Coach Did Damien Hardwick fake exhaustion to graciously exit a declining Richmond?

[JackFlash]

As a cats fan and I will ask other cats fans like The 747 , dazbroncos , Gavin Excell and Art Vandelay_ this question.

Whats cats fans thoughts when Bomber thompson left at the end of 2010?

He had a run from 2000-2010 and won two premierships and a salad roll, i wasn't too fussed. I think Cats fans were more affected by the Ablett jr defection than anything else. Thompson was great for Geelong, he was involved in an era that finally brought them out of the "country bumpkin" train of thought. Blighty tried to do that, but Thompson actually succeeded. The Cook, Costa Thompson tenure set up the club and his legacy is still felt 15 years later.

 

[Gavin Excell]

He had a run from 2000-2010 and won two premierships and a salad roll, i wasn't too fussed. I think Cats fans were more affected by the Ablett jr defection than anything else. Thompson was great for Geelong, he was involved in an era that finally brought them out of the "country bumpkin" train of thought. Blighty tried to do that, but Thompson actually succeeded. The Cook, Costa Thompson tenure set up the club and his legacy is still felt 15 years later.

Same thoughts although Thompson playing the loyalty card to shame Ablett into staying at Geelong not long prior him jumping ship, raised a few eyebrows

 

[Gavin Excell]

The Ayres and Colbert departures in 1999 when club had both its coach and captain packing up shop was probably a more alarming time

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Hindsite...

The hindsight is more about how far they've had to drop off to rebuild again, but it was reasonably obvious a cliff was coming as the gun players were older and the youth unproven.

They have those two guys as experienced midfielders to aid with the build, but from their perspective ... if they came in hoping to get on to the end on the successful end to a dynasty, they misread the situation.

It's hard to know what GWS would have done if they stayed.

 

[JackFlash]

Same thoughts although Thompson playing the loyalty card to shame Ablett into staying at Geelong not long prior him jumping ship, raised a few eyebrows

No doubt he had his flaws. I don't blame Ablett jr for going for that kind of money though, Thompson had some personal issues to deal with and it was probably the right time for him to go. The loss of Ablett jr cost them more IMO. The thing is Mark
Thompson is a strange cat...

 

[tiger_tough]

The hindsight is more about how far they've had to drop off to rebuild again, but it was reasonably obvious a cliff was coming as the gun players were older and the youth unproven.

They have those two guys as experienced midfielders to aid with the build, but from their perspective ... if they came in hoping to get on to the end on the successful end to a dynasty, they misread the situation.

It's hard to know what GWS would have done if they stayed.

The same has been said about Geelong for 15 years.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

The same has been said about Geelong for 15 years.

Geelong's lifestyle gives them a unique advantage over most teams when it comes to attracting enough talent to keep them up. Most of the rest of us have to go through the cycle.