The Blight Files — Part 2: Getting Geelong Cats up to scratch ... and coaching ’God’

MALCOLM Blight turned around a club — but just couldn’t crack a premiership in his second stint as Geelong coach. Even with “God” (Gary Ablett) in the side.

• Blight Files No. 1 — Start of greatness
• Odd Couple: All hail the ‘Messiah’
• Blighty now a Legend
• Malcolm’s plan to save footy

THIRD time lucky was Malcolm Blight’s charm at Adelaide — not Geelong.

In his second stint as a coach — with the Cats — it was three grand finals (1989, 1992 and 1994). No win.

“Unlucky is not the right word,” says Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley who played in the 1992 and 1994 losses to West Coast.

“We were unfortunate to face a grand final team that history will say was pretty strong. West Coast was making the most of their start-up group.

“And 1989 ... Hawthorn. One kick. Yeah, some part of that was unlucky.”

Blight returned to the VFL in 1989 — after proving himself as a coach, both playing and non-playing, at SANFL club Woodville — to pick up the pieces left from his sacking as North Melbourne’s playing-coach in 1981.

He took charge of Geelong as it dealt with a 25-year premiership drought.

“He changed everything,” recalls former Geelong captain Garry Hocking, who was in his third season at Kardinia Park when Blight took charge.

“We’d been in a bit of a holding pattern at Geelong (with no finals appearances after the 1981 preliminary final).”

Adds Hinkley: “Malcolm created enormous belief in the club — and the team. He created confidence — not just in the players, but the whole club.”

And on the field, recalls Hocking: “Malcolm brought this high-octane style of play. If you give up 25.14 but kick 25.15 you still win.”

Blight made his Geelong teams the highest-scoring in club — and league — history. Seven of Geelong’s current top-10 scores were from Blight’s 1989-1994 era.

The 1992 Cats team still holds the VFL-AFL record for its 37.17 (239) against the Brisbane Bears at Carrara.

“Ask me,” says Blight. “Would I rather stop a goal or create one? The answer is obvious.

“But then you get a label. You are this ‘attacking coach’.

Geelong coach Malcolm Blight with players Gary Cameron, Austin McCrabb, Mark Bairstow and Billy Brownless in 1989.

“You’ve got the records. Yes, we were the highest-scoring side at Geelong.

“And we actually won two premierships in Adelaide (1997 and 1998) with the league’s best defence.”

Hocking played in all three of Blight’s grand finals at Geelong.

“You can say we were unlucky not to win,” Hocking said.

“One would have been nice. Malcolm got his two at Adelaide. I’d say by 1997-98 he reflected on the lessons he learned at Geelong.”

The 1989 VFL grand final — with Geelong great Gary Ablett’s nine goals in a losing team and the epic finish with Hawthorn winning by six points — remains one of Blight’s incomplete masterpieces.

And the game has one of his greatest controversies.

“If I could take that back, I would,” says Blight.

The moment in many ways defines the grand final. It is the bone-breaking clash of Geelong hard man Mark Yeates and Hawthorn star Dermott Brereton at the opening bounce.

The moment left “Dermie” with two cracked ribs and internal bleeding — and legend status for staying on the field to still play a telling role in the Hawks’ premiership.

More than a decade has passed since Blight first publicly declared his regret of having Yeates as an “insurance policy” to run at Brereton, out of fear the Hawk would clean up Brownlow Medallist Paul Couch — as he had done with Yeates 20 weeks earlier.

“I was never keen on blokes hammering each other off the ball,” said Blight. “Mainly because I didn’t when I played. I’d rather get the ball. That’s what you’re there for — and 99 per cent of players are the same.”

For Blight, regrets are the price for his eagerness to take risks.

“Sometimes, some of that stuff looks silly — and some of it looks great,” Blight said.

“But I always tried something.”

At Football Park in 1993, Blight had his Cats players form a guard of honour as the Crows came on to the field before a game.

It is just one of many tales from Geelong that Blight says are retold — particularly by former Cats forward Billy Brownless — with more fiction than fact.

“He was eccentric,” said Hocking. “You always looked forward to Monday night training with Malcolm. It was always something different.”

In ‘God’ we trust

Malcolm Blight talks to Gary Ablett on the field in 1990. Picture: Brett Faulkner

HOW do you coach “God”?

“You don’t do much coaching ... you let him go,” says former Geelong captain Garry Hocking of the task Malcolm Blight faced with Gary Ablett.

“God.’’ One of the greatest players of any era in Australian football — a “Legend” in the Australian Football Hall of Fame with Blight.

And as Blight arrived at Kardinia Park to return to VFL-AFL coaching in 1989, he almost did let Ablett go — for good.

“I gave Gary Ablett an ultimatum,” recalls Blight of his famous meeting with Ablett on a bridge. “Gary had missed a few training sessions, so I arranged to meet him at this little sanctuary in Geelong.

“The message was something like, ‘Go home, get your gear and come to training — or you’re out of here.

“He went home and got his gear ... thankfully.”

Ablett had played 94 VFL games — six at Hawthorn in 1982 and the other 88 with the Cats from 1984 — when Blight moved from Woodville to Geelong to be his third coach at the Cattery (after the legendary Tom Hafey and John Devine).

It may not have been the perfect start to their six-year partnership at Geelong, but it was the dream match-up. Ablett was a “football genius”, as was Blight the player. Ablett was the perfect goalkicking machine (1030 in 248 games) to suit Blight’s coaching philosophies.

Less than 12 months after that infamous meeting, Blight had Geelong in a grand final. And Ablett kicked nine goals in that epic playoff with Hawthorn at the MCG — becoming the second player from a losing side to win the Norm Smith Medal as best-afield in the grand final.

“He just let him go,” said Hocking. “It was a win for Gary. And it was a win for the club.

“You have to remember this is 1989,” adds Hocking who was in his third season of a 274-game career at Geelong when Blight took charge of the Cats.

“You didn’t have leadership groups like you do today. You didn’t sit around as a playing group, as they would now, and say (Blight’s approach with Ablett) was unfair to the rest of the players.

“Okay, in a way, sometimes it might create some angst during the week. And by Saturday Gary would kick 14 goals, half our score. And he would do that week after week.

“You’d tolerate (Ablett being treated differently) when he’s bring that on match day.”

Ken Hinkley was starting his second chapter as a player — having moved from Fitzroy — in 1989 when Blight took charge of Geelong and the challenge of Ablett.

Today, Hinkley — as the Port Adelaide senior coach — can reflect on Blight’s methods with greater perspective.

“The most talented players create different challenges to a coach,” Hinkley said. “And Malcolm had the ability to handle all players differently. It wasn’t just Gary. He knew how to make players tick, how to get the best out of each individual to make the team better.”

Blight defines the role of a coach as “assisting the players win games”.

Hocking notes: “Malcolm taught you the game — the finer points of the game.”

Ablett could win contests, particularly with his phenomenal high marking. He could win bitter duels with defenders. But he had to win games for Geelong.

Even “God” needed guidance, particularly on the training track. Blight could not let Ablett completely go by his own ways.

Blight recalls holding Ablett back at the end of training sessions “to do some extras”.

“And to Gary’s credit, he did it,” says Blight.

TOMORROW: The Messiah: Why he returned to SA, sacking the stars and those flags.

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