Sad fall from grace

FORMER Cats coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson is an illicit drug user but not a drug trafficker.

That was confirmed in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

While Thompson, above, might not have been selling the drugs that were last year found at his Port Melbourne home, the court was told the fallen footy star has an array of interesting alternative business interests.

An electrician before he became a successful coach, Thompson later made a motser in property development at Armstrong Creek, then by trading cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Now, as he battles to overcome his drug addiction, Thompson’s entrepreneurial streak remains strong.

The court heard yesterday he has started building furniture from recycled materials, was dabbling in the importation of environmentally friendly, motorised e-cycles and has a hand in the production of hydrogen inhalers.

At the Cats, Thompson was a forward-thinker, a coach always striving to stay one step ahead of the latest footballing trends, and it seems he is now applying that enterprising mind to the business world.

But his story is now, by his own admission, “sad”, and his once-mighty reputation is in tatters, with a drug conviction etched against his name.

The word “disgraced” will long precede that name, and his tale now stands as a cautionary reminder about the dangers lurking for pro athletes who lose direction when coming out of the obsessive, all-consuming elite sports environment.

More broadly, it shows that illicit drugs such as MDA and methamphetamine do not discriminate.

They can get their hooks into anyone — even a wealthy, enterprising football great who was considered a fine leader of men and a role model and teacher to others who some consider heroes.