The Jiggsters take on Blight

[thejiggingsaint]

Its a damn shame that our ex-president decides to reopen old wounds (and with it a can of worms) For what its worth I supported the dismissal because of Blight's conduct in the media during the week leading up to his last game in charge (a 92-point shellacking from the Crows at Telstra Dome)
It was reprehensible for Blight to bag our club (who were paying him a handsome salary) in the Adelaide media days before the game, and then to say that "He's always got a soft spot for the Crows" in public was the final straw. I could forgive the guy for the awful results (AND lousy style of play!) but to give comfort and encouragement to our opponents was a disgrace! His conduct summed up his character.
Sorry its a negative post folks but some things have to be said!!!

[stinger]

Its a damn shame that our ex-president decides to reopen old wounds (and with it a can of worms) For what its worth I supported the dismissal because of Blight's conduct in the media during the week leading up to his last game in charge (a 92-point shellacking from the Crows at Telstra Dome)
It was reprehensible for Blight to bag our club (who were paying him a handsome salary) in the Adelaide media days before the game, and then to say that "He's always got a soft spot for the Crows" in public was the final straw. I could forgive the guy for the awful results (AND lousy style of play!) but to give comfort and encouragement to our opponents was a disgrace! His conduct summed up his character.
Sorry its a negative post folks but some things have to be said!!!

don't apologise...it's just as well someone has a good memory.......i was horrified at the time.......he continually bagged the club......and the players......talked that culture crap......

[jackal]

This is always hard to judge from WA but clearly if you apoint a coach on a million bucks deal you have to let them do what they want to do, even if you don't agree to it. Blight didn't even see out a year and inherited a rabble that only 3 years prior had played in a gF (and for what ever reason sacked the coach 12 months later). The club is (touch wood) better administrated now but this period was shocking.

If Lyon had lost to the Dockers a month ago, he should have been sacked but after that win he was allowed a years grace and now the runs are on the board so should be allowed to do as he pleases (with no directors interfeerinfg!!

[markp]

I remember being worried when I heard him explain that we didn't get to train footballs till we were fit... what a douche.

[thejiggingsaint]

Hey Jackal! Take your point about the "rabble etc" but the LEAST I expect from a coach being paid $1million a season is to PROMOTE the club rather than bag it! How does the saying go again? Oh yeah I remember
"if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem"

Sorry mate, Blight's rant last night left this kiddie cold..methinks he protesteth too much!!!

[saintspremiers]

I remember being worried when I heard him explain that we didn't get to train footballs till we were fit... what a douche.

on the counterside, what's the point of pretending to play football if the team isn't fit???

[markp]

I remember being worried when I heard him explain that we didn't get to train footballs till we were fit... what a douche.

on the counterside, what's the point of pretending to play football if the team isn't fit???

What's wrong with doing cardio work AND training with footballs?... may have actually helped improved our skills is why.

[jackal]

Jiggler...And i agree totally with you there, skills pay the bills and there is no point being fit if you can't kick/mark/handball/play the game.
Blight has always been the eccentric/mad genius type and if that is what you are looking for in a coach (from an admistrators point of view) then that is the crap you are going to get.

As with all organisations, the board is responsible for the operators in charge of the business, but ultimately the operators have to run the game as they see fit. If they stuff it up the board/chairman has to take responsibity for the appointment as well as the man/woman mKING THE DECISIONS. (sorry capson) My issue is that even if Blight was the wrong person for the group, he didn't get to have a crack and so the whole exercise was a joke. If the Saints circa 2003 was a public company I certainly wouldn't want to buy shares in the business with poor administration like that.

Look at Geel,ong...they get the best operator in aussie sport (Cook) and they get success, coincidence, I think not.

[bobmurray]

I remember a radio interview where Stewart Loewe said it was the worst pre-season they had ever had,he wanted to be more scathing but decided to bite his tongue,even with the interviewer egging him for more.

[Spinner]

Hey Jackal! Take your point about the "rabble etc" but the LEAST I expect from a coach being paid $1million a season is to PROMOTE the club rather than bag it! How does the saying go again? Oh yeah I remember
"if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem"

Sorry mate, Blight's rant last night left this kiddie cold..methinks he protesteth too much!!!

If we were paying $1million dollar, we should have know what we were buying.

Not totally in defense of Blight....But that was he style. Unconventional at Geelong, unconventional at Adelaide. ANyone remember him leaving the ground during the third quarter or so while at Adelaide? Anyone remember his description of Pittman?

We got what we paid for....But seemed to want something else.

Putting it on paper....Butterss employed Watson, Blight and Thomas....Three of the biggest f***-ups in our history to date. All overpaid for their services as well.

[chook23]

Hey Jackal! Take your point about the "rabble etc" but the LEAST I expect from a coach being paid $1million a season is to PROMOTE the club rather than bag it! How does the saying go again? Oh yeah I remember
"if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem"

Sorry mate, Blight's rant last night left this kiddie cold..methinks he protesteth too much!!!

If we were paying $1million dollar, we should have know what we were buying.

Not totally in defense of Blight....But that was he style. Unconventional at Geelong, unconventional at Adelaide. ANyone remember him leaving the ground during the third quarter or so while at Adelaide? Anyone remember his description of Pittman?

We got what we paid for....But seemed to want something else.

Putting it on paper....Butterss employed Watson, Blight and Thomas....Three of the biggest f***-ups in our history to date. All overpaid for their services as well.

Think you will find watson appointed when plympton Pres

[Spinner]

Hey Jackal! Take your point about the "rabble etc" but the LEAST I expect from a coach being paid $1million a season is to PROMOTE the club rather than bag it! How does the saying go again? Oh yeah I remember
"if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem"

Sorry mate, Blight's rant last night left this kiddie cold..methinks he protesteth too much!!!

If we were paying $1million dollar, we should have know what we were buying.

Not totally in defense of Blight....But that was he style. Unconventional at Geelong, unconventional at Adelaide. ANyone remember him leaving the ground during the third quarter or so while at Adelaide? Anyone remember his description of Pittman?

We got what we paid for....But seemed to want something else.

Putting it on paper....Butterss employed Watson, Blight and Thomas....Three of the biggest f***-ups in our history to date. All overpaid for their services as well.

Think you will find watson appointed when plympton Pres

lol....was actually thinking that he might have.....But i was on a roll.

[thejiggingsaint]

Now THERE'S something that gets the Old Jiggsters blood up; the role of Plympton and Co in the disintegration of what appeared to be a club on the verge of something big. If Stan Alves had not been sacked in such an arbitrary manner (leading to the appointment of Tim Watsup) who knows where the club would be at now. It seems that those blighters have been allowed to escape the judgement of history relatively unscathed.

[skeptic]

i thought the reasoning was sound.

The mistake was hiring him in the first place. RB openly said that he and other board members were swept up in the "Blight Aura" and the hope that he would give the club credibility
All processes completelty went out the window.

In terms of his sacking. IMO that was the big turning point in our history. The guy simply wasn't what we needed... and the board decided that the days of letting big names get away with murder were over

[bigred]

Now THERE'S something that gets the Old Jiggsters blood up; the role of Plympton and Co in the disintegration of what appeared to be a club on the verge of something big. If Stan Alves had not been sacked in such an arbitrary manner (leading to the appointment of Tim Watsup) who knows where the club would be at now. It seems that those blighters have been allowed to escape the judgement of history relatively unscathed.

Fair enough.


Club wouldnt be around if it wasnt for the hard work of Andrew Plympton & Co.


Make absolutely no mistake about that.

[GrumpyOne]

i thought the reasoning was sound.

The mistake was hiring him in the first place. RB openly said that he and other board members were swept up in the "Blight Aura" and the hope that he would give the club credibility
All processes completelty went out the window.

In terms of his sacking. IMO that was the big turning point in our history. The guy simply wasn't what we needed... and the board decided that the days of letting big names get away with murder were over

IMO Blight had a right to be angry when his sacking was relived in the papers.

RB and the board at the time knew full well what they were getting when they employed Blight, or should have known. Blight had a long history of being a different sort of cat when it came to coaching, and if they were'nt ready for the ride, they never should have bought the tickets.

Another case of rich men playing with members' money.

[markp]

All i know is if I ever see our Club's Prez giving a speech at a post match function while 'tired and emotional' again, I wont cop it... (unless it's late in september).

[BAM! (shhhh)]

Anyone else notice that irony that the moment someone becomes an ex-St Kilda coach they're vilified, yet if they say anything negative about the Saints, everyone then acts shocked?

For all the rumours, I won't pretend to know what went on behind closed doors in the Blight scenario. Whatever the case, it's a pretty big statement to make that big a play for a name that big, and that qualified. It's an even bigger one to let him go that quickly.

Blight has more than earned the right to say what he likes about the game (it's honestly amazing that the guy only won two premierships as a coach), and about players (people assume that as Brownlow medal winning Captains, Voss, Buckley and Ricciuto are destined to be head coaches... the model is Malcomn Blight). Whether or not he was 100% at St Kilda, being fired that quickly is always going to come as a slap in the face, so who can blame him if he isn't full of affection for us?

If there's one thing I'd like to see change culturally at St Kilda, it's the way we seem to burn bridges with ex-coaches and players.

[bethb7]

It's again Rod Butters trying to open up a closed matter about the club when we are going well! Blight hasn't said anything about the issue in seven years why would Butters bring it up now? Although I think Blight is taking the 'victim' card on the whole issue saying he was totally committed to the job and he was hardly done bye he still got the million dollars out of us I dunno why he's complaining?

[TimeToShineFellas]

Anyone else notice that irony that the moment someone becomes an ex-St Kilda coach they're vilified, yet if they say anything negative about the Saints, everyone then acts shocked?

For all the rumours, I won't pretend to know what went on behind closed doors in the Blight scenario. Whatever the case, it's a pretty big statement to make that big a play for a name that big, and that qualified. It's an even bigger one to let him go that quickly.

Blight has more than earned the right to say what he likes about the game (it's honestly amazing that the guy only won two premierships as a coach), and about players (people assume that as Brownlow medal winning Captains, Voss, Buckley and Ricciuto are destined to be head coaches... the model is Malcomn Blight). Whether or not he was 100% at St Kilda, being fired that quickly is always going to come as a slap in the face, so who can blame him if he isn't full of affection for us?

If there's one thing I'd like to see change culturally at St Kilda, it's the way we seem to burn bridges with ex-coaches and players.

Great post BAM! you have summed up exactly what I was thinking.......

[StSteven]

Look no further than RB and GT for our woes. Treated the Club and it's resources as their personal playthings........Just go away both of you.

From GT on SEN this morning, I sense this is going to get worse. His words were very careful. When asked if he was behind Blight's sacking he stated "He was the last to be told that Blight had been sacked" That does NOT mean he was not involved in the planning of the sacking.

As the mud flies more will come out.....JUST as we are getting it together.....coincidence I think Not. Some people hate others having success where they failed.


JUST GO AWAY!!!!!

[thejiggingsaint]

In all the furore that this "Blight story" has generated, one thing seems to have escaped some journalists notice, and that is, that our club is by no means the only one to have appeared to treat their coach badly when they are terminated. The AFL is littered throughout its history with coaches being "stabbed in the back". One only has to look at the excellent doco; "Year of the Dogs" to see how Alan Joyce was shafted at Footscray. The "Pagan/Mitchell" debacle at Carlton is another example that springs to mind. Blight had his pride dented of course, but was well set-up financially so the sacking didn't have the impact on him, that say a retrenchment would have on a working man with a family.
With the benefit of that marvellous science "hindsight" of course the board would not have acted in the way that they did. One could argue that Blight was not given a fair go/natural justice, in not being given clear guidelines of what was expected of him, and when he (apparently) fell short of expectations, having discussions to rectify things before they got too far away from resolution. Hindsight of course is great. With hindsight I would have thrown my allegiances behind Fitzroy when I arrived here in 1990; sure, I'd have suffered humiliation and ridicule, and see my club be swallowed up by the Brisbane Bears..but I would have had 3 (de-facto) premierships to remember
I found it sickening to see Quartermain, Maher et al fawning to this guy when the same things have gone on at ALL clubs!

As I said at the start; Blight incensed me when he bagged us in public, while being paid handsomely from members fees! So as far as I'm concerned, to quote "Blighty"
"STIFF"

[ozrulestrace]

Where were you all when I got into a heated argument this morning about this? My adversary in this discussion thought that Blight had the runs on the board blah blah blah and the club hadn't given him a fair go at coaching. And all I could recall was the story floating around after his sacking about his not talking to the players and practicing his "putting shots" during training and turning his back on them whilst he did this. And let us not forget him taking them out on the Telstra Dome arena after a thumping. You don't win respect and the players "committment" that way!!!
Also I think it is an absolute furphy about Jonas and Hinkley being successful with other clubs. We all know assistant coaches, rightly or wrongly always get the flick with the coach who hired them.
And to me I always felt one of Grant Thomas' success was the way he built a rapport with this group of young men. He got to know them and they got to know him and he got a lot more out of them compared to what Blight might have done.

[BakesFan]

Hey Jackal! Take your point about the "rabble etc" but the LEAST I expect from a coach being paid $1million a season is to PROMOTE the club rather than bag it! How does the saying go again? Oh yeah I remember
"if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem"

Sorry mate, Blight's rant last night left this kiddie cold..methinks he protesteth too much!!!

Great point, jiggster!!... The pr1ck was living in QLD and couldn't even attend a 'Saints vs Brions' function!
Who did he send along as a representative??? Grant Thomas!! (and Grant was excellent)

Saint Bev can attest to that fact.....

although I did have the pleasure of having Andrew Symonds at my table for that function ( GREAT Bloke!!).