thing that prevented us achieving..yet in 07 it was just a hiccup. Sometimes stuff like that can just be absorbed , disruption and things less than perfect yet the package still works In 08 , the lack of our conversion was the main cause of loss to my mind , and just like us in 09 , Haw made the most of it. The so called shark thing that was so "brilliant" is hardly a super effective effective method if we had so may chances to score. Mooney carried his half time shot with for the rest of his career. The mantra of just keep getting it there and it will turnaround just failed us

Thompson like so many high achievers was and is flawed. So what. Even in 2010 when he was on his way to Ess half thru the year..is that much different to so many players that are linked to other clubs thru their last year. Danger inspite of being mentally linked to a return home performed well in his last year so I do not think being linked to a move means you must perform less than your best.

We did things in that game I'd hadn't seen us do since 06 the Ottens shot on goal in the 2nd being the main one. He had Lonergan all alone 35m out but took the shot an missed. Was about then watching at the ground I realised we were in major trouble

 

[Vdubs]

The 2009 PF2 was one of the best games -
Geelong 17.18.120 -v- Collingwood 6.11.47
I remember the media waiting for the Pies' players to arrive for training the next day. When asked about the loss, Dane Swan said it was great + hoped they'd lose by 100 points in their next game.

I think that comment was after our massive win in that last game 2011 prefinals.