Note to Plough: look up, not down
Monday Focus
Jake Niall
realfooty.theage.com.au
August 9, 2004
Five years ago, Mark Thompson was in Terry Wallace's position, when two struggling Victorian clubs offered him their senior coaching position. Had Bomber made his choice on the basis of the commodities considered most essential - players and money - his decision would have been as plain as Denis Pagan's game plan: He would have coached Richmond.
The Tigers had a modest amount of cash in the bank, with no debt and the perennial temptation of that large latent supporter base. They had a 24-year-old Matthew Richardson, then at his zenith, and a 19-year-old ascending Brad Ottens. They had Darren Gaspar, then 23, entering his prime, while Wayne Campbell was 27 with five years or more ahead. Joel Bowden was 21.
The Cats, who'd been first to offer Thompson the clipboard, owed the bank about $6 million. Their courageous young captain, Leigh Colbert, had walked out, convinced that a culture of selfishness was entrenched among the playing group. Garry Hocking was on his last legs and there was still no key forward of note on the horizon to replace the retired Gary Ablett senior. The group that had come up short in grand finals was going or gone.
Only a handful remain from that ugly 1999 list - Ben Graham, Peter Riccardi and Brenton Sanderson were in their mid- to late-20s when Thompson faced his career-defining moment. At 21, Steven King was about to become the number one ruckman, Darren Milburn had shown some talent, but the Geelong list was in terminal decline; unbeknownst to Thompson, he had a wild, wiry 20-year-old with an unruly black mop who would become the game's premier key defender.
Geelong had neither players nor money. It was headed for a dark age in which wins would be as sparse as dollars and the club would find it nigh-impossible to entice decent players to a provincial town. Yet, when confronted with the choice, Bomber opted for the little Cats over the glamorous big ones.
Thompson's decision was based largely on his instinct that, in president Frank Costa and chief executive Brian Cook, he had two good men he could work with.
Leon Daphne was finishing as Richmond president and Daphne's successor, Clinton Casey, hadn't arrived yet. Thompson was well aware of Richmond's infamous volatility and impatience. At an interview with board members, Thompson saw one director sporting a black eye - he might have walked into the door, but it kind of symbolised the in-fighting fury of Tigerland.
Yesterday, as Thompson's team of choice cantered to an easy, albeit scrappy win over the troubled club he rejected, there was a reminder that, unless you're inheriting a team like the Brisbane Lions post-merger, the condition of playing list should be a secondary consideration for any coach who has the luxury of choice.
Lists change, probably faster than a moribund club culture or administration. Geelong's on-field fortunes have been built on the back of two productive drafts - 1999 (Thompson's first) and 2001 - plus the timely intervention of the father-son rule. And though they couldn't give him money or players, Costa and Cook gave Thompson faith and time. He has given them hard work and, by dint of their patience, has turned a drab, declining club into a re-emerging, youthful team.
There is still no replacement for Gary Ablett as marking forward, they have to get by - as they did yesterday - on the son of Gazza, on Graham and Kent Kingsley, on the sneaky Steve Johnson and on muscular little man Paul Chapman.
Now, as his team heads for contention, Thompson is a hot coaching stock, while Danny Frawley, the man who took on the yellow and black beast, has three games of his senior coaching career left. Asked yesterday if he had advice for the next Richmond coach, Bomber said sagely: "Just convince them that they're not going to win the premiership in two years."
This time, Wallace has a choice - if he has not already made it - between clubs that are fighting internal wars, between the Caseys and Schwabs at Tigerland, of the '80s champions against a '70s dissident (Don Scott) at Glenferrie. Hawthorn says such tumult happens "every 50 years here and every three years at Richmond"; the Tigers can counter that their factions have laid down arms and negotiated a ceasefire and that, regardless of what happens, both camps want the Plough.
If the tale of Thompson's choice contains a moral it must be that Wallace's choice should, or should have been, predicated on the quality of the people above him, not those below.
http://realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/08/08/1091903445581.html
