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View Full Version : Mark Thompson leaving Essendon - Should we Call him??



bornadog
12-11-2014, 04:32 PM
Robbo confirming shortly and reporting per his tweet.

Carro also on to it here:


Mark Thompson's future at Essendon now looks increasingly remote after a tense meeting early on Wednesday with club chiefs.The talks between the 2014 coach, Bombers chairman Paul Little and CEO Xavier Campbell are understood to have seen Thompson believing his professional relationship with the club was close to finished.

Thompson was chastised by Little for his failure to meet the deadline to pay his AFL-sanctioned $30,000 fine, a failure the chairman believes has embarrassed the club.

However Essendon, which has refused to cover Thompson's fine, remains hopeful it will be paid.
Campbell confirmed that he and Little had met Thompson but refused to give details of the talks.

The chief executive said there had been no final decision on Thompson's future.
Wednesday's meeting came as the Bombers were waiting on a decision regarding the Western Bulldogs coaching job for which Essendon's football boss Neil Craig has been a contender along with the Saints' new coaching director Luke Beveridge.

Craig joined Essendon in April, sharing the head of football responsibilities with Rob Kerr who is overseeing the club's list. Both men are contracted to the club for next year with Craig assuring Essendon he would only move to leave the club for a senior coaching position and not a senior mentoring role which the Bulldogs had also entertained.
While Thompson was officially answerable to Craig during the 2014 season he struggled with the new structure and left some at the club in no doubt regarding his views regarding the football department pecking order.

Thompson, who coached Geelong to two premierships but who was not spoken to by the Gold Coast nor the Western Bulldogs for their senior roles, has always felt he was made a scapegoat by the AFL of the Essendon drugs program.

Fairfax Media reported in July last year that Thompson had raised objections on two occasions to the number of injections and other medical treatments that were punctuating the club's 2012 football program.
Should the fine remain unpaid Thompson's case is expected to come before the AFL Commission when it next meets.


EDIT

From Robbo:


MARK Thompson will not work at Essendon next year after talks today broke down with club officials.

‘’I’m out, I’m done,’’ Thompson told the Herald Sun.


“There’s not a job there for me.


“I was happy to work there, but a role could not be agreed upon.’’


Thompson today met with Essendon chairman Paul Little and chief executive Xavier Campbell, where it agreed Thompson’s coaching career at Essendon was finished.


The club had tried to work out a role, but had become increasingly frustrated with Thompson in recent weeks because the club could not contact him.


“In the end, it just didn’t work at all,’’ Thompson said.

It means the coaching dream ticket formed in 2011 of Thompson and James Hird has ended after a controversial two years.


Thompson was stand-in coach while Hird was suspended for the 2014 season and Thompson admitted at the club best-and-fairest in October that he wanted to continue coaching.


Neil Craig’s position as head of football performance meant Thompson would’ve been answerable to Craig if he stayed, a situation which bemused Thompson.


Even if Craig is appointed coach of the Western Bulldogs in the next 48 hours, which is a possibility, Thompson won’t return to Essendon.

bornadog
12-11-2014, 04:33 PM
Should we be approaching him?

SlimPickens
12-11-2014, 04:36 PM
Should we be approaching him?

I don't think so, I think Bomber has showed his true colours the last couple of months and I don't think that reflects greatly upon him.

1eyedog
12-11-2014, 04:54 PM
Should we be approaching him?

Can coach but is an absolute lunatic - a ticking time bomb.

LostDoggy
12-11-2014, 04:59 PM
Hopefully dozens follow Thompson out the door.

The Underdog
12-11-2014, 05:17 PM
I've alwa kind of liked Bomber but I think we need stability and a strong hand. For all of his positives, I don think that's him right now.

Axe Man
12-11-2014, 05:56 PM
If we were interested in him for the head coach role then we would have already interviewed him, it's not like him leaving Essendon is a shock.

I would imagine his salary demands as coaching director (or whatever role you want to call it) would be too rich for our blood, regardless of whether we thought he would be suitable or not.

Jam Donuts
12-11-2014, 05:58 PM
Should we be approaching him?

Absolutely we should be, non stop phone calls, get him here please, I know he's a nutter but he's a nutter that can coach and someone the young kids might have respect for given his playing and coaching history, our young guns need someone like Bomber, they need success fairly swiftly or we are in danger of losing them, this decision is vital to our future on many levels, we cant afford to lose any kid, because we appoint another dud coach.

GVGjr
12-11-2014, 06:05 PM
A full focused Mark Thompson would be an asset to the club but at the moment he is exhibiting erratic behaviours and I don't believe he is ready for a challenge like we will present him.

I wonder where this leaves our interest in Neil Craig because Essendon could easily now sweeten an offer to keep him.

Webby
12-11-2014, 06:16 PM
I like this photo in the Age:

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/luke-beveridge-firms-as-favourite-for-western-bulldogs-senior-coach-after-interview/story-fni5fazt-1227119859172?nk=55cdb2a4af43fdf193d45f47d86fb4fa

Beveridge has Thompson covered..

LostDoggy
12-11-2014, 06:17 PM
A full focused Mark Thompson would be an asset to the club but at the moment he is exhibiting erratic behaviours and I don't believe he is ready for a challenge like we will present him.

I wonder where this leaves our interest in Neil Craig because Essendon could easily now sweeten an offer to keep him.

I hope they do!!!
Neil Craig-NO THANK-YOU!!!:(

anfo27
12-11-2014, 06:20 PM
I've heard we have been waiting on this Thompson announcement because we all know bomber wants to coach and if he can't coach the cheats then he might be keen to coach us. Not a source that i'd consider credible though.

Agree with GvG here. Bomber with his head straight would be a massive get for us but he looks a long way from that at the minute. I'd worry it might end up like Blights last coaching gig. Having said that, if he is appointed as the new coach i'm confident the sub committee and board are convinced that he is in the right head space and thats good enough for me in the end. We should at least have a chat to him.

ratsmac
12-11-2014, 07:36 PM
I wouldn't have thought so at this point. He should of indicated his interest already and not just because his first choice job fell through.

LostDoggy
12-11-2014, 07:54 PM
I wouldn't have thought so at this point. He should of indicated his interest already and not just because his first choice job fell through.

He has a very different set of circumstances to navigate. He may have expressed an interest quietly, but you'd think anything leaking to the press would be disastrous for him right now.

Ghost Dog
13-11-2014, 12:28 AM
I've heard we have been waiting on this Thompson announcement because we all know bomber wants to coach and if he can't coach the cheats then he might be keen to coach us. Not a source that i'd consider credible though.

Agree with GvG here. Bomber with his head straight would be a massive get for us but he looks a long way from that at the minute. I'd worry it might end up like Blights last coaching gig. Having said that, if he is appointed as the new coach i'm confident the sub committee and board are convinced that he is in the right head space and thats good enough for me in the end. We should at least have a chat to him.

Thinks he is bigger than the game.
AFL has taken an internal body blow, thanks to Human experimentation program, Windy Hill, and McLachlan can increase the size of flags, bring back kick to kick and whatever else, but the harm has been massive. So over Essendon. Refusal to pay his fine and also support the players assoc is pathetic. How does he deserve to be an AFL coach?

Jeanette54
13-11-2014, 08:07 AM
On a purely practical note, there may be ramifications with Bomber's refusal o pay the AFL fine. He may not be eligible to coach. No doubt it could be paid on his behalf, by which ever club he may or may not coach in the future but I am unsure how that would sit with the AFL. Of course there may be an off chance that further ASADA investigations might implicate him further in the Essendon mire.

Who knows.

But I must say I was an admirer of the way he held the reins at Essendon last season. I cannot conceive of the enormous pressure he must have been under. And for me AFL360, with Bomber and Paul Roos provided the best 20 minutes or so of TV viewing for the week. I think the way he handled last year was a credit to his personal strength and integrity.

I believe that with support from a unified club, he would do a fine job for us; and also a coaching gig might be the salvation of both the club and Bomber.

KT31
13-11-2014, 08:26 AM
Not sure about Bomber now, a year back I would have had no hesitations.


Thompson was chastised by Little for his failure to meet the deadline to pay his AFL-sanctioned $30,000 fine, a failure the chairman believes has embarrassed the club.

Yeah sure, this is what has embarrassed the imbeciles.:rolleyes:

Jeanette54
13-11-2014, 09:15 AM
Yeah sure, this is what has embarrassed the imbeciles.:rolleyes:

There is no doubt this whole affair has trashed the Essendon brand in the public arena, quite possibly beyond repair.

I think that even Paul Little now understands that not only the actual injection procedures, but their continual refusal to accept the responsibility for the program and its mismanagement are an ongoing PR disaster.

Their plans for mitigating this however were somewhat derailed by the actions of the golden child in appealing the recent court decision.

To be fair I would think that (after loosing their own court appeal) the committee were prepared to cop their whack, and get on with life away from the glare of continued public scrutiny and legal action.

But that was not to be. I believe that the club management have lost control of their club and the integrity of its brand. That is now in the hands of a single individual.

That cannot be good for their officials, players, sponsors, supporters or their future.

Murphy'sLore
13-11-2014, 09:31 AM
I just shake my head in disbelief as James Hird claims another victim. He is like Chucky. How can he still hold this whole club hostage to his own overweening ego and narcissism?

With no emotional involvement (bar schadenfreude), you have to relish the pure Greek tragedy of this story. Who plays Hird in the mini-series?

Oh, wait, of course, he could do that himself, too...

LostDoggy
13-11-2014, 10:24 AM
I just shake my head in disbelief as James Hird claims another victim. He is like Chucky. How can he still hold this whole club hostage to his own overweening ego and narcissism?

With no emotional involvement (bar schadenfreude), you have to relish the pure Greek tragedy of this story. Who plays Hird in the mini-series?

Oh, wait, of course, he could do that himself, too...

Paul Little is responsible for this. Signing Hird to a contract extension before the ink on the original AFL punishments was dry was the height of lunacy. Every step he's taken since taking over has been in quicksand. I struggle to see how this man became such a successful businessman making such ill-planned and knee-jerk decisions.

LostDoggy
13-11-2014, 11:31 AM
Dont think he will be coming to us after texting Alan Stoneham on the night we sacked Macca saying our club was a basket case

Happy Days
13-11-2014, 02:11 PM
Thinks he is bigger than the game.
AFL has taken an internal body blow, thanks to Human experimentation program, Windy Hill, and McLachlan can increase the size of flags, bring back kick to kick and whatever else, but the harm has been massive. So over Essendon. Refusal to pay his fine and also support the players assoc is pathetic. How does he deserve to be an AFL coach?

Nathan Bock knocked out his girlfriend, Toby Greene almost killed a guy with a crutch, Stephen Milne (didn't?) raped someone.

If you're good enough at something then you deserve anything I guess.