gregstar
Referee
- Messages
- 20,367
you'd better hope he pulls his head in & concentrates on footy instead of this crap.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/when-a-boil-comes-to-a-nasty-
When a boil comes to a nasty head, you lance it
By Roy Masters
November 26, 2005
WHEN Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian concluded his address to St George Illawarra during this year's NRL finals campaign, he immediately asked the Dragons' coaching staff: "Who's the redhead?"
Goorjian was referring to second-rower Lance Thompson, who was subsequently released by the club with a year remaining on his contract. Thompson's body language annoyed the basketball coach, whose team has won the past three NBL titles.
While Goorjian spoke of the team ethos, sacrificing individual egos for the collective good, leadership and the pressure of finals, Thompson was playing the role of dickhead. He shuffled in his seat, loudly crunched a yoghurt container, anything to convey the message that he wasn't paying attention.
The meeting was at a Randwick hotel in the lead-up to the Dragons' match against Wests Tigers. Thompson's performance in that losing final was ordinary. He didn't break the line, nor hurt anyone in defence.
His disrespectful attitude has also been evident to Ray McLean, a leadership coach St George Illawarra hired to instill teamwork.
In Thompson's many barbs at the Dragons' coaching staff and management, he has promoted himself as a self-sacrificing local junior who believes the club is everything.
His recent declaration, "I'm a professional", doesn't sit well with his treatment of others. Watch him before a game and he carries a white towel to the field, dabs his face and then casts it aside, leaving someone to pick it up.
He complained to Nathan Brown after the coach did not name him when quoted in a newspaper promoting some Dragons as potential Kangaroos.
In the 2004 pre-season, he reported for a training session drunk, and was told by the coach and captain to leave. An hour or so later, when the team adjourned to Carss Park in Cronulla, he turned up again, wielding a bottle of spirits in front of young children.
At any time in the club's history, except the present, that has been an offence for which there is only one penalty - instant dismissal.
During a visit to Wagga last weekend by Men of League, a past players' association, I asked former St George captain-coach Ian Walsh how he would have responded to a player flouting the rule breach by brandishing a bottle. Walsh simply looked towards the door and said, "Gone".
Locked in St George folklore is the story of halfback Billy Smith misbehaving on a visit to the Minchinbury vineyard of new sponsor Penfolds. Billy drove the team bus to a secluded area, jumped in a pond and reported to the Penfolds lunch celebrating the 1977 premiership dripping wet, telling shocked officials that he'd just drowned the bus.
While Billy was eventually sacked as the club's cellarman after the events of that day by managers Laurie Doust and Danny Robinson, it's not well known that he arrived at training intoxicated halfway through the previous season and his contract was terminated.
Doust, who died last month, is the father of Peter Doust, the Dragons' chief executive.
In the same way that Laurie gave Smith multiple chances, Peter excused Thompson his many transgressions. The one significant difference is Peter allowed Thompson to remain a Dragon after reporting to training drunk, while Smith's days as a player were over immediately.
As a former St George coach, I once asked Doust jnr why he allowed Thompson to stay when he had been so disrespectful to teammates.
"I was new to the club and he had a strong power base," Doust told me.
Even former captain Craig Young, an ex-detective, couldn't penetrate Thompson's self-obsessed psyche when Thompson walked out of a club function at Sydney Town Hall last month. Young tracked him to a city hotel but says: "I couldn't reason with him. He kept talking about 'my fans'.
"Nobody owns fans."
In between the Goorjian talk and the town hall walkout was a bus trip to Aussie Stadium to play Wests Tigers. The Dragons allege Thompson sent two text messages to teammate Justin Poore on the trip, one accusing him of being soft and the second threatening him when Poore turned around in his seat and looked in Thompson's direction.
In Thursday's Herald, Thompson is quoted as saying: "I didn't send any text message to Justin Poore, as I've been accused by the club of doing."
With permission and Telstra's technology, text messages can be retrieved. Given Thompson's pathological obsession with himself, it's questionable whether his career will be as easily retrieved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
i hope you have strong people at your club.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/when-a-boil-comes-to-a-nasty-
When a boil comes to a nasty head, you lance it
By Roy Masters
November 26, 2005
WHEN Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian concluded his address to St George Illawarra during this year's NRL finals campaign, he immediately asked the Dragons' coaching staff: "Who's the redhead?"
Goorjian was referring to second-rower Lance Thompson, who was subsequently released by the club with a year remaining on his contract. Thompson's body language annoyed the basketball coach, whose team has won the past three NBL titles.
While Goorjian spoke of the team ethos, sacrificing individual egos for the collective good, leadership and the pressure of finals, Thompson was playing the role of dickhead. He shuffled in his seat, loudly crunched a yoghurt container, anything to convey the message that he wasn't paying attention.
The meeting was at a Randwick hotel in the lead-up to the Dragons' match against Wests Tigers. Thompson's performance in that losing final was ordinary. He didn't break the line, nor hurt anyone in defence.
His disrespectful attitude has also been evident to Ray McLean, a leadership coach St George Illawarra hired to instill teamwork.
In Thompson's many barbs at the Dragons' coaching staff and management, he has promoted himself as a self-sacrificing local junior who believes the club is everything.
His recent declaration, "I'm a professional", doesn't sit well with his treatment of others. Watch him before a game and he carries a white towel to the field, dabs his face and then casts it aside, leaving someone to pick it up.
He complained to Nathan Brown after the coach did not name him when quoted in a newspaper promoting some Dragons as potential Kangaroos.
In the 2004 pre-season, he reported for a training session drunk, and was told by the coach and captain to leave. An hour or so later, when the team adjourned to Carss Park in Cronulla, he turned up again, wielding a bottle of spirits in front of young children.
At any time in the club's history, except the present, that has been an offence for which there is only one penalty - instant dismissal.
During a visit to Wagga last weekend by Men of League, a past players' association, I asked former St George captain-coach Ian Walsh how he would have responded to a player flouting the rule breach by brandishing a bottle. Walsh simply looked towards the door and said, "Gone".
Locked in St George folklore is the story of halfback Billy Smith misbehaving on a visit to the Minchinbury vineyard of new sponsor Penfolds. Billy drove the team bus to a secluded area, jumped in a pond and reported to the Penfolds lunch celebrating the 1977 premiership dripping wet, telling shocked officials that he'd just drowned the bus.
While Billy was eventually sacked as the club's cellarman after the events of that day by managers Laurie Doust and Danny Robinson, it's not well known that he arrived at training intoxicated halfway through the previous season and his contract was terminated.
Doust, who died last month, is the father of Peter Doust, the Dragons' chief executive.
In the same way that Laurie gave Smith multiple chances, Peter excused Thompson his many transgressions. The one significant difference is Peter allowed Thompson to remain a Dragon after reporting to training drunk, while Smith's days as a player were over immediately.
As a former St George coach, I once asked Doust jnr why he allowed Thompson to stay when he had been so disrespectful to teammates.
"I was new to the club and he had a strong power base," Doust told me.
Even former captain Craig Young, an ex-detective, couldn't penetrate Thompson's self-obsessed psyche when Thompson walked out of a club function at Sydney Town Hall last month. Young tracked him to a city hotel but says: "I couldn't reason with him. He kept talking about 'my fans'.
"Nobody owns fans."
In between the Goorjian talk and the town hall walkout was a bus trip to Aussie Stadium to play Wests Tigers. The Dragons allege Thompson sent two text messages to teammate Justin Poore on the trip, one accusing him of being soft and the second threatening him when Poore turned around in his seat and looked in Thompson's direction.
In Thursday's Herald, Thompson is quoted as saying: "I didn't send any text message to Justin Poore, as I've been accused by the club of doing."
With permission and Telstra's technology, text messages can be retrieved. Given Thompson's pathological obsession with himself, it's questionable whether his career will be as easily retrieved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
i hope you have strong people at your club.
