Going by this article in the Australian we are. No more eating our own by the majority of Tiger supporters.
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Cats drop supporters on threshold
Chip Le Grand
The Australian
May 04, 2007
GEELONG chief executive Brian Cook says Cats supporters have reached a "threshold of intolerance". Exactly what this means is hard to explain. But it can't be good.
An hour east down the Princes Highway, Richmond football director Greg Miller says Tigers supporters are disappointed but not devastated. The majority, Miller believes, understand what the club is working towards.
If the winless Richmond loses to Geelong this Sunday, it will be its worst season start since 1962. But so far, neither disgruntled supporters nor edgy board members have the Tigers by the tail.
Geelong, by contrast, has won two games this season. But a Geelong loss to Richmond would precipitate a full-blown crisis at Corio Bay. As a reference point, Cook described the impact of last Sunday's loss to the Kangaroos as "extreme".
"For our supporter base, it was another form of deja vu, another Groundhog Day," Cook said. "People are concerned and anxious about the way we lost and the supporter base at Geelong is on a threshold and has been this year - a threshold of intolerance. It expects more.
"When you don't reach those expectations, which we didn't last week, it certainly has a very strong impact in Geelong and on the footy club. There is an extreme impact. Even though we lost by just over two goals, we get battered around the ears and I think the media tend to jump on it, as do our supporters, and they feed off each other."
A question Cook has pondered is whether the Geelong Football Club is erratic by nature or nurtured that way by the wild swings in perceptions that blow in from outside the Skilled Stadium walls.
"If I knew the answer to those questions I would be earning $100,000 a week on the speaking circuit," Cook said. "It is not a simple thing. I don't know the answer. That is the truth."
When Miller speaks of "educating" supporters, it evokes images of Richmond members being sent into rice paddies for peasant instruction. The strongest evidence of a cultural revolution at Punt Road is the supporter patience being extended to Miller, coach Terry Wallace and his team.
"I think the majority of our supporters understand that what we are trying to build here is a long-term team for the future," Miller said.
"OK, it is disappointing week by week and frustrating as you leave the ground. But I think a lot of people leave the ground frustrated and sit down in the cool light of day and think we are a step closer to being a good side.
"As frustrated and disappointed as they are - because they want to win, they want the bragging rights on a Monday and they want to see us keep on going up - I think there is also a clear understanding of the things we have got in place, that those things will take time but that we are not that far away.
"Four or five years ago, I would get 40 or 50 emails expressing anger and disappointment in all sections of the club. There is not that anger now. I even get emails of understanding, urging us not to fall into our old trap of being led down another path by the media or minority of supporters."
Cook has changed his email address and no longer responds directly to the Monday morning deluge that used to fill his inbox. This is not because Geelong supporters are especially abusive, it is a reflection of Cook being unable to keep up with the volume of correspondence that comes from running the only football team in town and still do his job.
There are two accepted reasons why Geelong carries a greater burden of expectation into Sunday's game than Richmond.
The first is the Cats, with much the same names on their playing list as they have now, made a preliminary final in 2004 and came within seconds of beating eventual premiers Sydney in the 2005 finals series. Assuming a linear progression, the Cats stumbled badly last season and are now, at 2-3, in a similar position to where they were this time last year.
Richmond, by contrast, has not played finals since 2001 and is seen to be in the middle stages of a long-term rebuild.
The second is that Geelong coach Mark Thompson is out of contract while Wallace is secure until the end of 2009. The public fixation on Thompson's status has become an end in itself for Geelong - a strict timetable for team performance.
Cook does not challenge the first reason but questions a key assumption in the second, namely that Thompson must deliver this season or be out of a job.
"There is a bit of a misnomer out there in relation to 'Bomber'," he said. "I think some coaches get more second chances than others."
Regardless of what happens to Thompson at the year's end, the clock is not ticking on Geelong. If Richmond has assembled a young playing list, Geelong's list is just one month older, on average. The oldest Geelong player is Darren Milburn, who has just turned 30. Last year's top five in the club's best and fairest count were aged between 23 and 26.
Whatever happens this Sunday, there is no need for Geelong to panic. The Cats are moving into the most difficult part of their draw, with matches against the six non-Victorian teams and St Kilda over the following eight weeks, but these are games Geelong needed to win anyway to finish somewhere near the top four.
Yet such reasoning will count for little if Geelong does lose, as Cook knows only too well.
"I am not going to go there," he said. "We will wait and see what happens in the Richmond game."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21667639-2722,00.html
