Whispers in the sky

[bigcarl]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 8629741ed4





Sent from my iPhone

[bigcarl]

In a revelation that goes against 18 years of accepted AFL wisdom Grant Thomas has set the record straight about footys biggest sacking, his own demise and longstanding feud with Andrew Demetriou

Says he was the last to find out about the Blight sacking

[Saintly66]

Any chance of a copy paste?
Cheers

[bigcarl]

I don’t think you can, or at least I don’t know how.

But it’s good stuff about his own sacking, his longstanding feud with Demetriou and tips the bucket on the umpires over Whispers in the Sky.

It’s from a podcast that is available on iTunes I believe, called “sacked” by Glenn McFarlane and Jon Ralph

[saynta]

Sport
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St Kilda
Sacked podcast episode 2: Grant Thomas bombshell revelations on the ‘Whispers In the Sky’ AFL game

Grant Thomas has revealed how an unexpected upgrade to business class led to the start of one of footy’s biggest cover-up stories being exposed.
Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun
Subscriber only


Grant Thomas says he has no doubt an AFL umpire tried to influence the dramatic 2005 “Whispers In the Sky” game, accusing the league of a cover-up despite an official investigation.

Thomas believes his continuing feud with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou played a key part in the dramatic fallout to that contentious contest.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE ‘SACKED’ PODCAST

Thomas had been fined for making comments about umpires the previous week, then lost to Fremantle in a game where continued decisions went against them.

Umpire Matthew Head was overheard by journalist Tony Jones on the flight back that night saying, “Now I know what it feels like to have a victory”.

Thomas this week told the Herald Sun’s Sacked Podcast there were a number of extraordinary comments heard by his staffer Matt “Gus” Parker on board flight QF648 as well as Jones and Eddie McGuire.

He believes an official investigation was a cover-up, with one integrity officer falling asleep in an interview with Parker.


Thomas and Demetriou had a continuing feud after falling out at a meeting early in the St Kilda coach’s tenure, resulting in one director saying: “God, Thommo, what have you done”.

Thomas said he has never had a doubt that the umpires that day took out their wrath on his side.

“Gus Parker was our board man and he had to get back home so he said, “Thommo, can I get the midnight flight back

“He got upgraded so he ended up in business class in among the umpires. He couldn’t believe what he heard them say. As soon as he landed at 5am in Melbourne he was ringing me.

“He said, you wouldn’t believe what was going on, he said they have fair dinkum cheated.

“In the plane there was lots said, not (just one line). Gus Parker was asked to go in for the big inquest not to find something, which is standard AFL procedure.

“The former detective fell asleep in the interview. So Gus knew anything he said wouldn’t amount to anything.”

Thomas said the conduct of the umpires pre-match, after he had been fined for telling the umpiring department to keep their egos in check, made clear to him they were out for blood.

“In the first quarter the cameras came onto me in the coaches box and me and (assistant) Matty Rendell were laughing our heads off. This was the week after I had been fined during the week.


“We were in the rooms pre-game and the umpires normally chat with players and hang around for five or 10 minutes.

“This particular time they walked in in single file, walked to the end of the room and turned around and walked out.

“And Matty looked at me and said, “I think we are in for a tough one”. Five minutes into the last quarter we were laughing our heads off. It was a joke. And we ended up getting beaten by a kick after the siren.

“And the umpires said what they said coming off the ground and then in the plane and Eddie (McGuire) heard it and Tony Jones heard it and that’s where Whispers In the Sky came from.”

[saynta]

I have always maintained that the maggots cheat and more so against us than any other team

The statistics for the past 12 years back up my opinions.

They don't like us, and they certainly didn'tl like Grant, Milne or Schneider.

[Sainternist]

I have always maintained that the maggots cheat and more so against us than any other team

The statistics for the past 12 years back up my opinions.

They don't like us, and they certainly didn'tl like Grant, Milne or Schneider.

Yeah a mate of mine reckons the "St.KIlda Schoolgirl" scandal was the icing on the cake for the dirty fluorescent maggots to go full gremlins on us. There could be something in that theory.

[bigcarl]

Demetriou had a grudge against GT going back to their North Melbourne days. There’s a mutual abhorrence between them.

I think it cost us in those days. Sirengate, Whispers in the Sky, Hall being cleared to play in the GF after snotting Goose behind play etc, etc.

It seemed the AFL was determined that St Kilda would fail and the Swans would succeed

[Devilhead]

Demetriou's leaving the AFL during the Dopers scandal is suspect as well

Absolute slimy snake and slithered out when the frying pan got too hot

[SaintPav]

Don't complain about umpires.

It's in the past and you can't change history

Swings and roundabouts etc

[saynta]

Demetriou had a grudge against GT going back to their North Melbourne days. There’s a mutual abhorrence between them.

I think it cost us in those days. Sirengate, Whispers in the Sky, Hall being cleared to play in the GF after snotting Goose behind play etc, etc.

It seemed the AFL was determined that St Kilda would fail and the Swans would succeed

Yep. Spot on. from the herald sun.com

"THOMAS v DEMETRIOU

While Thomas was battling his own internal issues, he publicly waged war with AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou.

Many AFL figures cowed to the powerful Demetriou - seen as bullying to clubs who refused to bend to his will - but not Thomas.

They had sparred in their time together as players at North Melbourne, with the situation worsening after Demetriou and Thomas fell out as CEO and coach.

“I invited him down in 2001 or 2002 and said we are going to have to take some very brave decisions in the next year or two and we have to talk to the AFL as a stakeholder and let them know our strategy.

“He was less than respectful of what our strategy was and quite dismissive of St Kilda. ‘You guys are this and that, you are hopeless’.

“I pretty much told him to go forth and multiply and he left not in a very good mood and from then on it was sleeves up, gloves off and we deteriorated from there.
Sacked_podcast_650_90_v3-2.png

“Anything I did was amplified and we had a lot of problems with the AFL from that point on.

“After that meeting one of the directors said,”My god, Thommo, what have you just done.

“I just said, I have drawn a line in the sand and taken a stance for the St Kilda footy club.”

Asked what it is like to tell Demetriou to “f*** off”, Thomas replies quick-fire: “It’s not hard. It wasn’t the first time.”

Their emnity goes back to their days playing at North Melbourne where Thomas would stand up for players he felt Demetriou was belittling.

“Everyone used to say to me, (the AFL) are absolutely nailing us. The players even said, can you back off, they are smashing us, and I said, ‘don’t be weak as piss, we will get there eventually.’
13 Sept 2006 St Kilda President Rod Butterss at Moorabbin talks to media about the sacking off former coach Grant Thomas. sport AFL crowd

“We could have taken the party line but I would have been weaker in other areas and once you are weak once you are weak twice and three times.”

[saynta]

Don't complain about umpires.

It's in the past and you can't change history

Swings and roundabouts etc

All one way traffic mate, nothing swinging our way and the roundabouts only point out the way to cheat us out of a win.

[Enrico_Misso]

Demetriou had a grudge against GT going back to their North Melbourne days. There’s a mutual abhorrence between them.

I think it cost us in those days. Sirengate, Whispers in the Sky, Hall being cleared to play in the GF after snotting Goose behind play etc, etc.

It seemed the AFL was determined that St Kilda would fail and the Swans would succeed

Correct.
I have always believed we were deliberately shafted, and not just in those incidents.
Key decisions at crucial moments went against us.

Has cost us dearly.

[bigcarl]

Say what you like about GT. One thing about him, though, he’d take a stance for our club.

[saintkid]

Demetriou's leaving the AFL during the Dopers scandal is suspect as well

Absolute slimy snake and slithered out when the frying pan got too hot

Have a look further into Demetriou's business dealings since his CEO days. In particular, his court hearings concerning the $145 million collapse of education group Acquire Learning, His dubious management, lack of accountability and integrity continues and thanks to our farcical loopholes in company law, he will get off with nothing but a rap over the knuckles. Unfairly, he will keep his considerable multi-million dollar assets and bank balances, while many others will lose their life savings and homes.

[Yorkeys]

Hasn't Andrew's expansion plans gone well. Suns are completely stuffed - the only club that makes us look well managed by comparison; and GWS with all that talent are going backwards. The amount of money, player careers, and competition quality flushed is mind boggling. AD was Smart enough not to hang around when the Essendon farce starkly showed up his duplicity and rubbery ethics. That doesn't even take into account how the compromised drafts have skewed clubs development: e.g. us. Say what you like about GT - and I admire him - if the AFL Commission had not allowed themselves to be bullied we all might be enjoying footy more. And GT was not for being bullied. A problem with having almost unlimited resources is that people like AD can mask their sins because there is no accounting for waste.

And of course umpires have the same weaknesses we all suffer from. They are relatively small guys who for a while control big guys. They have egos. If you abuse them, like most of us, they want a come back. They even rationalise it by claiming high priest status and that the institution of umpiring is beyond criticism - even when it is obvious they perform poorly. The offender needs to be shown who is boss. And if you can get the crowd accolades in Perth and Geelong, man doesn't it make you bar up - I am so good, special. Saints are 15th. We umps fly business class.

[B.M]

The fact that this was swept under the rug was a disgrace. We should have made more noise about it when it happened, and continued to make public noise until it was admitted.

For them to get away with that is disgusting.

As was the suspension of Steven Baker, who with no clear footage and supporting evidence from Farmer still got a stack of weeks.

AFL gets what it wants, and like many organisations has corrupt official

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Hasn't Andrew's expansion plans gone well. Suns are completely stuffed - the only club that makes us look well managed by comparison; and GWS with all that talent are going backwards. The amount of money, player careers, and competition quality flushed is mind boggling. AD was Smart enough not to hang around when the Essendon farce starkly showed up his duplicity and rubbery ethics. That doesn't even take into account how the compromised drafts have skewed clubs development: e.g. us. Say what you like about GT - and I admire him - if the AFL Commission had not allowed themselves to be bullied we all might be enjoying footy more. And GT was not for being bullied. A problem with having almost unlimited resources is that people like AD can mask their sins because there is no accounting for waste.

And of course umpires have the same weaknesses we all suffer from. They are relatively small guys who for a while control big guys. They have egos. If you abuse them, like most of us, they want a come back. They even rationalise it by claiming high priest status and that the institution of umpiring is beyond criticism - even when it is obvious they perform poorly. The offender needs to be shown who is boss. And if you can get the crowd accolades in Perth and Geelong, man doesn't it make you bar up - I am so good, special. Saints are 15th. We umps fly business class.

Spot on. A idea of a Tassie team has merit but Demetriou consulted pie-charts and population graphs and decided two teams were needed where they most certainly weren't needed.

Result: millions if not billions wasted and a diminution of playing quality across the board, just when soccer is making inroads (and is already the number one sport among youngsters).

If the best players of GWS and the Suns were spread across the existing teams the game would be in a much better place.

[The_Dud]

[satchmo]

Yes dud, how dare they slag off anyone that doesn't represent the St Kilda Football Club!

[Bowey Boy]

My remote got smashed that night as it hit the wall. At the time I thought the Shockers were effectively given 8 Goals, 3 as a result of non frees/marks to St Kilda. The AFL is like a closed shop, if a newspaper writes an offensive article, it will not be allowed into interviews and cut off from the AFL community. Bit like Germany and Russia at certain times. One day an AFL President will actually act in the supporter’s interests, but I cannot remember such a time and I am 56.

[BarryGrogan]

I have always maintained that the maggots cheat and more so against us than any other team

The statistics for the past 12 years back up my opinions.

They don't like us, and they certainly didn'tl like Grant, Milne or Schneider.

Yeah a mate of mine reckons the "St.KIlda Schoolgirl" scandal was the icing on the cake for the dirty fluorescent maggots to go full gremlins on us. There could be something in that theory.

What on earth would have that had to do with anything?

[Sainternist]

I have always maintained that the maggots cheat and more so against us than any other team

The statistics for the past 12 years back up my opinions.

They don't like us, and they certainly didn'tl like Grant, Milne or Schneider.

Yeah a mate of mine reckons the "St.KIlda Schoolgirl" scandal was the icing on the cake for the dirty fluorescent maggots to go full gremlins on us. There could be something in that theory.

What on earth would have that had to do with anything?

Well, duh!

[axcellence]

Definitely... makes me wonder why I follow football at all.

I always had respect for GT, even though he got out coached at times. Probably one of the best coaches at his time.

Anyway, AFL feels rotten to the core after reading this article and I wonder how long I’ll last as a footy follower.

[bigcarl]

I’d love to know exactly what Gus Parker overheard.