What constitutes a GT lover anyway?
Nothing of what I have seen of the man's public persona would ever suggest to me that I would want to spend as much as 20 seconds in his direct proximity. He is clearly an egotistical wanker, and stubborn to boot.
However, that said, Thomas showed clearly in the 2001-06 period that he was worth being paid good money as a coach. Taking a team from the bottom to the top - draft picks or not - is far easier said than done. Sure, both Eade and Clarkson have managed something similar in recent years, but others have failed miserably. It is just sillly to judge GT as a failure because he didn't take us to a flag in the two seasons in which we were a reasonable chance to bag one (ie, 2004 and 2005: surely nobody seriously believes we could have won in 2006 without Lenny, Hamill, Goose and most likely X and Gehrig). While I quite enjoy some of JB's posts, the way he harps endlessly on this point really just shows that - despite his constant denials - he really is one of the founding members of the PHFGTC (Pathological Hatred For Grant Thomas Club).
The best that could be said about the decision to sack GT in 2006 was that it was based on false premises: I have never been sure what the true reasons were, and I suspect that all reasons given on this forum and elsewhere are ultimately speculation.
At any rate, there could have been no valid reason for sacking him on performance grounds. Those on here who constantly harp on about this are deluded. I have challenged them time and again to produce another example in which a coach was sacked after having achieved anything like what GT managed to do in his 5 and a bit seasons at the helm. No poster has ever responded to this challenge: the reason being that something like it has never previously happened at any AFL club (or, for that matter, VFL club) and most likely will never happen again.
Leaving aside the legal niceties (which seemed to have favoured GT's side of the argument anyway), GT's sacking was - in a moral sense - a classic case of unfair dismissal. He was given no grounds for his sacking because there were no defensible grounds. Public explanations given by Butterss and others didn't make any sense because the decision to sack GT didn't make any sense. I know that the favourite argument of the PHFGTC is that GT should have been sacked because he supposedly "ruined our list". Neither RB nor anyone else argued that at the time. Rather, they all talked about our list being first rate and that the main change needed was at the coaching level was to "take us to the next level". (It is only lately that we have begun to hear the likes of Lyon, Walls and Fraser criticising the list that Lyon inherited, to which all I can say is "excuses, excuses".)
Because the decision to sack GT didn't make any sense on performance grounds, but nonetheless massively damaged his professional standing and his coaching career, he did what any of us would do in that situation: he went for legal redress. As a result, he sucked a certain amount of money out of the club over and above his contractual entitlements both in September 2006 and subsequently: most recently through the court case.
What was he supposed to do? What would you do? The guy had every reason to expect to look forward to a long and well-remunerated career as an AFL coach. There are other coaches still coaching who can't point to GT's achievements: take Terry Wallace as an obvious example. The amount he has taken out of the club so far wouldn't even represent one-tenth of what he might have received over the next decade or so if he hadn't been unfairly sacked.
It makes little difference to me whether or not GT won or lost. But I can't see why anyone could possibly think that he wasn't justified in trying to get as much money out of the club as he possibly could. If any of you wouldn't have looked to do something similar after being unfairly deprived of your careers, you must either have inherited a great deal of wealth or must need money a lot less than the average person.
From a football point of view, none of this would have mattered if Lyon had been able to pick up the ball from GT and maintained the level of performance achieved by the team in 2004-06. This hasn't happened, largely because Lyon - egged on by the previous Board, the know-nothing Fraser and others - has ignored the fundamental maxim of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". He has tried to totally reinvent and replace a game plan that had enabled us to make the top 4 three seasons in a row (if you disregard the laughable sirengate decision).
All of the above events are why we will constantly argue on this forum about GT and his legacy unless and until the team turns around its consistently piss poor performance under Lyon. The last two weeks have given us some signs of hope at last. A few more weeks like that will enable us to make the finals and perhaps bury the ghost of GT at last.
From my point of view its not about loving or hating GT. However, the PHFGTC undoubteldy do hate GT (or, to be more precise, not the real GT but some imaginary version of the man). It's strange stuff really, but it does bring a frisson of excitement to this forum which - in a perverse way - I rather enjoy. So carry on B4E, Teffers, JB, KT, St Kenny, Stinger, JD, RF et all. You all help to brighten up many a dull day in my life!!
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift
. Al you are putting out there is something that is irrelevant to the OT, in my opinion of course, or is that not allowed? You hankering to become mod again??? 
