Ex-Geelong coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson can’t wait to watch Joel Selwood in his 300th game — and also that Rowell kid
Few know the brilliance of Joel Selwood like Mark Thompson. But how did the talented teenager slip to the Cats on draft night? Ahead of Selwood’s 300th game, Bomber reveals how Geelong stole a champion.
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Mark Thompson has his head over chunks of reclaimed wood from Port Welshpool pier at his brother’s factory in Airport West.
He runs his hands over the second coat of varnish, feeling for imperfections.
A sparky by trade and a footy coach by nature, Bomber’s passion these days is carpentry.
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He’s turning unremarkable and ocean-battered wood into beautiful and bespoke dining tables, and in a sense it’s much like he once turned wide-eyed and eager young men into polished, toughened premiership players.
Some of them needed rigorous treatment and encouragement, just like some of the wood, but some of them only needed a little bit of caressing – and Joel Selwood was one of them.
“I played a small role with Joel,” Bomber said.
“Some players need a lot of help and some players don’t need much at all. And he didn’t need much.’’
He doesn’t talk about footy any more, Bomber.
Nor does he read newspapers.
And he hasn’t watched a game for two years, certainly not since he left Fox Footy towards the end of 2017, when life became scrambled and hectic for him.
In essence, he has absolutely detoxed from a sport he served for almost 35 years as a player at Essendon and coach at Geelong.
He only agreed to talk today because of one reason: Joel Selwood.
He coached Selwood in his first game in 2007 and says, without absolutely promising, he will watch Saturday’s game against the Gold Coast Suns.
That’s if he can get his TV working.
“I don’t watch TV, I only watch YouTube,’’ he says.
That’s if he still has Foxtel.
“I think I still pay for Foxtel, but I don’t think I’ve got it,” he says.
“It’s been too long without using it. You’ve got to ring them back up and get it switched back on. It’s happened to me a few times.”
Asked if he would have attended Saturday’s game if punters were allowed, he said: “No. I’ve just got no inkling. I don’t know why, I just don’t have an interest.”
So, footy’s gone?
“Yeah … for now.”
That’s a shame. You get the feeling Bomber would feast on a possible match-up of Selwood versus Matt Rowell, the young tyro who’s been likened to the old bull.
Bomber looked quizzical when asked about that match-up.
You know, the kid who has received three consecutive 10-voters from the coaches? The redhead kid? From the Gold Coast?
“Is that right,’’ he said, “three in a row? Where’s he from? I’ve never heard of him.’’
Really?
‘’How do you spell that?’’ he asked.
R-O-W-E-L-L
“I’m now intrigued. He must play like Joel, then. That’s amazing.’’
Shown highlights of Rowell playing, Bomber was impressed.
“Is he a left footer?’’
No.
“Wow.”
And it’s Gazza’s 350th this week, too.
“Really? Wow. That’s a great effort.”
So, will you watch the game?
“Yeah, I’ll watch it. I might not watch it all, but I’ll look out for the Row kid … what’s his name? And I’d like to see Joel in his 300th.’’
Due to #COVID19 restrictions, Joel Selwood won't get the usual 300th game banner today ... but that hasn't stopped his family creating a makeshift banner outside Joel's place this morning. 📠https://t.co/Rfhxk3IatQ 📸 - @byTonyWilson pic.twitter.com/Gtl4gcUwZo
— SuperFooty (AFL) (@superfooty) July 4, 2020
HOW SELWOOD SLIPPED TO THE CATS
Another time and another place, Bomber was consumed by football.
Asked to go back to 2007, which was Selwood’s first season at Geelong, Thompson’s demeanour changes. He’s no longer absent. He’s almost giddy as he recalls a young man who he described as a “man’s man at 18-years old’’.
“I think he played 90-odd games under me and had 80-wins … he had a good strike rate,’’ he said.
It was, in fact, 94 games under Thompson for 79 wins and 15 losses.
“Before the draft, Stephen Wells used to talk about him,” he said.
“The year before he played a sensational year as a 16 or 17-year-old, and in his draft year he only played about four games because of his knee.
“They were worried about is knee and that’s obviously why other clubs wouldn’t take him because of his knee.’’
Selwood was taken by Geelong with selection No. 7
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In hindsight, it points to six major mistakes.
“That depends who were the other six,’’ Thompson said. “I can’t remember.’’
1. Bryce Gibbs?
“Good player,’’ he said.
2. Scott Gumbleton
“Hmm.”
3. Lachie Hansen.
“Hmm.’’
4. Matthew Leunenberger.
“Hmm.’’
5. Travis Boak.
“That’s who we were thinking about taking. It was between Boak and Joel,” he said.
“We were talking on the morning of the draft and Wellsy was always strong on Selwood, but there was always talk of Boak. I think they thought Selwood was going to go to Port Adelaide.’’
6. Mitch Thorp.
“Yeah, we were lucky there.’’
7. Joel Selwood.
“It would’ve been a tragedy if Joel Selwood ended up at Hawthorn,’’ he said with trademark Bomber snigger.
“They love good players. It would’ve been Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge and Joel. He’d be a Hawthorn-type player, too, wouldn’t he?’’
***
Thompson only saw videos of Selwood before draft day.
“No doubt, he was a quality player. He was in and under, contested ball, his character was fantastic. It was just his body which was a doubt,” he said.
“We had the medical people look at all his scans and they said they could do something with him. They were guaranteeing it.
“It was a risk. If he hurt his knee early in his career, it might’ve been it.
“But we rehabbed him pretty well, took it really slow with him. He slowly got stronger and he was ready by the start of the season.
“What stood out for me when I met him was … he was eye contact, strong handshake and acted a lot more mature than other kids are.
“You could tell he was made of the right stuff.”
Thompson played him Round 1 through the middle, on a wing and at half-forward.
By the end of Round 5, Thompson knew he had a unique player.
“There’s no better example of that than in Round 5. We played North Melbourne, we got beaten and he was one of the best players,” he said.
Selwood had 25 disposals, nine tackles and eight clearances.
“It wasn’t a great day for the club. That was the icebreaker game.
“After the game, I said to the players, ‘you’ve got 100 media out there and I’m sick of covering up for you’.
“Matthew Scarlett said: ‘Tell them the truth.’ I asked: ‘What’s the truth?’ And Scarlo said: ‘We’re not effing serious about the game of football’.
“To me, it looked like Joel said that day, ‘I don’t care what you buggers have done in the past, I’m not putting up with it.’
“I don’t think he said it, but that was my read on him as a person. Like, ‘I’ve got no history here, this is the future, this my club, I’m going to play to win’.”
Selwood had a presence, he said, and supported it with performance.
“You always think they’re kids, that they’re not going to stand up for the whole quarter, or for the whole game, or the whole season.
“But with Joel it was different. We had one early. You knew you could trust him early.
“That’s really big because not many of them do. It usually takes a couple of years. Bartel, Chappy, Stevie J, they all did.
“We had too many young players in the side at one stage, but by 2007 we were quite mature.
“Joel plays to win. There’s not one bit of selfishness about him. He’s totally dedicated to playing a role for the team.
“After I left, and when I was watching them play, whenever the team needed someone to stick their head over the ball, you know, he got himself cut.
“Some players don’t do that because they don’t want to do it, they just get lost in their mind.
“Joel never stopped doing it.
“He always had the ability to focus on the next contest, which not many of them do.
“It’s a hard game to stay on top of the game mentally. Even the best get lost sometimes.
“I can’t remember ever seeing Joel being really lost in the game. He’s always in the moment.”
That was evident when Selwood was summoned to the bench by Bomber.
“You could talk to him during the game, at any moment, and you knew he was coherent, he was listening and engaged,’’ he said.
“He’s talking back to you and then he will go and do what you ask him to do.
“Some players you talk to, like Joel Corey on the phone for example, he’d say, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT’ because he was so wound up and that’s how he used to play.
“Joel was different. I’d tell him what we see happening, ask him ‘what do you see’, and he was, ‘yep, yep, I know he got away from me, I know I was too far away in defence, I will fix it up’.
“Lingy was another one, sometimes he would ring me in the box, asking what are we seeing from up there, are we doing everything right?’’
THE ULTIMATE COMPETITOR
People have different versions of toughness, but ultimately they end with the same premise.
Bomber’s version is Selwood in a nutshell: “When you don’t ever hesitate to go for the ball even under circumstances, when you know you’re going to get hurt. People who still go for it are tough players and tough people. It’s Ling, it’s Bartel, it’s Chappy, it’s Vossy, it’s Simon Black. Joel is right up there.’’
Durability can’t be ignored, either.
He’s played 21, 24, 25, 24, 20, 21, 25, 24, 20, 21, 25, 24, 20, 24, 21, 23 and 23 games in each of his seasons and four games this year.
“In the manner in which he plays, you’d think he would’ve missed more games with injury,’’ Thompson said.
“He’d come into my office on one leg and still want to play.”
He compared Selwood to his two-time Essendon premiership teammate and rover Darren Williams.
“Unbelievably tough player for a little man was ‘Daisy’,” Thompson said.
“He ended up being forced to retire early because of concussion.’’
Legend has it a Dermott Brereton hit at Waverley was the start of the end for Williams. “Dermott hit a few out at Waverley … he was tough, Daisy,” he said.
“I worried about Joel because, as coach, you can’t stop someone’s aggression towards the ball and going into dangerous areas, like, I don’t like players doing that.
“I like players being tough and running straight and putting their heads over the ball, but I didn’t like them risking injury.
“I said to Scarlett one day, ‘you’ve got to stop flying back into the pack because one day you’re going to get a knee in the back, you’re going off the ground and you’re no good to us there’.
“I’d rather he just pull out rather than get hurt. They’re not good odds.
“I’ve spoken to Joel a few times about exactly that, but I couldn’t stop him, you can’t stop someone’s instinct. Joel probably thought I was a bit soft.
“I reckon Chris (Scott) would be the same as me with Joel … don’t be so reckless.’’
If Bomber gets his TV working, and if his Foxtel is working, and he remembers the match starts at 4.35pm Saturday afternoon, he’s adamant he will watch the game.
“It’s been good to talk about Joel,’’ he said.
“I’m glad to have coached him and know him. He deserves what he gets.
“Some people get a few games for free, but he doesn’t.
“And he doesn’t get the ball for free, either.’’
Originally published as Ex-Geelong coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson can’t wait to watch Joel Selwood in his 300th game — and also that Rowell kid