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Toast Brian Cook

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The standard you walk past is the one you accept
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Picture the end of 1999. Colbert deserts Geelong to go to North. Ayers ups and leaves to go to Adelaide. Kardinia Park is being seriously looked at by the AFL as a venue that may not be suitable for playing AFL footy, and talk was Geelong might have to consider relocating unless the ground had significant money spent on it.

The team was mediocre on field at this stage, with other clubs well ahead financially. Six million dollars in debt. Then, Brian Cook was recruited by Frank Costa.

Twelve seasons on.....Geelong has two Flags and is playing in a GF this week. Kardinia Park is an imposing home fortress on the verge of being expanded to close to 35,000 capacity. Strong sponsorship dollars roll in. Quickest time taken for any team in history to accumulate 100 wins. A side full of champion players, of whom over a dozen are All Australians. Several clubs pick up coaches and players who have come from the Geelong environment. Geelong is now looked upon as a powerhouse of the whole competition.

I look back and shake my head, and think this is absolutely amazing. Could anyone but Cook, Costa and Bomber at that stage have dreamt that this would be the results? Brian Cook particularly, who mapped out the business models and instigated the recovery fiancially and also from a club respect situation is almost like a patron Saint.

And we as fans have lived this, seen this and now love this. Our club....is now what we always saw others to be. Geelong now, is respected amongst the league as a powerhouse. Even opposition fans generally have universal respect for what Geelong is now on and off-field.

And Brian Cook signed on for three more years during the season, to oversee the improvements and see the plan to it's fruition. Howlucky are we to have had a man of such drive, acumen and vision to produce what was surely almost pipe dream material.

As a Cats fan from the late 70's......i just give thanks and marvel at what has transformed before our lives:thumbsu:
 
Great post, Catsace.:thumbsu:

He also navigated us wonderfully well through the unsettling period last year when Henny Penny's were appearing from every rabbit warren about the place. As I've said on this board before they should erect a statue of him outside the stadium. Beside one of Alex Popescu.
 
Ammo Man said:
Great post, Catsace.:thumbsu:

He also navigated us wonderfully well through the unsettling period last year when Henny Penny's were appearing from every rabbit warren about the place. As I've said on this board before they should erect a statue of him outside the stadium. Beside one of Alex Popescu.
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Exactly. Lost the best player in the competition and the dual Premiership coach, and the board and culture at the club at that level is able to pluck Chris Scott from the coaching ranks, and Geelong rather than lamentating losses a la Colbert and perhaps Ayers, we regather our group and finish 19-3 and are at a shot for the flag.

Shouldn't be too hard about Colbert though, with Wells as our recruiter in '99 we picked up guys like Chappy for Mansfield's pick, and i think Enright and Ling for the picks for Colbert. We also recruited Cam Mooney too.:thumbsu:
 

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I was watching a video interview with Brian Cook, where he talked about the Armstrong Creek training facility and how it will become an important asset for the Geelong Cats in the future.

However, when Brian Cook was questioned as to his future, he replied:

I have no plans of moving out of Geelong. You know I love the club. It has been very good to me. Very kind to me. And I think that I have given a fair bit back to the club as well. To be honest with you, I have no real ambition to do anything else. No, I am very, very happy where I am.
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Video source: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/131114/default.aspx#embedvideoplayer

Good news for Geelong Cats fans.
 
I heard that a while ago rabbi and couldnt of been happier hearing it.
We have one out of the box with Cooky, I really cant say enough about the great man.

I used to work at The Geelong Club as steward for a while and ran into him often during the early 2000s, the person you see on TV is the person he truely is.

Theres 4 people who I think ALL of Geelong absolutely LOVE and would rightly be entitled to gold statues outside KP, Cook, Costa, Stephen Wells and Alex Popescu.
Without those 4 GREAT men we dont have our beloved club, plain and simple.
 
I expect he will be head hunted. He might resist most offers but there is one out there he should consider.

I would love him to replace Vlad.

He has left far too big a legacy at catland for it to hurt us now (unless stupidity is allowed to return [see late 90's]) and it would be a big positive for all AFL fans.
 
need to have a statue of Cook erected (yes,...I said Cook) out the front of the Bobby Davis gate :thumbsu:
 
catswhiskers said:
I expect he will be head hunted. He might resist most offers but there is one out there he should consider.

I would love him to replace Vlad.

He has left far too big a legacy at catland for it to hurt us now (unless stupidity is allowed to return [see late 90's]) and it would be a big positive for all AFL fans.
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Regrettably –for the AFL but fortunately for us – he was passed over for the key AFL job when Demetriou grabbed it. That horse has now bolted as Gillon McLachlan is London to a brick to follow Demetriou as AFL CEO.

My guess is that Cookie will continue with us until he decides to move away from full time employment at which time he’ll be chased for board positions and his sound business and administrative knowledge. Which may mean, in the latter case, acting as a consultant advising struggling AFL clubs.

My wish would be for him to continue in a role with us. Perhaps a future President.
 
Ammo Man said:
Regrettably –for the AFL but fortunately for us – he was passed over for the key AFL job when Demetriou grabbed it. That horse has now bolted as Gillon McLachlan is London to a brick to follow Demetriou as AFL CEO.
My wish would be for him to continue in a role with us. Perhaps a future President.
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Yes the AFl missed out big time. And yes we were lucky.

The AFL are likely to continue with the blokey appointments but if they want someone who has demonstrated amazing understanding of business in its football context Cook is the one. And a real human being.

If Cookie stays with us I will be rapt. He is still full of ideas and he helps make the place hum.

President is a few years away but yes he bleeds blue n white and that is what is needed.
 
Brian Cook is the most astute and competent administrator in the country

IMO the obvious future AFL CEO

Unfortunately i doubt he will get the job ahead of Mike Fitzpatrick

Cook did actually play senior football

4 games as a Demon
 
didnt cooky say he had no interest anymore on running the AFL?
Said he was too old and not ambitious anymore?
 

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A man without an ambition is a man who is cooked.
Having said that, I'd love to hear about the early days at West Coast. THAT would be a story
 
vinum coupe said:
A man without an ambition is a man who is cooked.
Having said that, I'd love to hear about the early days at West Coast. THAT would be a story
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VC... are you saying that Cook has no ambition or are you just saying that in general?

I would challenge that he has plenty of ambition - to see the ongoing and future success of the GFC in times that are and will be ultra competitive with a slightly unjust playing field tilted towards a AFL endorsed rotational success period for different clubs and the blinded support of the expansion clubs..

To exit such an era with the club never having "plateaued" or rebuilt would be an amazing feat...

Given where GFC was and is now, I think a statue is a small price of homage to pay....

Go Catters...

But yes, I agree his WC days would be an interesting insight.... :D
 
The 'story' relating to his West Coast days pales when compared to that with us IMO.

By the time Cookie completes his present contract with us he'll be nearing the end of his business career. It won't be any lack of ambition that will be a factor in the course he takes in the future. More what other interests he might like to pursue. Which might include distributing around the globe some of the readies Alex left him.;)
 
I think it's wrong to say that 'Captain' Cook has no ambition. What I suspect is that personal ambition has been supplanted by collective ambition, that the continued growth and success of our club is the manifestation of his ambition running absolute, gloriously rampant.

An appropriate analogy might be Jimmy Bartel sacrificing any chance he has of winning a second Brownlow as an elite midfielder in order to become an elite trouble shooter, molding his game to the needs of the team in any given situation in order to allow the team a fair shot at winning more premierships.

It seems to be a very common theme in this glorious enigma of a club that we all so passionately support, but we really shouldn't be too surprised.

After all, there's no 'I' in Geelong, nor any 'I' in Cook.

("We are Geelong ... ")
 
That's kinda what I mean just not what I said ;P
He has no personal ambition to further his own career eg afl commission job etc. Clearly he still has stacks of ambition when it comes to the cats but I just think he has no interest to "move up the ladder" so to speak
 
I have no real ambition to do anything else. No, I am very, very happy where I am.
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Get the picture lads?
 

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supahoops said:
Australian cricket is in disarray.

James Sutherland has presided over a period as abysmal as any since the early eighties.

Brian Cook to me would be the ultimate replacement.

Hope it doesn't happen, still plenty to do here..
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He just told a basketcase in North "No thanks",so why would he go and work at an even bigger basketcase in CA ?
They've tried poaching him before and it didn't work.
 
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