PRESSURE FROM FANS, SPONSORS
THE appointment of Brian Cook as chief executive at the end of the millennium saved Geelong from offfield peril.
But seven years later, his experience and cool head would ultimately help transform the team’s onfield fortunes.
The Cats had experienced their annus horribilis in 2006 and calls for coach Mark Thompson to go were growing louder.
It led to full back Matthew Scarlett phoning then Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan to declare his loyalty to his coach, telling him that if Bomber went, he would be gone, too.
Fortunately both remained, but only after Cook had conducted his now-legendary football department review, which provided 17 recommendations to a board that ultimately held its nerve.
“We thought 2006 we would do OK,” Cook said.
“The expectations were high that we were going to do well and we had some new staff, we were improving the club each year, the young kids were starting to show a bit of form and were getting older, so we expected to do something in 2006, but that wasn’t the case. We had a poor year.
“That led to all sorts of stakeholders coming to me to talk about the performance of the team and their commitment to the team, so there was certainly a lot happening.
“Between 2006 and 2007 we were worried about membership reducing and corporate dollars reducing, which led the board to asking me to do a review of the footy department.
“I interviewed a number of people outside and inside the club about how they viewed the club and I spoke to the player leadership group.
“I got the best feedback from them in terms of what was happening around the club … and that in part led to the 17 recommendations I made to the board.
“One thing I was fairly sure of at the end of 2006 was that all players were in a state of readiness for change, irrespective of who was around them, because they were so unhappy with their performance that year.
“Often when you are leading if there is a really strong state of readiness for change you just have to point people in the right direction. So could someone else have had the same success if it wasn’t Mark Thompson? I can’t answer that, all I can say is the players were ready for success.
“What the players said about Mark was that he was a bloody good coach, (but that) ‘He is just not coaching enough and we don’t see enough of him’. So that was a required change for him, to get back to being a good coach, which he was.”
Among the changes to the football department were the appointments of Neil Balme as football operations manager and Brenton Sanderson as assistant coach; the naming of Tom Harley as the club’s captain, and the addition of draftees Joel Selwood and Tom Hawkins.