I am glad at least one person had a good experience with the Giesch
Back in the day when he coached the Tigers I used to regularly attend training sessions with a small group of diehards. At the end of most sessions the Geisch would wander over to us with a big smile on his face, ask us how we were going, and happily field all sorts of inane questions and suggestions from us. When he moved on to become umpire's director I would often see him at reserves games, and wander over to enquire about things like, why was Richo getting such a raw deal from the umpires, and citing numerous examples of my grievances. Of course he remembered me from his time at Punt Road, and was as friendly and approachable as ever, always listening to what I had to say.
As the years went by though, and our treatment didn't seem to improve (the stats will back up the fact that we have been one of the worst treated sides by the umps in recent years), I began to subscribe to the views of all the conspiracy theorists who argued that the Geisch, as a disgruntled sacked coach, was orchestrating a campaign of revenge against his former employers. Naturally, I was happy to see him ousted from his position. In hindsight though, I really don't know what to believe about those days now. The image of him as an embittered man with an axe to grind against the club that sacked him doesn't at all gel with the friendly, easygoing bloke that I once knew.
