GT speaks - thinks we're all clear!

[SainterK]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/s ... 5857635564

Thomas learned of Melbourne Storm's penalties on Thursday night and last night maintained St Kilda did not buck the AFL's rules.

"I am extremely confident. From what I know, I have no concerns at all," Thomas said.

"My dealings and (football manager) Matt Rendell's dealings . . . we don't have any concerns whatsoever into contractual payments."

Thomas said the club requested he take charge of player contracts, then relinquish them to Waldron. Thomas resumed the responsibility just prior to Waldron's departure.

He described his relationship with Waldron, who was an ally of then club president Rod Butterss, as "estranged".

"Unfortunately for Brian and myself and others, there was very little communication for long periods of time," Thomas said. "We were totally estranged, basically, (in) `04, `05, `06. I was estranged from the president and CEO and that was a fact of life," he said.

[Quixote]

"Unfortunately for Brian and myself and others, there was very little communication for long periods of time," Thomas said. "We were totally estranged, basically, (in) `04, `05, `06. I was estranged from the president and CEO and that was a fact of life," he said.

Cue 10 pages of garbage.

[na exa]

Thomas said the club requested he take charge of player contracts, then relinquish them to Waldron. Thomas resumed the responsibility just prior to Waldron's departure.

The King wouldn't dare post , would he ?

cue a couple of pages of intelligence.

[Teflon]

"Unfortunately for Brian and myself and others, there was very little communication for long periods of time," Thomas said. "We were totally estranged, basically, (in) `04, `05, `06. I was estranged from the president and CEO and that was a fact of life," he said.

Cue 10 pages of garbage.

Why do you need 10?

Just ask yourself - how were we EVER gonna win a flag when the Coach, Prez and CEO all are "estranged" ....

What an amateur hour......we were lucky we got as far as we did......perhaps cost us....thank god they are gone is all I can say.

Friggen cowboys thats all these clowns are.

[Milan Faletic]

"Unfortunately for Brian and myself and others, there was very little communication for long periods of time," Thomas said. "We were totally estranged, basically, (in) `04, `05, `06. I was estranged from the president and CEO and that was a fact of life," he said.

Cue 10 pages of garbage.

Why do you need 10?

Just ask yourself - how were we EVER gonna win a flag when the Coach, Prez and CEO all are "estranged" ....

What an amateur hour......we were lucky we got as far as we did......perhaps cost us....thank god they are gone is all I can say.

Friggen cowboys thats all these clowns are.

Agree. Are we ever going to get it right? Do we have it right now or are we going to hear about a disjointed admin in years to come? It seems good now but who knows.

[dcstkfc]

"Unfortunately for Brian and myself and others, there was very little communication for long periods of time," Thomas said. "We were totally estranged, basically, (in) `04, `05, `06. I was estranged from the president and CEO and that was a fact of life," he said.

Cue 10 pages of garbage.

Why do you need 10?

Just ask yourself - how were we EVER gonna win a flag when the Coach, Prez and CEO all are "estranged" ....

What an amateur hour......we were lucky we got as far as we did......perhaps cost us....thank god they are gone is all I can say.

Friggen cowboys thats all these clowns are.

Agree. Are we ever going to get it right? Do we have it right now or are we going to hear about a disjointed admin in years to come? It seems good now but who knows.

Cowboys. That's Butterss, Waldron and Thomas in one.

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

Give me Westway, Nettlefold and Lyon any day of the week.

[na exa]

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

well , at least 5 pages now.

[Con Gorozidis]

storm aside. one thing made me think when craig bellamy said " i dont want to know what people get paid".

makes a lot of sense if u think about it.

also make me think how disgusted i am that grant thomas was allowed to do contracts.

rodger fox. i like u. but if u dare defend this i know u are total douche.

please explain how its ok for a coach to be involved in contracts. im all ears buddy.

[meher baba]

storm aside. one thing made me think when craig bellamy said " i dont want to know what people get paid".

makes a lot of sense if u think about it.

also make me think how disgusted i am that grant thomas was allowed to do contracts.

rodger fox. i like u. but if u dare defend this i know u are total douche.

please explain how its ok for a coach to be involved in contracts. im all ears buddy.

I can't speak for rodgerfox, but I suspect Melbourne Storm supporters are currently wishing that Bellamy had handled the contracts rather than Waldron.

Yes, it's far from ideal for coaches to handle these things at professional sporting clubs. But we are also seeing the rise of a sort of "wheeler dealer" sporting official who can take their clubs into difficulty by trying to be too clever by half.

[plugger66]

storm aside. one thing made me think when craig bellamy said " i dont want to know what people get paid".

makes a lot of sense if u think about it.

also make me think how disgusted i am that grant thomas was allowed to do contracts.

rodger fox. i like u. but if u dare defend this i know u are total douche.

please explain how its ok for a coach to be involved in contracts. im all ears buddy.

They need to have some idea what people are earning as you could be looking at a trade for salary cap reasons. Also as MB said it probably aint a good time to start that arguement as Bellamy probably should have had some involvement. by the looks of it.

[Saint Bev]

I rememember at least 2 years we only had 37 on our list because of the salary cap, so I hope Thomas is right.

Unbelievable that none of them spoke for for that length of time. Thank god they are all gone.

[markp]

I dont think what he has to say means we are any more or less in the clear.

Could mean he didn't know about other payments, or he is lying too....

I still personally dont believe we have much to worry about, but if they were all a bunch of estranged egotistical rogue cowboys, who weren't even communicating with each other, then who the hell knows... what you would expect to be reasonable and professional behaviour obviously went out the window.

And yup, thank gawd they're all gone.

[Saintsfan]

It is a positive that GT has pointed out an issue where we did get fined. I personally would take note/become worried if he denied anything and everything and said we were clean as....considering we were fined during that period.

[joffaboy]

storm aside. one thing made me think when craig bellamy said " i dont want to know what people get paid".

makes a lot of sense if u think about it.

also make me think how disgusted i am that grant thomas was allowed to do contracts.

rodger fox. i like u. but if u dare defend this i know u are total douche.

please explain how its ok for a coach to be involved in contracts. im all ears buddy.

I can't speak for rodgerfox, but I suspect Melbourne Storm supporters are currently wishing that Bellamy had handled the contracts rather than Waldron.

Yes, it's far from ideal for coaches to handle these things at professional sporting clubs. But we are also seeing the rise of a sort of "wheeler dealer" sporting official who can take their clubs into difficulty by trying to be too clever by half.

But would they have won two flags?

[Dan Warna]

concur we ran short of players which was criticised by fans because of salary cap issues.

we lost barry hall about this time because we couldn't match the $$$$ from the swans with a then mad 500k p/a and lost heath black for much the same reason, plus he was a lazy prick who wouldn't maintain the fitness regime of the other players.

also we ran shy on the number of substitute players because even their base payement would impinge on the salary cap.

the AFL fixed this issue subsequently.

we did breach the salary cap a couple of times and this was basically due injuries and as technical breaches we were fined and not punished.

about 5 or 6 clubs did this regularly and reported to the AFL. THe mitigating circumstances of massive and unusual injuries (saints had 16 players on the injury list at one stage)

There were many criticisms of GT which I'm not going to discuss now, but few criticised his business acumen or his management skills at the time.

I think st kilda are safe from the GT era inspections.

the big one is the reported 900k contract for Spider which was back ended for the predicted time when he would be eligible for veteran status.

If there was a breach, it would be a technical breach and one caused by waldron NOT GT as BW was the one negotiating at that time.

[SainterK]

concur we ran short of players which was criticised by fans because of salary cap issues.

we lost barry hall about this time because we couldn't match the $$$$ from the swans with a then mad 500k p/a and lost heath black for much the same reason, plus he was a lazy prick who wouldn't maintain the fitness regime of the other players.

also we ran shy on the number of substitute players because even their base payement would impinge on the salary cap.

the AFL fixed this issue subsequently.

we did breach the salary cap a couple of times and this was basically due injuries and as technical breaches we were fined and not punished.

about 5 or 6 clubs did this regularly and reported to the AFL. THe mitigating circumstances of massive and unusual injuries (saints had 16 players on the injury list at one stage)

There were many criticisms of GT which I'm not going to discuss now, but few criticised his business acumen or his management skills at the time.

I think st kilda are safe from the GT era inspections.

the big one is the reported 900k contract for Spider which was back ended for the predicted time when he would be eligible for veteran status.

If there was a breach, it would be a technical breach and one caused by waldron NOT GT as BW was the one negotiating at that time.

Nice to hear some perpective from someone who remembers a bit about that era, the running short of players because of salary cap especially makes me feel a little better about it all...

[Stillwaiting]

concur we ran short of players which was criticised by fans because of salary cap issues.

we lost barry hall about this time because we couldn't match the $$$$ from the swans with a then mad 500k p/a and lost heath black for much the same reason, plus he was a lazy prick who wouldn't maintain the fitness regime of the other players.

also we ran shy on the number of substitute players because even their base payement would impinge on the salary cap.

the AFL fixed this issue subsequently.

we did breach the salary cap a couple of times and this was basically due injuries and as technical breaches we were fined and not punished.

about 5 or 6 clubs did this regularly and reported to the AFL. THe mitigating circumstances of massive and unusual injuries (saints had 16 players on the injury list at one stage)

There were many criticisms of GT which I'm not going to discuss now, but few criticised his business acumen or his management skills at the time.

I think st kilda are safe from the GT era inspections.

the big one is the reported 900k contract for Spider which was back ended for the predicted time when he would be eligible for veteran status.

If there was a breach, it would be a technical breach and one caused by waldron NOT GT as BW was the one negotiating at that time.

Nice to hear some perpective from someone who remembers a bit about that era, the running short of players because of salary cap especially makes me feel a little better about it all...

Yes it is good to here these details now. We did run short on the list for a few years and while players such as Hamil came to the club, Everitt and hall went. Feel alittle better about things today as compared to yesteday.

[saintsRrising]

we lost barry hall about this time because we couldn't match the $$$$ from the swans with a then mad 500k p/a and lost heath black for much the same reason, plus he was a lazy prick who wouldn't maintain the fitness regime of the other players.
.

We lost Barry hall because he could not work with GT.
We lost Black because his wife wanted to return to WA.

[Saints43]

Cowboys. That's Butterss, Waldron and Thomas in one.

I am thankful they were there in 2000 (BW later) when we were stuffed.

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

Are you sure that why they got into it? Perhaps it looked like that in 2006 but I don't think that's the way it started out.

Give me Westway, Nettlefold and Lyon any day of the week.

Fair enough but remember that they walked into a much better situation than the previous three.

[maverick]

Cowboys. That's Butterss, Waldron and Thomas in one.

I am thankful they were there in 2000 (BW later) when we were stuffed.

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

Are you sure that why they got into it? Perhaps it looked like that in 2006 but I don't think that's the way it started out.

Give me Westway, Nettlefold and Lyon any day of the week.

Fair enough but remember that they walked into a much better situation than the previous three.

I'm sure both Butters and Thomas were there in 99 when we were still OK as well....

[Saints43]

Cowboys. That's Butterss, Waldron and Thomas in one.

I am thankful they were there in 2000 (BW later) when we were stuffed.

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

Are you sure that why they got into it? Perhaps it looked like that in 2006 but I don't think that's the way it started out.

Give me Westway, Nettlefold and Lyon any day of the week.

Fair enough but remember that they walked into a much better situation than the previous three.

I'm sure both Butters and Thomas were there in 99 when we were still OK as well....

Butterss became president in 2000 I think.

1999 was the year Tony Francis came to the club and we were looking forward to Justin Plapp, Tony Delaney & Damian Monkhorst coming the next season. And we were broke. Good times.

[The Peanut]

Cowboys. That's Butterss, Waldron and Thomas in one.

These were egotistical sociopaths who were just in it for a power rush and a good time.

Give me Westway, Nettlefold and Lyon any day of the week.

We really needed the three cowboys when they first appeared - I believe we wouldn't be in the position we are in today without them - especially GT.

They paved the way for our present day circumstances - we as supporters have gone through the good times and the 'muck' with the cowboys and have earned the right/luck for our current set-up.

There is no point in rubbishing them at this stage - unless they did play funny buggers with the books and we get caught - then it's all for naught.