GRANT THOMAS CHAT FORUM
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GRANT THOMAS CHAT FORUM
Hey all - I know a little birdie who told me Grant Thomas is going to be doing some kind of live chat on ninemsn's sports site tomorrow - around lunchtime...
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- Club Player
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- Club Player
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- skeptic
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GT = flawed genius
His ability to take on so many tasks and do them well turned our club around
His inability to delegate cost this team a premiership
He never would have taken us to the premiership, but he did well to a point. Had he have resigned at the end of 2005, he would have gone down as one of the greats IMO
His ability to take on so many tasks and do them well turned our club around
His inability to delegate cost this team a premiership
He never would have taken us to the premiership, but he did well to a point. Had he have resigned at the end of 2005, he would have gone down as one of the greats IMO
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- Saintsational Legend
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no wonder your depressed reading that tripe.Depressed wrote:Grant Thomas turned St kilda football club into a professional organization. He would have delivered a premiership if it wasn't for the injury curse. Especially in 2005 when we had 7 players missing in the prelim and Sydney had made just 1 forced change in the last 10 weeks of that season.
“Yeah….nah””
- InkerSaint
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You give him credit for something he doesn't deserve (it would be Rod Butterss who turned the club around), and excuse one of his flaws as a "curse".Depressed wrote:Grant Thomas turned St kilda football club into a professional organization. He would have delivered a premiership if it wasn't for the injury curse. Especially in 2005 when we had 7 players missing in the prelim and Sydney had made just 1 forced change in the last 10 weeks of that season.
I'm sick of the GT apologists around here.
- rodgerfox
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InkerSaint wrote:You give him credit for something he doesn't deserve (it would be Rod Butterss who turned the club around), and excuse one of his flaws as a "curse".Depressed wrote:Grant Thomas turned St kilda football club into a professional organization. He would have delivered a premiership if it wasn't for the injury curse. Especially in 2005 when we had 7 players missing in the prelim and Sydney had made just 1 forced change in the last 10 weeks of that season.
I'm sick of the GT apologists around here.
You're right. I reckon we should kidnap him, hog-tie and throw in the Yarra. If he floats....etc. etc.
Then we should do the same to Robert Harvey.
He played with us, couldn't win us a flag, then leaves for money to another club to plot our downfall and prevent us from having any success in the future.
Let's get 'em both!!!
- saintsRrising
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Look I think my views of GT in the latter part of his career are well known.
However....there is no denying that GT (this includes the period before he became coach ) ALONG with others including Waldron, Butterss, Kellet..and several others were instrumental in turning the Saints around from being a basket case.
For this he has my thanks and appreciation....and the Saints are still well position due to this re-invigoration and and re-building/re-focusing.
However GT did not turn the club around as a sole effort. That is incorrect.
As time went by IMO the team of people that were rebuilding the Saints fell apart when Waldron departed....and rather than pushing all in the same direction we instead had people pulling in opposite directions with the result that the Saints started to decline.
That GT later proved to have limitations as a coach....and wanted to oversee areas such as player conditioning and fitness for which he had no expertise left the Saints underachieving with the talent that had been assembled due to earlier great recruiting, pure luck that the AFL had introduced priority picks when we could benefit, a draft system that rewarded poor performance and that Blight being appointed as coach made it attractive for good to star players to joina basket-case of a club.
So are we a better club for GT having stepped in? Most definitely yes.
Should he have been given the head coaching role? No. He did not have the runs on the board and his lack of expertise and suitability for such an elite role brought both him and the club undone.
Remember that we are talking about an ELITE role here..
GT may well be competent to coach at a lower level....but as an AFL coach in this era of detailed strategy and where the head AFL coach is required to be part of a HUGE off-field team....then no. GT's personality style is no suited to being such a team player and being a matrix-manager does not suit him.
The end-result was that while other clubs were evolving their off-field side, the Saints ere 100% going the other way as we regressed off-field to be under the control of one man with fingers in way to many pies ranging from media, to player conditioning, to player contracts....with the actual coaching role thus only being a part-time activity rather than full-time one.
However....there is no denying that GT (this includes the period before he became coach ) ALONG with others including Waldron, Butterss, Kellet..and several others were instrumental in turning the Saints around from being a basket case.
For this he has my thanks and appreciation....and the Saints are still well position due to this re-invigoration and and re-building/re-focusing.
However GT did not turn the club around as a sole effort. That is incorrect.
As time went by IMO the team of people that were rebuilding the Saints fell apart when Waldron departed....and rather than pushing all in the same direction we instead had people pulling in opposite directions with the result that the Saints started to decline.
That GT later proved to have limitations as a coach....and wanted to oversee areas such as player conditioning and fitness for which he had no expertise left the Saints underachieving with the talent that had been assembled due to earlier great recruiting, pure luck that the AFL had introduced priority picks when we could benefit, a draft system that rewarded poor performance and that Blight being appointed as coach made it attractive for good to star players to joina basket-case of a club.
So are we a better club for GT having stepped in? Most definitely yes.
Should he have been given the head coaching role? No. He did not have the runs on the board and his lack of expertise and suitability for such an elite role brought both him and the club undone.
Remember that we are talking about an ELITE role here..
GT may well be competent to coach at a lower level....but as an AFL coach in this era of detailed strategy and where the head AFL coach is required to be part of a HUGE off-field team....then no. GT's personality style is no suited to being such a team player and being a matrix-manager does not suit him.
The end-result was that while other clubs were evolving their off-field side, the Saints ere 100% going the other way as we regressed off-field to be under the control of one man with fingers in way to many pies ranging from media, to player conditioning, to player contracts....with the actual coaching role thus only being a part-time activity rather than full-time one.
Flying the World in comfort thanks to FF Points....
- InkerSaint
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sRr,
Kudos. Possibly the best post I have read regarding GT.
I had a recent discussion about GT with a friend of mine who coaches at Box Hill (I'm not sure at what level). He commented that one of GT's great achievements, and arguably his enduring legacy, was that he brought a talented bunch of kids together and fostered belief in themselves and belief in the group. That there are a dozen-odd players in the 25-to-28 age group who are still at the club is testament to this. Other clubs don't pick up disgruntled St Kilda talent - St Kilda picks up other clubs' disgruntled talent.
His legacy is inescapable. It just isn't as large as so many make out.
One is a legend of the game.
The other is a long-eyelashed Jezebel.
Kudos. Possibly the best post I have read regarding GT.
I had a recent discussion about GT with a friend of mine who coaches at Box Hill (I'm not sure at what level). He commented that one of GT's great achievements, and arguably his enduring legacy, was that he brought a talented bunch of kids together and fostered belief in themselves and belief in the group. That there are a dozen-odd players in the 25-to-28 age group who are still at the club is testament to this. Other clubs don't pick up disgruntled St Kilda talent - St Kilda picks up other clubs' disgruntled talent.
His legacy is inescapable. It just isn't as large as so many make out.
The only time GT and Robert Harvey should ever be mentioned together is in a phrase such as "GT is not fit to lick Robert Harvey's <insert item of clothing>".rodgerfox wrote:You're right. I reckon we should kidnap him, hog-tie and throw in the Yarra. If he floats....etc. etc.
Then we should do the same to Robert Harvey.
He played with us, couldn't win us a flag, then leaves for money to another club to plot our downfall and prevent us from having any success in the future.
Let's get 'em both!!!
One is a legend of the game.
The other is a long-eyelashed Jezebel.