Grant Thomas (footballer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal Info | |
|---|---|
| Birth | February 14, 1958, |
| Recruited from | Frankston YCW
|
| Playing Career¹ | |
| Debut | 1978, St Kilda vs. , at |
| Team(s) | St Kilda (1978-83)
72 games, 21 goals North Melbourne (1984) 7 games, 1 goal Fitzroy (1985) 4 games, 0 goals |
| Coaching Career¹ | |
| Team(s) | St. Kilda (R16 2001-2006)
123 games: 63W-59L-1D |
| ¹ Statistics to end of 2006 season | |
| Career Highlights | |
Grant Thomas (born February 14, 1958) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He most recently held the position of coach of the St Kilda Football Club from 2001-2006.
Contents |
[edit] Playing career
Thomas began his career at the St Kilda Football Club in the VFL, debuting in 1978. He took a long time to break into the side as a regular senior player, but settled in as a centre half-back. He played 72 games for the Saints between 1978 and 1983 before briefly moving to North Melbourne in 1984, and finishing his career at Fitzroy in 1985.
Following his retirement from the VFL at the end of 1985, in 1986 he moved to become the playing coach of Warrnambool in the Hampden Football League. He won four premierships with the club in just 5 seasons until 1990.
[edit] Post-playing career
After his retirement from playing, Thomas coached Old Xaverians in the VAFA in 1992, and was the chairman of selectors at the North Melbourne Football Club in 1993 under Denis Pagan.
In 1994 he was an assistant coach at St Kilda under Stan Alves, before moving on to pursue various business ventures.
[edit] Coaching St Kilda
With this experience from the business world, Thomas took a new philosophy to the St Kilda Football Club when he was appointed caretaker coach of the club in 2001 after the controversial mid-season sacking of Malcolm Blight. Thomas was then appointed as full-time coach prior to the 2002 season.
Thomas had a focus on man-management in his coaching style, as well as conducting practices towards the running of the club that are common in the business world. This new style of coaching has characterised by Thomas occasional use of jargon, such as "processes" and "outcomes" - although they are now terms almost universally used by all coaches.
Thomas coached St Kilda to consecutive preliminary finals in 2004 and 2005, plus a Wizard Cup Premiership in 2004.
While he initially came under fire for refusing to use the 'flood', Thomas slowly started to integrate the defensive coaching into his match-day approach, with improved results. Despite the criticism, Thomas maintained an impressive win-loss record against some of league's most highly rated coaches, including Malthouse, Pagan, Eade, Matthews, Wallace and Craig.
Thomas once said in an interview about the St Kilda Football Club: "This club is what I'm about." [1]
[edit] Sacking
After many injuries during the 2006 season, St Kilda finished 6th after the home and away season but were beaten in the elimination final by Melbourne. Injuries to Fraser Gehrig, Robert Harvey, Justin Koschitzke, Raphael Clarke and Xavier Clarke during the game, as well as the underdone Aaron Hamill & Max Hudghton lead to the Saints exit from the finals after leading for most of the match but being unable to run the game out. They finished the season in 8th position, which was not considered good enough by president Rod Butterss.
On September 12th, 2006 the St. Kilda Football Club announced that Thomas had left the club as a 'mutual' agreement, however Thomas maintained that the club had asked him to leave, and while he had accepted, it was not completely mutual. [2] The decision was a shock to the footballing world considering Thomas was only the second coach to lead the Saints to 3 consecutive finals series. It is not known how he was sacked, but many factors include the controversial match against Fremantle in Round 5, 2006 in which the Saints were stripped of two points following a hearing the following Wednesday, which ultimately cost them a top-four spot and the double chance, the long-term injuries to Justin Koschitzke, Aaron Hamill and Fergus Watts and starting the season with two interstate trips in four weeks.
Thomas has shown no interest in ever coaching another AFL club.
[edit] Post-coaching career
Thomas appears likely to sign with Melbourne sports radio station SEN 1116 to be part of their AFL commentary team in season 2007.
[edit] Trivia
- Thomas has eight children.
- When Thomas lost his job it was revealed on National Nine News that players sent SMS texts on their mobile phones notifying each other of Thomas' sacking.
| Preceded by Malcolm Blight |
St Kilda Football Club coach 2001-2006 |
Succeeded by Ross Lyon |
