- May 3, 2014
- 2,659
- 3,490
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
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- Liverpool, King James
The term has been popularized by the biggest whipping boy outside of Kurt Tippet, Stephen Trigg, as a way to dismiss the critics of him as being people of little substance and having an overtone of someone who would try to stir the pot because they are, well, agitators (or assholes if you correctly interpret what Trigg really wanted to say).
I remember my first agitation, it came in the form of a strongly worded e-mail to the club which they did not reply to. I found the non-reply quite offensive considering my e-mail wasn't abusive and was a thoughtful critique of the entire scenario, how it played out and what I didn't agree with happening as a result. It also included several questions which will forever go unanswered. There's something disconcerting about the club you are most passionate about simply ignoring you because they link criticism to agitation. I felt they were telling me that they don't care which is something I can't accept from the club I support above every other.
As a result, I wrote a second e-mail, this time focusing on the reasons for why Stephen Trigg should be sacked and a promise that I would consistently write to them as long as they hadn't rectified this mistake of retaining a CEO who's job had become, in my opinion, untenable. I was quite the agitator, which is interesting and a little infuriating to be labelled as such by the very club I support above all others, even though everything I wrote was constructive and had merit. Maybe it was because they couldn't dispute what I wrote as to why they never responded, better to brand me an agitator, that way they can be dismissive.
Not long after, Stephen announced his move to Carlton. Although I doubt I played any role in that happening, it does make me wonder why Stephen, after returning to the job that he had disgraced, with promises of regaining the trust, letting his actions speak for themselves and asking to be judged by what he would do when he returned rather than for what had happened with Kurt Tippet, decided to jump ship about a year later. Did he want to be judged as the guy who tried to right a wrong, but then just gave up and went else where? A lot of the speech he used post Tippet incident really bugged me, he seemed like a man more concerned about how the Tippet saga affected himself and those around him rather than how it affected the very people that give him the chance to have such a job in the first place, the supporters. And his answers were often constructed in a way where he never properly answered the tough questions.
Maybe I'm just the kind of guy that can't let bullshit go without calling it out for what it is. Maybe I need to take a chill pill and understand that there will be times where you are completely let down and that appropriate justice will not be applied. For some reason, I can't do it, I can't sit by and just get over stuff like that. It angers me for many more reasons than most people would bother to entertain. Ah well, at least he's gone and we can finally move on from Tippet's greed and AFC administration's naïve incompetence. It all started back in 2009, it's taken five years to finally see the end of it all and the club beginning a brand new chapter. Although Harper is still there, I refuse to put any blame on a person who was ambushed with the whole deal. Harper may not be the best man for the job, but I don't hold any ill feelings towards him regarding Tippet. Stephen still has a lot to answer for, but now that he's gone, I'm no longer pursuing it.
Now clearly I was nowhere near an A grade agitator like some of my bigfooty peers can attest to and I probably wasn't even a B grader. But I was a solid agitator and I was wanting to know what role you played to join the agitator brigade. I look at it as a banding together of people with a common goal who would not sit by and allow this injustice to continue. A group of people passionate enough to unite (loosely unite) in their resolve to fix what was broken. A group of people who, despite being branded in a way that was meant to slander and discredit, soldiered on in their goal to achieve the change needed for the club to move forward. I was an agitator, class of 2014.
I remember my first agitation, it came in the form of a strongly worded e-mail to the club which they did not reply to. I found the non-reply quite offensive considering my e-mail wasn't abusive and was a thoughtful critique of the entire scenario, how it played out and what I didn't agree with happening as a result. It also included several questions which will forever go unanswered. There's something disconcerting about the club you are most passionate about simply ignoring you because they link criticism to agitation. I felt they were telling me that they don't care which is something I can't accept from the club I support above every other.
As a result, I wrote a second e-mail, this time focusing on the reasons for why Stephen Trigg should be sacked and a promise that I would consistently write to them as long as they hadn't rectified this mistake of retaining a CEO who's job had become, in my opinion, untenable. I was quite the agitator, which is interesting and a little infuriating to be labelled as such by the very club I support above all others, even though everything I wrote was constructive and had merit. Maybe it was because they couldn't dispute what I wrote as to why they never responded, better to brand me an agitator, that way they can be dismissive.
Not long after, Stephen announced his move to Carlton. Although I doubt I played any role in that happening, it does make me wonder why Stephen, after returning to the job that he had disgraced, with promises of regaining the trust, letting his actions speak for themselves and asking to be judged by what he would do when he returned rather than for what had happened with Kurt Tippet, decided to jump ship about a year later. Did he want to be judged as the guy who tried to right a wrong, but then just gave up and went else where? A lot of the speech he used post Tippet incident really bugged me, he seemed like a man more concerned about how the Tippet saga affected himself and those around him rather than how it affected the very people that give him the chance to have such a job in the first place, the supporters. And his answers were often constructed in a way where he never properly answered the tough questions.
Maybe I'm just the kind of guy that can't let bullshit go without calling it out for what it is. Maybe I need to take a chill pill and understand that there will be times where you are completely let down and that appropriate justice will not be applied. For some reason, I can't do it, I can't sit by and just get over stuff like that. It angers me for many more reasons than most people would bother to entertain. Ah well, at least he's gone and we can finally move on from Tippet's greed and AFC administration's naïve incompetence. It all started back in 2009, it's taken five years to finally see the end of it all and the club beginning a brand new chapter. Although Harper is still there, I refuse to put any blame on a person who was ambushed with the whole deal. Harper may not be the best man for the job, but I don't hold any ill feelings towards him regarding Tippet. Stephen still has a lot to answer for, but now that he's gone, I'm no longer pursuing it.
Now clearly I was nowhere near an A grade agitator like some of my bigfooty peers can attest to and I probably wasn't even a B grader. But I was a solid agitator and I was wanting to know what role you played to join the agitator brigade. I look at it as a banding together of people with a common goal who would not sit by and allow this injustice to continue. A group of people passionate enough to unite (loosely unite) in their resolve to fix what was broken. A group of people who, despite being branded in a way that was meant to slander and discredit, soldiered on in their goal to achieve the change needed for the club to move forward. I was an agitator, class of 2014.
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