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Thought this would be good for a stand-alone thread, as opposed to lumping it in with the other articles for the pre-game round-up...
The Age's Martin Blake has written a good feature on Geelong coach Mark Thompson, in which he looks at Thompson's current standing as a coach at the club.
Some items in the article might make for points of a good debate here.
He's cool for Cats -- The Age
He's cool for Cats
By Martin Blake
February 21, 2004
Such a cosy place is Geelong. So damned civilised.
Just look at Mark "Bomber" Thompson. He has coached the Cats for four years. His form line reads seventh, 12th, ninth, 12th, with a solitary final (in 2000, his first season) for one defeat, and he knows as well as anyone that football coaches have all the job security of kamikaze pilots.
But on the surface, at least, there is no angst about his position. On the contrary, the club extended his contract last year, giving him to the end of 2005 to mould the young team he has gathered.
It is Thompson's second contract extension and the one dissenting voice came from Mark Yeates, the former Cat defender, who said that it was "rewarding mediocrity".
It probably couldn't happen anywhere else. Not in the dog-eat-dog world of football, with the media obsession about coaches. Even Thompson knows he dodged a bullet last year, when the focus fell upon Neale Daniher, Danny Frawley and Peter Schwab.
"No doubt," said Thompson this week. "The football industry has matured a whole lot in the last few years, and there's a better understanding of how it works. But it's a very emotional business."
Why has Geelong been so patient? For one, the club knows Thompson has never had the cattle to win a premiership, or even threaten the big boys of the AFL. Geelong was in financial trouble when Thompson took over in 2000 and could not afford to chase big-name players while it repaid a massive debt.
Second, the Cats have been rebuilding a team and they know that it is unrealistic to expect the likes of Gary Ablett jnr and James Kelly to assume superstar status in five minutes. Third, they regard Thompson as an exceptional man and potentially a great coach.
So they bunkered down and worked at fixing the off-field problems. Six years ago, when the fruit and vegetable millionaire Frank Costa assumed the club presidency and brought West Coast's highly rated chief executive Brian Cook to the club, Geelong had about $7 million of debt.
Last year's profit of $600,000 will neatly repay the next instalment of their debt repayment to the Bendigo Bank next month. A year hence, another $700,000 instalment will wipe the slate clean, and Geelong will begin a new phase.
"We'll be able to spend 100 per cent of the salary cap without a problem (this year, it will be around 96 per cent), and we can spend the extra money on coaching and player support and the one-per-cent things that can make a difference, without worrying about the bottom line," said Costa.
If premierships were handed out for business, Geelong would have hoarded a cupboard full of cups in the past few years. But as everyone knows, football is no ordinary business, and it is the numbers in the "W" column of the AFL ladder upon which clubs are judged.
When the Geelong players and staff boarded a bus yesterday for the airport and tonight's season-opener against Port Adelaide in Cairns, of all places, they would have left with more pressure of expectation than they have experienced for quite some time.
"The public and the media have been patient," said Costa. "But we need to make the eight this year, and I believe we will."
And Cook: "We've got a young bunch of players, but we need to start using that fact as a reason for our success, rather than an excuse for failure. The benchmark is that we play in finals, and I'd love to win a final. I can't remember the last time we won a final. Was it '95?" (It was the 1995 preliminary final v Richmond).
Thompson, the former Essendon premiership captain and uncommonly calm, efficient back-pocket player, scoffed at the club when it came to him last year to talk about an extension, making a joke about clubs going backwards when they re-sign their coaches, but ultimately acquiescing.
Costa says it was about achieving stability. "I could see that he (Thompson) was doing something similar to what Brisbane did in the mid-90s. They were stone motherless last and they held firm and the rest is history.
"A lot of that had to do with having a strong coach and then down the track you saw players taking pay cuts to stay together. Mark Thompson's come from Essendon with the same strategy. But you can't do that without time. You need time."
The relationship between the coach and president is as close as any in the competition. Says Costa: "He's a fantastic role model for young guys coming into the club. He's a guy with family ethics, he's the sort of bloke who leads by example.
"When we go to the draft, we're trying to select players for their character as much as for their football ability. We want to build a strong culture of values into the club.
"Behind closed doors, they know who's boss. He's strong. No one challenges him. He's not out there pounding the table and making a big noise but he's strong. I think in getting Mark Thompson and Brian Cook at the club, we've got the two foundation stones for a really good club."
Meanwhile, in his quiet way, Thompson has put together a solid defence as his priority; Geelong's moderate 12 goals a game last year is a concern. He is certain the team has improved, but adds that it has not been reflected on the ladder.
"If you measure by wins and losses, we're struggling, but if you measure by games put into young people and experience gained, then we have improved.
"We were in nine games last year at three-quarter-time and we lost every one of them. If we can get to that position again and win a few of those, then we're looking at 12 or 13 wins."
Through all this, Geelong's board has held firm, a fact that pleases Cook. "The board's been great with that, but it's time for winning, otherwise people will lose patience.
"Sometimes with a problem, you're looking around for the solution and you look around the corner and it's right there. I keep saying to people, 'I don't know where the finish line is, but we're going to reach it. If you jump off the train now, it's detrimental for everyone'."
The Age's Martin Blake has written a good feature on Geelong coach Mark Thompson, in which he looks at Thompson's current standing as a coach at the club.
Some items in the article might make for points of a good debate here.
He's cool for Cats -- The Age
He's cool for Cats
By Martin Blake
February 21, 2004
Such a cosy place is Geelong. So damned civilised.
Just look at Mark "Bomber" Thompson. He has coached the Cats for four years. His form line reads seventh, 12th, ninth, 12th, with a solitary final (in 2000, his first season) for one defeat, and he knows as well as anyone that football coaches have all the job security of kamikaze pilots.
But on the surface, at least, there is no angst about his position. On the contrary, the club extended his contract last year, giving him to the end of 2005 to mould the young team he has gathered.
It is Thompson's second contract extension and the one dissenting voice came from Mark Yeates, the former Cat defender, who said that it was "rewarding mediocrity".
It probably couldn't happen anywhere else. Not in the dog-eat-dog world of football, with the media obsession about coaches. Even Thompson knows he dodged a bullet last year, when the focus fell upon Neale Daniher, Danny Frawley and Peter Schwab.
"No doubt," said Thompson this week. "The football industry has matured a whole lot in the last few years, and there's a better understanding of how it works. But it's a very emotional business."
Why has Geelong been so patient? For one, the club knows Thompson has never had the cattle to win a premiership, or even threaten the big boys of the AFL. Geelong was in financial trouble when Thompson took over in 2000 and could not afford to chase big-name players while it repaid a massive debt.
Second, the Cats have been rebuilding a team and they know that it is unrealistic to expect the likes of Gary Ablett jnr and James Kelly to assume superstar status in five minutes. Third, they regard Thompson as an exceptional man and potentially a great coach.
So they bunkered down and worked at fixing the off-field problems. Six years ago, when the fruit and vegetable millionaire Frank Costa assumed the club presidency and brought West Coast's highly rated chief executive Brian Cook to the club, Geelong had about $7 million of debt.
Last year's profit of $600,000 will neatly repay the next instalment of their debt repayment to the Bendigo Bank next month. A year hence, another $700,000 instalment will wipe the slate clean, and Geelong will begin a new phase.
"We'll be able to spend 100 per cent of the salary cap without a problem (this year, it will be around 96 per cent), and we can spend the extra money on coaching and player support and the one-per-cent things that can make a difference, without worrying about the bottom line," said Costa.
If premierships were handed out for business, Geelong would have hoarded a cupboard full of cups in the past few years. But as everyone knows, football is no ordinary business, and it is the numbers in the "W" column of the AFL ladder upon which clubs are judged.
When the Geelong players and staff boarded a bus yesterday for the airport and tonight's season-opener against Port Adelaide in Cairns, of all places, they would have left with more pressure of expectation than they have experienced for quite some time.
"The public and the media have been patient," said Costa. "But we need to make the eight this year, and I believe we will."
And Cook: "We've got a young bunch of players, but we need to start using that fact as a reason for our success, rather than an excuse for failure. The benchmark is that we play in finals, and I'd love to win a final. I can't remember the last time we won a final. Was it '95?" (It was the 1995 preliminary final v Richmond).
Thompson, the former Essendon premiership captain and uncommonly calm, efficient back-pocket player, scoffed at the club when it came to him last year to talk about an extension, making a joke about clubs going backwards when they re-sign their coaches, but ultimately acquiescing.
Costa says it was about achieving stability. "I could see that he (Thompson) was doing something similar to what Brisbane did in the mid-90s. They were stone motherless last and they held firm and the rest is history.
"A lot of that had to do with having a strong coach and then down the track you saw players taking pay cuts to stay together. Mark Thompson's come from Essendon with the same strategy. But you can't do that without time. You need time."
The relationship between the coach and president is as close as any in the competition. Says Costa: "He's a fantastic role model for young guys coming into the club. He's a guy with family ethics, he's the sort of bloke who leads by example.
"When we go to the draft, we're trying to select players for their character as much as for their football ability. We want to build a strong culture of values into the club.
"Behind closed doors, they know who's boss. He's strong. No one challenges him. He's not out there pounding the table and making a big noise but he's strong. I think in getting Mark Thompson and Brian Cook at the club, we've got the two foundation stones for a really good club."
Meanwhile, in his quiet way, Thompson has put together a solid defence as his priority; Geelong's moderate 12 goals a game last year is a concern. He is certain the team has improved, but adds that it has not been reflected on the ladder.
"If you measure by wins and losses, we're struggling, but if you measure by games put into young people and experience gained, then we have improved.
"We were in nine games last year at three-quarter-time and we lost every one of them. If we can get to that position again and win a few of those, then we're looking at 12 or 13 wins."
Through all this, Geelong's board has held firm, a fact that pleases Cook. "The board's been great with that, but it's time for winning, otherwise people will lose patience.
"Sometimes with a problem, you're looking around for the solution and you look around the corner and it's right there. I keep saying to people, 'I don't know where the finish line is, but we're going to reach it. If you jump off the train now, it's detrimental for everyone'."
