Johnny Member wrote:Wasn't that where the fallout began?.
Butterss' off-field antics and his resultant marriage issues, divided GT and him due to the relationship GT and his missus had with Butterss' wife?
There were also concerns expressed in relation to that type of lifestyle going on the presence of impressionable young men.
That's what I was told at the time.
The politics between coach and president cost us. Momentum lost!! Everyone knew at that time that we'd have to take some steps backwards. I couldn't bloody believe that some/most were willing to accept that. Who's best interests was Butters thinking of; The players? The sponsors/the supporters? The club in general?
Back in the 04-06 period I had a feeling that the list was going to win St Kilda's next premiership but what I saw was my team take 3 steps backwards when Butters sacked GT and we'll never know what might have been. If Kennett and some power hungry directoirs at Hawthorn had their way, maybe Clarko would have never been given the opportunity. We lost momentum and we stuffed up.
Every coach will tell you that if you haven't got the cattle, it doesn't matter how good you are as a coach. We had the cattle!! Problem is - so did other teams around us and they overtook us.
...and before this turns into a $hitfest about GT the coach versus RL or anyone else, my point is that the core group was good enough to win a premeirship... but we didn't!!
When GT took over as coach he became a second father to a lot of our emerging leaders and he galvanised the playing list. I saw a leader who got a core group of high draft picks believing that they were going to write their own history. I felt that with the right coaching structure and the right group of assistants behind GT the ultimate success was enivetible.
If Geelong had sacked Mark Thompson in 2006, who here thinks Geelong would've won a premiership in 2007?