By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
GEELONG’S lack of 2015 night games was the result of an AFL fixturing bungle, Cats chief Brian Cook revealed at a Geelong Business Breakfast this week.
The Cats realised only a day before the fixture’s release that the AFL had failed to schedule any night matches in Geelong, he said.
“We never get told what the fixtures are until the day before the release of the fixture. You hear bits and pieces and put a picture together,” Cook told the breakfast.
“I rang the AFL and spoke to the fixturing manager. He’s very talented but he made an error.”
Cook said the AFL initially refused to believe him and had to check before admitting its mistake.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to give us some night games’. Two or three hours later he rang back and said, ‘I reckon I can get you one’.
“I said, ‘We need more than one’, so he came back later and said, ‘I’ve got you one plus two twilights and maybe, maybe round 23…will be a night game, too’.”
Cook said the mix-up made everyone look like “dummies”.
“I have to laugh about it but, I tell you, I’m really pissed off with it.
“And it won’t happen next year.”
