Geelong's 3 worst coaches in the last 50 years

[Hva sher a]

Hope you don't mind me jumping in but at least the Catters didn't have Tony Shaw for a coach.

At least Ayres coached you into GFs

 

[eminbee]

There's a lot of mythology about Blight. He did some things fantastically well; but he also made some horrendous blunders. He's far from the perfect coach or leader of men. As a coach he's not within a mile of Thompson in my opinion.

And yes, Gary Ayres will be at the top of this tree of mediocrity for a long time to come. At least we didn't get Danny Frawley.

Agree this. For a lot of good things, there was plenty bad to balance up any Blight assessment. Worst for me was the 1991 PF at Waverley where, with a 5-goal hurricane blowing against us in the first qtr, he left Barry Stoneham getting frost-bite at FF for the whole qtr. Game pretty much gone at that point.

Unlucky to lose the SSF, we should have been straight to the GF and would have won it from there. Eagles were far from ready in 1991, and Blight gifted them a place in the GF. They certainly used the experience well, the following year.

 

[eminbee]

After his performance (or lack of it) in the 1994 Grand Final he deserved it. He was finished and brutally exposed when it mattered most. No sympathy.

Another example of Blight's "genius syndrome"! RU forgetting Blight played the competition's leading centreman on a wing in the GF on Matera. Had a lot more possessions than Matera (although you'll get no argument from me about the comparative quality of the 2 efforts). No doubt Matera needed a match-up, but Blight lacked the courage to play the 1st year (? 2nd) Peter Riccardi who at least had the leg speed to compete with Matera. (Hindsight and all but) you'd have to look long and hard to find an occasion where Riccardi lowered his colours to Matera during a career-long rivalry.

 

[Vdubs]

Statistically Gary Ayres record is good.
116 games, 65 Wins, 50 Losses, 1 Draw- 56% W-L, including finals and a GF.
He does not get credit for trying to change the culture at Geelong, which was needed.
Where he came from was obviously the most successful regime in footy history, and he would have had strong opinions and ideas, and was backed by his mentor, Blight.
There were worse coaches, including Farmer and Devine, at least statistically

 

[you pick one]

Statistically Gary Ayres record is good.
116 games, 65 Wins, 50 Losses, 1 Draw- 56% W-L, including finals and a GF.
He does not get credit for trying to change the culture at Geelong, which was needed.
Where he came from was obviously the most successful regime in footy history, and he would have had strong opinions and ideas, and was backed by his mentor, Blight.
There were worse coaches, including Farmer and Devine, at least statistically

I'd include Hafey as well at Geelong,took players with him when he pissed off to Sydney just to rub salt into the wound.Tee shirt Tom.

 

[Mr Blicavs]

A lot of people are forming their conclusions based on the win / loss records. Some of these are the same people who claim stats dont give a full account when arguing the full worth of their favorite players. Interesting!

For mine
1 Gary Ayres (General consensus)
2 Chris Scott (You simply cant ignore his inability to to coach well in finals)
3 John Devine (A sit on his hands and "do nothing" kind of coach, who relied on the sheer brilliance to Ablett. Lindner and few others) Very decisive figure, and if i recall correctly, there was a player revolt in 1988 to oust him, and talk that some players werent even turning up to training. The failures of 1988 were magnified by the sharp improvement in 1989 under Blight in both attitude and on field results.

 

[Cataholic]

Maybe I should have named the thread "Geelongs 2nd worst coach since 1963". Seems universal...

Perhaps Ayers has contributed to my almost pathological dislike of "King-hit" Clarkson and his mob....

Did Ayers do anything right?....er...apart from leaving?

Yep...... After eviscerating the club he left before detecting and extinguishing the faint pulse that remained.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Can't blame Ayers for losing Ablett. Guy was 34 and hurt his knee.
Our current coach made a GF in his first year, and gradually lost players.
Does anyone blame him? No! Cause they Retired! Lol.
Thought Ayers coached us to a style to win the 97 flag but unfortunately not to be.
Don't remember any coaches before Blight.
But Ayers is the worst out of the ones I've seen. But not by a huge amount.
Was unliked by players in Adelaide too if rumors are to be believed.

 

[you pick one]

A lot of people are forming their conclusions based on the win / loss records. Some of these are the same people who claim stats dont give a full account when arguing the full worth of their favorite players. Interesting!

For mine
1 Gary Ayres (General consensus)
2 Chris Scott (You simply cant ignore his inability to to coach well in finals)
3 John Devine (A sit on his hands and "do nothing" kind of coach, who relied on the sheer brilliance to Ablett. Lindner and few others) Very decisive figure, and if i recall correctly, there was a player revolt in 1988 to oust him, and talk that some players werent even turning up to training. The failures of 1988 were magnified by the sharp improvement in 1989 under Blight in both attitude and on field results.

I'm no Scott fan and his record post 2011 in finals aint good,but if you are going to use that as evidence of him being the second worst coach in the last 50 years you must balance that with his ability to at least get us to the finals,he has 4 years to go minimum if he sees out his contract that will define his time at the Cats another flag and he's off this list,no flag and he leaves with us out of the 8 in 4 years time and he ties with Ayres.

 

[Mr Blicavs]

I'm no Scott fan and his record post 2011 in finals aint good,but if you are going to use that as evidence of him being the second worst coach in the last 50 years you must balance that with his ability to at least get us to the finals,he has 4 years to go minimum if he sees out his contract that will define his time at the Cats another flag and he's off this list,no flag and he leaves with us out of the 8 in 4 years time and he ties with Ayres.

I haven't been around 50 years so i can only comment on what Ive seen.
Post 2011, Scotts finals record is 25%... Thats another 25% worse than Ayres Finals record. Ayres, the bloke that almost everyone considers to be our worst coach in the last 50 years! Putting those numbers aside, its the way we have lost finals. The blatant lack of competitiveness, burns the most... walking up to the MCG, listening to opposition supporters tell you how the game is going to pan out, and knowing deep inside that they are right because of the sheer predictability, is bloody galling. Then watching it all unfurl as you knew it would just takes the cake!
Now we can argue that Im being selective by excluding 2011, but we could also argue that Scott inherited a Premiership. Im sure no-one wants to go over that old ground again. Some believe he did, some dont... lets leave that alone.
For me, making Finals or winning flags aren't the be all and end all of a clubs measure, but its very important how you perform when you get there. We have been non competitive in Finals under Scott... no one in their right mind can argue otherwise.
3 wins from 12 finals. Again, thats 25% less than the unanimously appointed worst coach in the last 50 years. Thats my opinion YPO... take it for what its worth

 

[Mr Blicavs]

Can't blame Ayers for losing Ablett. Guy was 34 and hurt his knee.
Our current coach made a GF in his first year, and gradually lost players.
Does anyone blame him? No! Cause they Retired! Lol.
Thought Ayers coached us to a style to win the 97 flag but unfortunately not to be.
Don't remember any coaches before Blight.
But Ayers is the worst out of the ones I've seen. But not by a huge amount.
Was unliked by players in Adelaide too if rumors are to be believed.

Blighty had his faults, but boy oh boy, I enjoyed watching Geelong play under him. He took the game on, gave players licence to play to their strengths, and almost always had us around the Mark. Exciting times!

 

[Spazz Cat]

Blighty had his faults, but boy oh boy, I enjoyed watching Geelong play under him. He took the game on, gave players licence to play to their strengths, and almost always had us around the Mark. Exciting times!

Yep. Champagne footy with some out and out star players. Great skills on show too.
Was a fantastic time to watch footy.
I've been blessed watching our team. Since 89 have missed maybe 6-7 final series, and seen some amazing footy played.
All our coaches had good/bad points IMO.
Bomber is my fave though. The other 3 coaches in my time all inherited a team with plenty of talent.
Was also a fantastic time watching a young team getting better and better.

 

[Mr Blicavs]

Yep. Champagne footy with some out and out star players. Great skills on show too.
Was a fantastic time to watch footy.
I've been blessed watching our team. Since 89 have missed maybe 6-7 final series, and seen some amazing footy played.
All our coaches had good/bad points IMO.
Bomber is my fave though. The other 3 coaches in my time all inherited a team with plenty of talent.
Was also a fantastic time watching a young team getting better and better.

Great post... Bomber and Blighty will always be my fave 2 coaches.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Great post... Bomber and Blighty will always be my fave 2 coaches.

Yeah same.

 

[Max Milburn]

Premierships, folks.
All very well to look good and be fun to watch.
Whatever happens to Scott from now on, he has a flag under his belt.
That makes him better than Blight, and better than any coach without one.

 

[Max Milburn]

Bomber, of course, is literally a (flawed) genius!

 

[Mr Blicavs]

Premierships, folks.
All very well to look good and be fun to watch.
Whatever happens to Scott from now on, he has a flag under his belt.
That makes him better than Blight, and better than any coach without one.

Errrr.... Blight has two premierships

 

[Max Milburn]

Errrr.... Blight has two premierships

That's funny, I thought we were discussing Geelong coaches.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Premierships, folks.
All very well to look good and be fun to watch.
Whatever happens to Scott from now on, he has a flag under his belt.
That makes him better than Blight, and better than any coach without one.

It's all subjective to everyone and the feelings they had the time.
Always love Blighty cause he got me into footy.
Will always love Scott (and Varcoe for that goal that confirmed the win) for 2011.
A brilliant day in my life I'll never forget.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Bomber, of course, is literally a (flawed) genius!

All geniuses are.

 

[Max Milburn]

I also loved watching the Blighty coached Cats, but in the end he failed. (Not all his fault, of course)

 

[Max Milburn]

I often wonder if the failure at Geelong was the catalyst for his success at Adelaide.
It's a shame he went out in in such a bad way at the Aints.

 

[Cool Cat]

Just to go against the flow - I don't mind Ayres as a match-day coach, other times, not so keen about, especially list-management.

I have to say Devine was the worst. He came to my school to give us a 'motivational' speech before his first match as coach. Said something along the lines about he didn't believe in motivation and I knew from that point onwards that Geelong would never be any good under him. Despite losing Bolton, Toohey and Williams, we still had a pretty good line-up and we under-achieved massively.

I was at uni in tas in the early 90s and devine came and spoke at formal diners at my residential college a couple of times. He was a magnificent motivational speaker, and I gather that had been a key to his success as a coach in tassie. Seriously, I remember everyone was blown away by what a great speaker he was, so maybe you caught him on a bad day...

Edit: oh yeah, and I vote for that rotten swine Ayres as our worst ever coach.

 

[Spazz Cat]

I also loved watching the Blighty coached Cats, but in the end he failed. (Not all his fault, of course)

It was a fair bit. He even admitted it.
Which I admire BTW, some have ego's too big and won't learn.
Unfortunately what he learned paid off for another team.
So it's quite sad really.

 

[Cool Cat]

It always seemed funny to me that Malcolm Blight passed 2 clubs onto Ayres as well as gave him a job as an assistant at Geelong. Blighty has a unique football brain that most people don't get but he must have seen something in Ayres. Perhaps it was his way of paying back Geelong and Adelaide for working for both clubs much the same way as you sometimes like to see someone inferior take over your old job once you have moved on. Either way, I don't give a "Rats Tosser".

Ayres was a complete dill and he knows just how much he is thought of in both Adelaide and Geelong and listening to that guy talking is like going to church. I can't wait for it to end.

Do the Adelaide fans hate him like us? He ran us into the ground then deserted us in our hour of need.