Grant Thomas

[sunsaint]

RB was reclaiming the money/loan form GT, not the other way around, but don’t let the truth get in the way of your story.

yep agreed the "reclaimation" statement was a long bow - I should have stopped at legit entitlement
two versions float around
It was a loan for a house
and/or
it was an investment

It was probably very intricate and maybe even a little murky - so details may never become public

[Joffa Burns]

RB was reclaiming the money/loan form GT, not the other way around, but don’t let the truth get in the way of your story.

yep agreed the "reclaimation" statement was a long bow - I should have stopped at legit entitlement
two versions float around
It was a loan for a house
and/or
it was an investment

It was probably very intricate and maybe even a little murky - so details may never become public

Agreed, when is a legal battle less than a little murky

[saintsRrising]

Too many people focus on one part of the puzzle as being THE solution.

The truth is that you have to get them all mainly right.

The GT era, was successful not due to just GT, BUT rather that a group of people including GT who all were effective and pushing in the one direction

GT, RB, Waldron as CEO, MK...as well as others such as GR.

Now the first three all developed problems down the track, but make no mistake that none of them could have resurrected the Saints from the poor state we were in without the others.

So the "GT Era" is largely a myth as he was just part of the solution (and an important part), but it was not just the GT Era.

Just as now it is not just the Richo Era for our current malaise. It is the Richo, Bains, Trout, Finnis and other era.

To resurrect the Saintswe need a complete overall of ALL the important positions in our Club.

I am very hopeful that after Round 22 that we will see a bloodless coup where the President and most of the Board resign to replaced by a more ruthless and competent cohort. ie people like Watts. That they will then appoint a new coach and CEO. The recruiting team must remain under a cloud as I am not convinced that just removing Trout will fix all the ills there.

Forget GT, as he cannot be a part of the type of cohesion that is required now in the OFFIELD TEAM that needs to take over.

[Legendary]

Thomas made us relevant.

Whether or not he could coach was meaningless given where we were between 1998 and 2002.

He made us relevant again.

He's not the man to coach football in 2019, he's been out of coaching footy for a long time and his business is in an exciting phase. Coaching is in many ways more specialised than when he was involved.

But as a President or CEO he would make us relevant, exciting, unpredictable and passionate. Which is what we need.

[rodgerfox]

Is this the same Grant Thomas who, along with his great mate Rod, cost the club a million dollars getting Blight? Then sacked him and became coach, a position Old Xavs had sacked him from and not trusted by any other AFL club to hold any position? Then had Rendell copy the Lions game plan? Thank god Blight attracted Gehrig, Hamill, Voss, Lawrence and Penny & Watson attracted high & priority draft picks. 2004 was our best opportunity for a flag IMO. Unfortunately our coach was not the right man or deserving of the opportunity. Subsequently suing the club "he loves and will do anything for" - a bit like compensating Trump for going bankrupt on each of his four occasions.
Address the problems and weak links that are now, do not go back in history, learn from it, do not repeat it. We do not need egos addressing our problems.
My answer is NO to Grant Thomas.

Well said
As one of his assistants said directly to me
“Grant Thomas farked your club by trying to control everything”
Meglamaniac, egotistical trumped up know nothing know it all. NOT what we need
How many other clubs banged down “GTs” door when he left?????
None cause they know.

Makes me chuckle when all the desperate souls on here want Grant Thomas back.
What has Grant Thomas done that warrants the hero worship?

The saints under Grant was an exciting time and he nurtured a great young group of players, but the popular view on this forum that he got us to a prelim with a bunch of 18YO & 19YO kids is pure fantasy, it is totally inaccurate.

Grant had the best list assembled at the club in my time of watching the game.
He had a beautiful balance of gun senior recruits, gun senior players, leaders, mid age senior guns, young superstars and hard nosed grunt role players. He had two of the most feared components of the hip and shoulder in that era in Guerra & Powell.

He also benefited as those young guns played a couple of seasons with Burke & Loewe and were able to benefit from their experience and leadership.

2004 list

Young established guns
Budding superstar Reiwoldt & rising star Kossi

Young future stars making their mark
gun kids coming through in Ball, Maguire, Dal Santo, X Clarke, Montagna, Goddard, Sam Fisher, Gram

Aging superstar
evergreen Harvs & Andrew Thompson

mature senior older players
Aussie Jones, Justin Peckett

mature younger senior players
Stephen Milne, Lenny Hayes, Max Hudghton, Steven Baker, Jason Blake

Mid age players including superstar recruits
Gehrig, Hamill, Callaghan, Powell, Black, Penny, Voss, Guerra

Depth
Schwarze, Leigh Fisher,

That's 29 players with barely a weak link.

The only thing he lacked was a quality ruck with knobel the number one man and Blake as back up.

I'll back Roo when he says Grant was great at giving the young players belief and building confidence but Ross Lyon brought a whole new level of professionalism and strategy to the club.

Grant had the keys to a Ferrari but didn't know how to drive it and its a shame as that team could have been anything. If Grant was such a great coach why didn't he end up coaching at another club?

What has Grant achieved as a coach or in business that would suggest he is the messiah or hold the panacea to our ills? If he was such a great businessman why did he end up in legal proceedings with his mate and president RB over a $1M loan/gift?

I really enjoyed the GT era as it gave excitement & hope, I think we all thought hey we are gunna win one or two or three here, but in the end it was the same old saints as we imploded.

I reckon the reality is somewhere in between.

[Ghost Like]

Too many people focus on one part of the puzzle as being THE solution.

The truth is that you have to get them all mainly right.

The GT era, was successful not due to just GT, BUT rather that a group of people including GT who all were effective and pushing in the one direction

GT, RB, Waldron as CEO, MK...as well as others such as GR.

Now the first three all developed problems down the track, but make no mistake that none of them could have resurrected the Saints from the poor state we were in without the others.

So the "GT Era" is largely a myth as he was just part of the solution (and an important part), but it was not just the GT Era.

Just as now it is not just the Richo Era for our current malaise. It is the Richo, Bains, Trout, Finnis and other era.

To resurrect the Saintswe need a complete overall of ALL the important positions in our Club.

I am very hopeful that after Round 22 that we will see a bloodless coup where the President and most of the Board resign to replaced by a more ruthless and competent cohort. ie people like Watts. That they will then appoint a new coach and CEO. The recruiting team must remain under a cloud as I am not convinced that just removing Trout will fix all the ills there.

Forget GT, as he cannot be a part of the type of cohesion that is required now in the OFFIELD TEAM that needs to take over.

Well said and absolutely correct in what's required.

There will & will always be two recollections of that era & so be it. I do know we all have only one goal (dream). Let us hope the powers that be find that allusive plan for it. I know there are already the people & players at the club, I simply want the missing pieces to complete this puzzle we have worked on for 52 years and counting.

[ausfatcat]

He's Mr rent a negative comment now

[Teflon]

If Grant was such a great coach why didn't he end up coaching at another club?

What has Grant achieved as a coach or in business that would suggest he is the messiah or hold the panacea to our ills? If he was such a great businessman why did he end up in legal proceedings with his mate and president RB over a $1M loan/gift?

I said it above - but it needs repeating

Who went near Blight after Saints?
And if GT was entitled to the money why shouldnt he try to reclaim it?

Blight 2 times premiership coach & both Geelong and Adelaide into GF.

Blight was cooked when he came to us, he was reluctantly lured by the cash and it was a mistake by both parties, he should have stayed retired in Palm Cove.

MB - AFL legend.
To mention GT in the same paragraph as Blight is laughable.

RB was reclaiming the money/loan form GT, not the other way around, but don’t let the truth get in the way of your story.

Oh and GT got us into a prelim with a team full of 18 & 19 year olds

Great post Joffa
I truly get amazed by the almost Rev Fred Nile fever followers of Thomas on here who truly can not see EVEN WHEN club insiders tell you the damage he was doing to our club..such is our lack of success I suppose some will take anything...
Clearly Thomas had the best list in terms of balance, paid no heed to “training services” and failed. He has never even been discussed for another coaching role....why???
Roo ought to know and his comments on Lyon are spot on - at the time, for his time he could coach hence why he was head hunted for $5m while Grants unemployed still living off the money HE borrowed from Butters then refused to pay back. Still having the Gaul to be the Saints hero after ripping $200k out of the club as he left AFTER HE VOLUNTARILY waived away any right to it...
I know who his assistant coach was who was later sacked by Lyon but who STILL insisted he was a top coach and Thomas was a pretender....
Some here will never listen but I can assure you if “GT” ever comes near this club again we are finished
Warrnambool coach , belief clouds, exiting Harvey in, training services..,,,biggest cliched corporate muppet ever seen

[satchmo]

If Grant was such a great coach why didn't he end up coaching at another club?

What has Grant achieved as a coach or in business that would suggest he is the messiah or hold the panacea to our ills? If he was such a great businessman why did he end up in legal proceedings with his mate and president RB over a $1M loan/gift?

I said it above - but it needs repeating

Who went near Blight after Saints?
And if GT was entitled to the money why shouldnt he try to reclaim it?

Blight 2 times premiership coach & both Geelong and Adelaide into GF.

Blight was cooked when he came to us, he was reluctantly lured by the cash and it was a mistake by both parties, he should have stayed retired in Palm Cove.

MB - AFL legend.
To mention GT in the same paragraph as Blight is laughable.

RB was reclaiming the money/loan form GT, not the other way around, but don’t let the truth get in the way of your story.

Oh and GT got us into a prelim with a team full of 18 & 19 year olds

Great post Joffa
I truly get amazed by the almost Rev Fred Nile fever followers of Thomas on here who truly can not see EVEN WHEN club insiders tell you the damage he was doing to our club..such is our lack of success I suppose some will take anything...
Clearly Thomas had the best list in terms of balance, paid no heed to “training services” and failed. He has never even been discussed for another coaching role....why???
Roo ought to know and his comments on Lyon are spot on - at the time, for his time he could coach hence why he was head hunted for $5m while Grants unemployed still living off the money HE borrowed from Butters then refused to pay back. Still having the Gaul to be the Saints hero after ripping $200k out of the club as he left AFTER HE VOLUNTARILY waived away any right to it...
I know who his assistant coach was who was later sacked by Lyon but who STILL insisted he was a top coach and Thomas was a pretender....
Some here will never listen but I can assure you if “GT” ever comes near this club again we are finished
Warrnambool coach , belief clouds, exiting Harvey in, training services..,,,biggest cliched corporate muppet ever seen

Yeah, but do you like him?

[kaos theory]

Thomas made us relevant.

Whether or not he could coach was meaningless given where we were between 1998 and 2002.

He made us relevant again.

He's not the man to coach football in 2019, he's been out of coaching footy for a long time and his business is in an exciting phase. Coaching is in many ways more specialised than when he was involved.

But as a President or CEO he would make us relevant, exciting, unpredictable and passionate. Which is what we need.

I would support that.

[dragit]

This old chestnut... Can't we just get back to our regular shitfight about hickey vs longer?

[SaintPav]

I don’t think Chris Connolly would have been that much better.

[evertonfc]

Thomas made us relevant.

Whether or not he could coach was meaningless given where we were between 1998 and 2002.

He made us relevant again.

He's not the man to coach football in 2019, he's been out of coaching footy for a long time and his business is in an exciting phase. Coaching is in many ways more specialised than when he was involved.

But as a President or CEO he would make us relevant, exciting, unpredictable and passionate. Which is what we need.

Fantastic post. Guys, come on - whatever you might think about GT's style, he is clearly the standout candidate for the presidency.

Have you ever loved watching St Kilda as much as during that period?

Have you ever felt as energised? That the club had an identity? A real spirit? He understood us because he's one of us.

I've never felt prouder to be a Saint. We punched the rest of the comp with big blows and they were genuinely scared of this. They respected us because of it, too.

Now, he didn't get us over the line to a flag, but we came up against some incredibly brilliant teams in 2004 and in 2005, we were undone by savage injuries.

But as a club, we've never been closer to being a passionate, aggressive and above all "winning" club than we were under GT.

As a club, we were impossibly bad in 2000 and 2001, then finished in 2002 with less than 18,000 members. Within two years, he had us playing in front of SOLD OUT Etihad Stadium against an INTERSTATE club (Brisbane, 2004).

It was a thrilling time to be a Sainter. Times have changed and he's no longer the coach, but given the runs on the board, and precisely what we need as a football club - identity, passion and a strategy to become relevant on and off the field - I haven't seen anyone who gets even close to comparison.

If he was back in, within 24 hours, the place would be absolutely jumping.

[HitTheBoundary]

This old chestnut... Can't we just get back to our regular shitfight about hickey vs longer?

Now Hickey vs Longer vs Pierce.

[saintsRrising]

Fantastic post. Guys, come on - whatever you might think about GT's style, he is clearly the standout candidate for the presidency.

Why? Are you looking for headlines, or do you want someone that can actually do the job in today's climate?

He would be a disaster on many levels.

He drives people apart, not together. Last time he started very well, but then destroyed the joint.

He is not connected to the big end of town.


We need a new powerful and talented group of people working together, not a single large ego.
I am pretty sure that such a group is already in motion.

ie Look at how Jim Watts has helped his son Fergus Watts build Bastion..and look who is connected with it.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-b ... ufesr.html

This is the calibre of people we need to rebuild the club, and not divisive personalities like GT.

The club is in deep s*** both offield and on. To pull us out of to we need some talented and capable heavy hitters who are prepared to do the hard yards for the club. Nothing less will work, and we will just continue to founder.

[Zed]

Thomas made us relevant.

Whether or not he could coach was meaningless given where we were between 1998 and 2002.

He made us relevant again.

He's not the man to coach football in 2019, he's been out of coaching footy for a long time and his business is in an exciting phase. Coaching is in many ways more specialised than when he was involved.

But as a President or CEO he would make us relevant, exciting, unpredictable and passionate. Which is what we need.

Fantastic post. Guys, come on - whatever you might think about GT's style, he is clearly the standout candidate for the presidency.

Have you ever loved watching St Kilda as much as during that period?

Have you ever felt as energised? That the club had an identity? A real spirit? He understood us because he's one of us.

I've never felt prouder to be a Saint. We punched the rest of the comp with big blows and they were genuinely scared of this. They respected us because of it, too.

Now, he didn't get us over the line to a flag, but we came up against some incredibly brilliant teams in 2004 and in 2005, we were undone by savage injuries.

But as a club, we've never been closer to being a passionate, aggressive and above all "winning" club than we were under GT.

As a club, we were impossibly bad in 2000 and 2001, then finished in 2002 with less than 18,000 members. Within two years, he had us playing in front of SOLD OUT Etihad Stadium against an INTERSTATE club (Brisbane, 2004).

It was a thrilling time to be a Sainter. Times have changed and he's no longer the coach, but given the runs on the board, and precisely what we need as a football club - identity, passion and a strategy to become relevant on and off the field - I haven't seen anyone who gets even close to comparison.

If he was back in, within 24 hours, the place would be absolutely jumping.

Yes I agree . GT as president or CEO and we go from vanilla to tutti frutti overnight !
He would lay off the rants I reckon and start picking his battles selectively.
I think he would be great as president or CEO. I reckon he and Lethers would have some robust conversations from time to time as well.
As a long term member who is currently considering letting my social and footy club memberships lapse next year , appointing GT would be enough for me to committing to renew.

[freely]

This old chestnut... Can't we just get back to our regular shitfight about hickey vs longer?

lol

[Teflon]

Fantastic post. Guys, come on - whatever you might think about GT's style, he is clearly the standout candidate for the presidency.

Why? Are you looking for headlines, or do you want someone that can actually do the job in today's climate?

He would be a disaster on many levels.

He drives people apart, not together. Last time he started very well, but then destroyed the joint.

He is not connected to the big end of town.


We need a new powerful and talented group of people working together, not a single large ego.
I am pretty sure that such a group is already in motion.

ie Look at how Jim Watts has helped his son Fergus Watts build Bastion..and look who is connected with it.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-b ... ufesr.html

This is the calibre of people we need to rebuild the club, and not divisive personalities like GT.

The club is in deep s*** both offield and on. To pull us out of to we need some talented and capable heavy hitters who are prepared to do the hard yards for the club. Nothing less will work, and we will just continue to founder.

Spot on SR

GT for President FFS I’ve heard it all now....
Apart from a coaching role handed to him by Butters who he later knifed (he does have history of knifing people in the industry) what exactly have been his outstanding, pioneering commercial achievements??? Eff all!

Seriously we need credible president candidates for 2019+ not washed up, yesterday’s men who now make a living by being “confrontational” that’s THE quickest way to disaster and closure for this club.

I cannot believe peopl rubbish Butters so much because he had a drug habit, hand all the accolades to Thomas for “GT era” when facts are GT was nothing without Butters who (like him or not) at least was a self made man who built something eg a very successful commercial business
Ask yourself - what has Grant Thomas actually ever built from scratch??????????
Nothing.

[Saintmatt]

He's Mr rent a negative comment now

Sadly yes. He's a bit like the Neil Harvey of St Kilda

[saynta]

Is this the same Grant Thomas who, along with his great mate Rod, cost the club a million dollars getting Blight? Then sacked him and became coach, a position Old Xavs had sacked him from and not trusted by any other AFL club to hold any position? Then had Rendell copy the Lions game plan? Thank god Blight attracted Gehrig, Hamill, Voss, Lawrence and Penny & Watson attracted high & priority draft picks. 2004 was our best opportunity for a flag IMO. Unfortunately our coach was not the right man or deserving of the opportunity. Subsequently suing the club "he loves and will do anything for" - a bit like compensating Trump for going bankrupt on each of his four occasions.
Address the problems and weak links that are now, do not go back in history, learn from it, do not repeat it. We do not need egos addressing our problems.
My answer is NO to Grant Thomas.

Well said
As one of his assistants said directly to me
“Grant Thomas farked your club by trying to control everything”
Meglamaniac, egotistical trumped up know nothing know it all. NOT what we need
How many other clubs banged down “GTs” door when he left?????
None cause they know.

Makes me chuckle when all the desperate souls on here want Grant Thomas back.
What has Grant Thomas done that warrants the hero worship?

The saints under Grant was an exciting time and he nurtured a great young group of players, but the popular view on this forum that he got us to a prelim with a bunch of 18YO & 19YO kids is pure fantasy, it is totally inaccurate.

Grant had the best list assembled at the club in my time of watching the game.
He had a beautiful balance of gun senior recruits, gun senior players, leaders, mid age senior guns, young superstars and hard nosed grunt role players. He had two of the most feared components of the hip and shoulder in that era in Guerra & Powell.

He also benefited as those young guns played a couple of seasons with Burke & Loewe and were able to benefit from their experience and leadership.

2004 list

Young established guns
Budding superstar Reiwoldt & rising star Kossi

Young future stars making their mark
gun kids coming through in Ball, Maguire, Dal Santo, X Clarke, Montagna, Goddard, Sam Fisher, Gram

Aging superstar
evergreen Harvs & Andrew Thompson

mature senior older players
Aussie Jones, Justin Peckett

mature younger senior players
Stephen Milne, Lenny Hayes, Max Hudghton, Steven Baker, Jason Blake

Mid age players including superstar recruits
Gehrig, Hamill, Callaghan, Powell, Black, Penny, Voss, Guerra

Depth
Schwarze, Leigh Fisher,

That's 29 players with barely a weak link.

The only thing he lacked was a quality ruck with knobel the number one man and Blake as back up.

I'll back Roo when he says Grant was great at giving the young players belief and building confidence but Ross Lyon brought a whole new level of professionalism and strategy to the club.

Grant had the keys to a Ferrari but didn't know how to drive it and its a shame as that team could have been anything. If Grant was such a great coach why didn't he end up coaching at another club?

What has Grant achieved as a coach or in business that would suggest he is the messiah or hold the panacea to our ills? If he was such a great businessman why did he end up in legal proceedings with his mate and president RB over a $1M loan/gift?

I really enjoyed the GT era as it gave excitement & hope, I think we all thought hey we are gunna win one or two or three here, but in the end it was the same old saints as we imploded.

I reckon the reality is somewhere in between.

Yep, and for the record, Guerra was a sniper who let the club down in a crucial final.

I really dislike the thug.Today he would spend more time sitting on the sidelines than actually playing.

And that wig? Laughable.

Powell was really tough, whereas Guerra was a coward in that he hit blokes when they weren't looking.

[Joffa Burns]

Powell was really tough, whereas Guerra was a coward in that he hit blokes when they weren't looking.

Powell was seriously tough.

Remeber his quote to Ling in the 2004 pre-season cup final, something like ... "you got what you asked for you red headed campaigner"

Imagine as a schoolboy coming up against St Kevins that featured the Powell brothers & the Scott brothers in the same teams. I bet there were a few hammys being pinged before that game.

[Joffa Burns]

Fantastic post. Guys, come on - whatever you might think about GT's style, he is clearly the standout candidate for the presidency.

Why? Are you looking for headlines, or do you want someone that can actually do the job in today's climate?

He would be a disaster on many levels.

He drives people apart, not together. Last time he started very well, but then destroyed the joint.

He is not connected to the big end of town.


We need a new powerful and talented group of people working together, not a single large ego.
I am pretty sure that such a group is already in motion.

ie Look at how Jim Watts has helped his son Fergus Watts build Bastion..and look who is connected with it.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-b ... ufesr.html

This is the calibre of people we need to rebuild the club, and not divisive personalities like GT.

The club is in deep s*** both offield and on. To pull us out of to we need some talented and capable heavy hitters who are prepared to do the hard yards for the club. Nothing less will work, and we will just continue to founder.

Spot on SR

GT for President FFS I’ve heard it all now....
Apart from a coaching role handed to him by Butters who he later knifed (he does have history of knifing people in the industry) what exactly have been his outstanding, pioneering commercial achievements??? Eff all!

Seriously we need credible president candidates for 2019+ not washed up, yesterday’s men who now make a living by being “confrontational” that’s THE quickest way to disaster and closure for this club.

I cannot believe peopl rubbish Butters so much because he had a drug habit, hand all the accolades to Thomas for “GT era” when facts are GT was nothing without Butters who (like him or not) at least was a self made man who built something eg a very successful commercial business
Ask yourself - what has Grant Thomas actually ever built from scratch??????????
Nothing.

Spot on SRS & Teffers, what credentials does GT have for the presidency role?

The GT hero worship here is quite amusing, you'd swear he was Allan Jeans & dare I write it Drake/Huggins rolled into one person

[spert]

I distinctly remember GT saying publicly back then, that he would coach, but if someone better came along he would stand aside...or something like that. I really thought that he took on the coaching for the love of the club, and probably in frustration at the Blight outcome..maybe he could add something here if he likes. Sadly a few key players let us down late in the prelim against PA when the game was up for grabs, and had we won, we probably would have gone all the way, then GT would have been a legend. Like RL, he was let down by a few of our bigger names in the finals.

[derby Street]

I distinctly remember GT saying publicly back then, that he would coach, but if someone better came along he would stand aside...or something like that. I really thought that he took on the coaching for the love of the club, and probably in frustration at the Blight outcome..maybe he could add something here if he likes. Sadly a few key players let us down late in the prelim against PA when the game was up for grabs, and had we won, we probably would have gone all the way, then GT would have been a legend. Like RL, he was let down by a few of our bigger names in the finals.

Did we get hit with a few injuries around that time that didn't help?

[Legendary]

Spot on SRS & Teffers, what credentials does GT have for the presidency role?

The GT hero worship here is quite amusing, you'd swear he was Allan Jeans & dare I write it Drake/Huggins rolled into one person

- Experienced media performer across radio and TV.
- Excellent connections in the AFL and media.
- Strong personality that commands attention.
- Built two successful businesses in the last decade since he left footy.

St Kilda people are afraid of GT like Hawthorn people are afraid of Jeff. They don't like to feel uncomfortable. They don't like the spotlight and they don't like being challenged to do better.

No one needs to worry - my (pretty good) mail is that he genuinely feels that he's already had his time in a public role, although he may be willing to advise certain individuals behind the scenes.