Ford and Cats drive on with partnership

Geelong Advertiser - Bradley Green, September 24th, 2008

TWO of Geelong's powerful identities have reaffirmed their vows to each other.

The Geelong Football Club yesterday announced it's long-standing partnership with major sponsor Ford had been extended for another five years.

While the club would not reveal the amount of the new deal, Cats CEO Brian Cook said "it's up there" with other large sponsorships in the AFL.

"It's the longest sponsorship that we've ever had, arguably the largest but we won't go into dollars," Cook said.
The new deal means the relationship between the club and the motor company will stretch to an amazing 88 years. Cook said they would be applying to the Guinness Book of Records to acknowledge it as the longest running world sports sponsorship.

"In 1925, the Ford Motor Company of Australia settled in Geelong and was the first overseas car maker to settle full-scale operations in Australia," Cook said.

"Ironically we won our first premiership in 1925, so there is some relationship there."

Cook said that 13 Geelong premiership players had worked on the assembly line over the past nine decades.

When coach Mark Thompson was asked about what would happen if the Cats lost to Hawthorn on Saturday, he quipped: "I might send a few (players) out there (to Ford) if they don't play the way we want them to play."