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Saw this in Monday's Herlad-Sun online editions, thought I'd post it while the news is still fairly relevant...
The gist of the matter here is that Ben Graham admits that he was nearly dropped to the reserves close to a month ago, and that there was a form of a "players only" meeting early last week that appeared to get everyone-- the senior players along with the young guns-- unified enough to play as well as they did against Hawthorn...
Whatever it was, glad to see that it worked.
http://heraldsun.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,6493128%5E19766,00.html
Brush with axe fires up Graham
26 May 2003 Herald Sun
By SCOTT GULLAN
A LAST-minute decision to give Tom Harley, who was returning from injury, a run in the reserves saved Ben Graham from being dropped for Geelong's Round 6 game against Brisbane.
Graham made the revelation yesterday as he lapped up the Cats' win against Hawthorn, their second of the season.
The former captain said a heart-to-heart talk with coach Mark Thompson a month ago had turned his season around, and in a position - centre half-forward - where he'd been tried unsuccessfully last year.
"If you'd asked me three weeks ago (about playing centre half-forward) I would have said I was just happy to get a game," Graham said.
"Bomber (Thompson) has been good. We had a meeting just about not setting standards too high, not putting too much pressure on yourself and lowering your expectations.
"I was out of the side at one point but they decided to give Tom Harley a run in the twos. That was a big kick in the guts."
Graham said the senior players had gathered the team for a few beers last Monday in an attempt to find some answers.
"When we got back from Sydney, we got together and had a couple of beers," he said. "A few of the guys opened up a bit and everything from then on has been about getting back to basics.
"Like I went and watched some local footy yesterday. I hadn't seen local footy for a while and it just put everything into perspective.
"We just took everything from that meeting into today's game."
He said the Cats' leaders knew the finger had been pointed at them for the club's horror start to the season.
"They've got to point at someone haven't they but there has got to be some reason why you are sitting on the bottom," Graham said.
"I don't think we've been hiding from it. We've been on the front foot when we've had the chance but we just haven't been able to put it all together.
"We've been going about our business and people probably haven't been writing about us because we haven't been that bad.
"Bomber has been great, really level-headed as he knows where we are going. We're only one game behind where we were this time last year and we just missed out (on the finals)."
Graham has been one of the Cats' best in the past three weeks and yesterday was praised by Thompson for his 2.3 goals and 13 kicks from centre half-forward.
The Cats coach paid tribute to his players for not dropping their bundle in the past month.
"Why I haven't been too negative or hard on our players is because genuinely they are trying their best," Thompson said.
"Again, today, we had a young side out there, we had 12 or 13 guys with less than 50 games experience. That's young.
"To be so close in every game and not drop your bundle after what has happened to them is a credit to the players and the club."
The Cats have a big chance to revive their season with a home game against Adelaide next Sunday followed by a clash with Carlton at Telstra Dome.
The gist of the matter here is that Ben Graham admits that he was nearly dropped to the reserves close to a month ago, and that there was a form of a "players only" meeting early last week that appeared to get everyone-- the senior players along with the young guns-- unified enough to play as well as they did against Hawthorn...
Whatever it was, glad to see that it worked.
http://heraldsun.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,6493128%5E19766,00.html
Brush with axe fires up Graham
26 May 2003 Herald Sun
By SCOTT GULLAN
A LAST-minute decision to give Tom Harley, who was returning from injury, a run in the reserves saved Ben Graham from being dropped for Geelong's Round 6 game against Brisbane.
Graham made the revelation yesterday as he lapped up the Cats' win against Hawthorn, their second of the season.
The former captain said a heart-to-heart talk with coach Mark Thompson a month ago had turned his season around, and in a position - centre half-forward - where he'd been tried unsuccessfully last year.
"If you'd asked me three weeks ago (about playing centre half-forward) I would have said I was just happy to get a game," Graham said.
"Bomber (Thompson) has been good. We had a meeting just about not setting standards too high, not putting too much pressure on yourself and lowering your expectations.
"I was out of the side at one point but they decided to give Tom Harley a run in the twos. That was a big kick in the guts."
Graham said the senior players had gathered the team for a few beers last Monday in an attempt to find some answers.
"When we got back from Sydney, we got together and had a couple of beers," he said. "A few of the guys opened up a bit and everything from then on has been about getting back to basics.
"Like I went and watched some local footy yesterday. I hadn't seen local footy for a while and it just put everything into perspective.
"We just took everything from that meeting into today's game."
He said the Cats' leaders knew the finger had been pointed at them for the club's horror start to the season.
"They've got to point at someone haven't they but there has got to be some reason why you are sitting on the bottom," Graham said.
"I don't think we've been hiding from it. We've been on the front foot when we've had the chance but we just haven't been able to put it all together.
"We've been going about our business and people probably haven't been writing about us because we haven't been that bad.
"Bomber has been great, really level-headed as he knows where we are going. We're only one game behind where we were this time last year and we just missed out (on the finals)."
Graham has been one of the Cats' best in the past three weeks and yesterday was praised by Thompson for his 2.3 goals and 13 kicks from centre half-forward.
The Cats coach paid tribute to his players for not dropping their bundle in the past month.
"Why I haven't been too negative or hard on our players is because genuinely they are trying their best," Thompson said.
"Again, today, we had a young side out there, we had 12 or 13 guys with less than 50 games experience. That's young.
"To be so close in every game and not drop your bundle after what has happened to them is a credit to the players and the club."
The Cats have a big chance to revive their season with a home game against Adelaide next Sunday followed by a clash with Carlton at Telstra Dome.
