Consider it in other terms. Take the once bankrupt hawks:
Without a sugar daddy to call on/blame
They went balls to the wall marketing membership. Grannies, pets, gold fishes; 11 games, 3 games, no games. Sold games, Tasmania, sold rights at Waverley. Sucked up to corporates. Pokies. Hotels. Investments etc
They hussled like guys who needed to hussle. We spunked all our money on a white elephant, alienated our sponsors, got caught cheating, insulted our fans, give the fans no voting rights; won't have pokies on moral grounds; are being out marketed today by the poor cousins.
It's not the Sanfl its us. It's always been us. Corpulent & complacent.
Do you believe newbold & Kennett would have done better, worse, the same compared to our administration over the same period? Whatever you think the answer is, that's also your answer about the culpability of the sanfl