More depart bleeding Cats

Andrew Mathieson
THE exodus out of Kardinia Park has continued several days after Geelong coach Mark Thompson and superstar Gary Ablett walked out on the club.
Cats assistant coach Brendan McCartney departed the club on Tuesday when he accepted a senior position as right-hand man to Essendon’s new coach James Hird.
McCartney’s exit is a blow to the Cats, after Thompson hand-picked him from Richmond in 1999 after a conversation in the Punt Road Oval car park.
Injury-prone Max Rooke announced his retirement the next day from a chronic knee injury.
Rooke was sad to farewell premiership teammates.
“I’m shattered that I’ve been forced into retirement due to this knee injury but I have to think of my long-term wellbeing,” he said.
Fringe players Jeremy Laidler and Nathan Djerrkura asked the club to be traded last week, with both finding new homes at Carlton and Western Bulldogs respectively.
But while the Cats let go of some youth, they held faith with some familiar faces.
Player manager Paul Connors confirmed Geelong had re-signed 33-year-old Darren Milburn and 30-year-old David Wojcinski to new one-year deals.
The future of Milburn had been under speculation in football circles public after the club was forced to start the search for a new coach for next season.
McCartney’s name was mentioned in dispatches as a possible replacement.
Football operations general manager Neil Balme said the club’s plans for McCartney differed to his own aspirations.
“It was in the club’s plans for Brendan to become a development coach who would solely focus on developing our younger players,” Balme said.
“However, he has now informed us he is looking to pursue a senior match-day role.”
Geelong-raised McCartney had been an assistant coach at the club for the past 11 years.
In trade week, Djerrkura was passed on to the Bulldogs for pick 57.
Geelong eventually traded Jeremy Laidler and pick 41 in this year’s national draft for picks 36 and 53.
Laidler was keen to secure a spot in a Blues defence that struggled at times this year.
The signatures of Milburn and Wojcinski confirmed that Laidler, who played just one game this year, would battle to break into the hardened Cats side again in 2011.
“It was a bit frustrating but it’s pretty hard to change an All-Australian backline,” he told SEN radio.