That’s our plan. That was our plan three years ago. After we won the 2007 premiership, we knew that we still had the ability to win games and we knew that we still had a huge challenge in front of us, because people’s idea of how they should be paid goes up, and rightly so. To keep this team together was going to be a huge challenge. We studied the past. We knew where Sydney had been since they won it, along with West Coast, Brisbane and Essendon. The plan is to actually stay up and be a chance to win the premiership every year and do something that’s really incredible - what no other club’s ever done before. I think we can do it. People like Shane Mumford, who’s had a fantastic year at Sydney, was our lost rookie pick. Somehow, our people have an ability to pick players, and we have an ability to turn them into players. I’m really confident about our young players. We’ve got some enormous talent - not as good as Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel or Joel Corey. But they weren’t such good players 10 years ago when they came into the system.
Does it amaze you how far the Geelong Football Club has come since you arrived 10 years ago? Do people forget how different it is now compared to then?
I never forget. It’s been an amazing journey. It was a really poor club and now it’s a club that I’m very optimistic will continue to be a good club for a long time, even once [president Frank] Costa has gone, [chief executive Brian] Cook has gone and Thompson has gone. As long as we appoint the right people in these positions. It’s a unique place. It’s a really easy place to belong. The size of the town, the fact we’ve got our own stadium, it’s all these collective things that happen around Geelong that make it a beautiful football club. I just think that it can continue on for a long, long time. And that’s what I want to happen. I’d hate to see it fall after we all left, and be a stinky footy club again. We have 30 full-time football staff now, and if someone leaves we try and employ someone better. Whatever we’ve done today, we try and do better tomorrow. We are a driven organisation, even though we’re not outwardly driven, or publically driven. We always try and improve, because we know all the other clubs are out there trying to do things better than us.
Before the loss to Adelaide, you said your team was better placed heading into the finals than it was last year. Do you still believe that is the case?
I think we’re fitter. We’ve had 42 training on the track, which is something we haven’t had all year. We weren’t playing great footy last year - we seemed to lose our motivation. This year, we haven’t been playing our best footy but we haven’t been playing bad footy. There’s less to fix up this year, and I think the fact we won the thing last year - whether we were lucky or not - eases a lot of pressure on everybody. We can go in [to the finals] knowing we’ve had past successes, we’re really keen for more, but it’s not like we’re going in really anxious and nervous. We’re going to go in pretty comfortable with ourselves, and we can then focus completely on the footy.
Is it fair to say the grand final loss in 2008 had the footy public believing again that Geelong was suspect in grand finals?
That’s right. If we had lost two [grand finals] with this team, and only won one, we would have been under enormous pressure this year. We’re not arrogant this time around, but you are what you are. We’ve won a lot of games, we’ve been in the last three grand finals, and I accept that, honestly. I have to deal with that with our players, with our staff, with our supporters, with our board - everybody. Dealing with a champion team has as many challenges as dealing with a team that hasn’t won a premiership. But going into this finals series you know the pressure won’t be on us as much as other teams.
You’ve sent Max Rooke to Germany to help him sort out his hamstring problems and now he’s been to the United States, where he’s been trying to recover from his knee injury. Why have you spent so much money on trying to get him fit again?
You’d expect to do that for any player on the list, but Max is just a very unique person. He’s our spiritual leader. He’s the heart and soul of the club. He’s a beautiful person - he’s funny and he’s totally committed to the club. When he plays, our players just follow in behind him, and the reason why I think Bartel, Joel Corey, Lingy and all our boys are so brave tough and courageous is because of someone like Max. He has never, ever flinched at one contest that I’ve ever seen. We all love that about him and that’s why he’s worth the investment.
