AFL fans wouldn’t stand for a Bennett decision

You have no idea!

Yet they are behind the eight-ball in their ability to attract players.. necessary concession- and I'm saying that as a Collingwood supporter who may have lost two premierships 02-03 to Brissie through precisely that.

:D

"You just can’t accept that Thompson’s loyalties ultimately are with Essendon." Why would I either accept or not accept this? It's completely irrelevant what loyalties he has to Essendon. Afterall, what about Geelong? He was coach of the Cats for 11 years; shouldn't his loyalty lie with them? What I can not accept is that 'Thompson was pissed at Ablett for not showing loyalty' when IMO Ablett was completely loyal, and it was Thompson who turned out to not just be disloyal, but a self-righteous hypocrite. I also can not accept that 'it probably was the catalyst for Bomber himself to come back to Essendon where his loyalties lie', when not only was Thompson going to leave anyway, but any chance the Cats had to keep Ablett were destroyed by Thompson's actions. Thompson IMO exposed himself as not a particularly decent person. "As a Bomber fan it was painful to watch Matthew Knights ‘professional’ coach, coach the team into obilvion and suggest to fans its good for them. Essendon people stood up to be counted and wanted to help the club. We are a much more competitive side this year, Thompson handy for Hird to have in his back pocket." That's all fine and well, however instead of only focusing on Essendon's benefit, how about you think about Geelong as well? Thompson is a great coach, and a fantastic catch, but how about you remove your Essendon glasses for once and consider that Thompson's treatment of Geelong, whom he owed loyalty to more than Essendon, was disgraceful, or at the very least disappointing. This attitude of yours strikes me too much like Esendon's; 'we got what we want, so **** the rest.' There were aspects of Essendon's interview process, which if true, were IMO disgraceful. Add that to this, where in terms of loyalty, you speak only about Essendon, and your version of history would not be shared by most, and I think it is an absolutely insufferable attitude. You're not special, RedB, you're not owed or entitled to success and your history is no more proud than (almost) any other club, and this attitude that as long as you are happy (wow, we got Hird and Bomber!), no matter the cost; well, you can't be surprised why so many opposition supporters dislike you so much, and why many don't respect you. I will conclude by saying that Thompson' comments re Ablett, and his own actions, proved to me yet again that IMO loyalty is the most overrated concept in the history of sport.

My points were about the cheap shot allegation of 'mock' loyalty. Ablett made it clear he would not discuss his contract until the end of the season free of distractions, he then played his heart out. He never made any any mock references to loyalty just got on with playing for the club. If he declared he was moving on then it would have created a fan backlash as it is very very unusual in our game. It was the right call.

Ud's first point is exactly right. It is highly unusual for coaches to move on unless they retire or get sacked/nudged. All this call for truth is about rare occurences not mainstream.

hey Redb, I'm not going to criticise the preference for loyalty, I think any fan can appreciate that - some of my favourite players are the veterans who have turned down other opportunities to stay with the club through their whole careers. It's why the probability of the Dragons losing Darius Boyd this year doesn't really faze me, he's one of the best players in the comp but he's never really been a Dragon. But is it really loyalty to simply pretend and then take off anyway? Would those players you mentioned really have played with less passion if they had come clean about their futures?

For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that point 1 is common to Rugby League (and most other codes too I imagine). Bennett's situation, where he was approaching the end of a 3 year contract and had 4 very competitive offers on the table almost certainly won't happen again in the sport until his Newcastle contract expires in another 4 years. Many coaches are sacked before the end of their terms or, if they make it through a contract, just happy to get another term. In regards to the basic topic here, I'm a Dragons fan and I don't believe for a second my team would have been better off if Bennett had simply let this simmer all season and not told anyone what he was doing next year. All the speculation goes away, the team can forget about it, Price can slowly take more responsibility throughout the year - they all get along with making it back-to-back for the mighty Dragons! Obviously RL used to operate in a similar manner but the rumours and speculation were deafening and it's now all out in the open. If the AFL really doesn't suffer from this then maybe it's true that the AFL have far more control over their media than RL does (I'm not a fan of the AFL but that always seemed a bit too paranoid conspiracy for me but perhaps not).

Not at all. The NRL would kill for someone like James Hird.

You just can't accept that Thompson's loyalties ultimately are with Essendon. As a Bomber fan it was painful to watch Matthew Knights 'professional' coach, coach the team into obilvion and suggest to fans its good for them. Essendon people stood up to be counted and wanted to help the club. We are a much more competitive side this year, Thompson handy for Hird to have in his back pocket. Welcome home Bomber.

'The Storm and the Doggies did little wrong in my books, they didn’t poach players with the money, they brought them up and wanted to hang on to them,' The problem is other teams following the rules couldn't hang on to all players, hence the unfair advantage and why it was very wrong.

'Keiran Jack’s brother is about to join him at the Swans, and who knows, one day one of their sons will also play at the Swans.' Our maybe they'll show some of your much vaunted loyalty and head back to their traditional game, the one that made their dad a house-hold name, the one that's in their blood.

I'm with you on that one amazonfan- I felt Gerry had been clearer with the club than Thompson.

Once again, the Malthouse scenario is a rarity, but good on Collingwood for negotiating it with Buckley and Malthouse. I heard this morning that Bennett has vetoed a player purchase that Tinkler was going to make for the Knights. People can argue the toss as to whether that's ideal from anyone's perspective, but personally, I'd rather it not happen in the AFL. I want the coach of my club giving 100% to my club.

I didn't mean it as a compliment. :P I was referring to your interesting take on Geelong's recent history.

It's not the real world at all. Whately is a Geelong fan so his view might be a tad tainted by a couple of one off events. How was Ablett's loyalty questioned? of all the Geelong players he played his heart out every week until the end. Thompson coached Geelong to the Prelim final? Is that mock success? Geelong weren't good enough last year and Whately can't accept it. Most fans would prefer loyalty, the AFL is fortunate by virtue of it's isolation to trade more currency in it.

"Redb, you are such an Essendon fan!" No kidding.

Redb, you are such an Essendon fan! :P "Thompson was pissed at Ablett for not showing loyalty and it probably was the catalyst for Bomber himself to come back to Essendon where his loyalties lie." So Thompson only decided to join Essendon because Ablett was not showing loyalty? Completely disagree. Ablett, IMO, was not to blame. He never spoke about his contract publicly and continued to play brilliant football. Thompson, however, niggled at him in public, ridiculously attacked him when praising Selwood, and refused to accept that Ablett had the right to take his time. After the season, it was announced that Thompson had known for a long time that he would never coach again, and had been in talks with Essendon even when he attacked Ablett for being disloyal. The way I see it, Ablett did nothing wrong. This idea that he was disloyal is IMO absurd. He had no obligation to preempt his decision, and it wasn't him who turned the decision into a circus. Thompson, on the other hand, is entirely to blame. There is every good chance that Ablett might have rethought his decision if Thompson had not acted the way he had. Regardless, while he was a fantastic coach, Thompson also IMO revealed himself as disloyal, selfish, incredibly hypocritical, and not a particularly pleasant person. While I don't believe that most conflicts are black + white, this one IMO is; and Thompson was the villain.

A little reserach of your own wouldn't have gone astray, oikee. Malthouse is still much loved and respected by the former AFL clubs he's coached, including the West Coast Eagles, and not to mention he's coached the Australian side as well.. Malthouse is a very respected figure within the AFL community, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be deserving of criticism to take up a contract with another club for the next season while still coaching Collingwood. As respected an individual as one may be, that is always a clear case of a conflict of interest.

The Malthouse/Collingwood situation is a juicy one. Should Malthouse act like Bennett and announce he is moving to another club prior to season end and be pilloried by supporters of his current club, then that would be a reaction of gross hypocrisy. If a club sees fit to tell a coach that he is no longer needed next season then that club (inlcuding its members/fans) should accept the right of said coach to find gainful future employment, even with a competitor, and say so without recrimination. Ben, yours, and others, commentary on this issue seem to smack of a perceived superiority of the AFL "culture.