The events of the past 24 hours to me have, for better or worse, brought to the forefront something which I believe has been of concern for some time now. That is we have a real lack of leadership club wide.
I don't want to talk down Gordon's efforts in bringing this club back from the brink many years ago, but to me there is clearly evidence of incompetence across the entire organisation and without some serious change we will continue to stagnate and go backwards.
Starting with the top management, Gordon is terrific at getting his point across and there is clearly evidence of the hard work and change which he is striving to make at our club, some of which I think were necessary after years with Smorgon in charge. However, and it is still early days at the moment for him, but Gordon has a monumental challenge moving our club in the direction which it needs, particularly with issues like 'equalisation' and free agency causing huge headaches. I believe he is a good asset for the club but has a massive task at hand.
However, today's press conference from Gordon I did not find satisfactory from somebody usually so good at articulating his point- talk of the players not running the club before almost proving this to be the case, getting sidetracked by issues such as free agency and compensation, talking up Griffen etc. This was in combination with Garlick's constant reassurances that everything was fine from the senior group and that the coach was safe for next year. To talk so much about sticking with the club's direction and backing in the coach before such a big backflip is a horrible look. Outside perception is absolutely crucial for a club like ours given any loss in membership hurts a great deal and media dealings must be spot on. Whether Garlick as CEO is the right man for the job, I don't know.
Our coaching ranks have not been settled for some time and I think our financial position makes this difficult to rectify. McCartney in the end was acknowledged to have some limitations but did not have the support of a coaching director/head of operations as is now the general trend and as such, as a first time coach, I think given too much control of how to manage where the group was headed- when things go wrong, they go really wrong. McCartney was brought in with a clear direction of where he wanted the culture and style of this club to head but not given appropriate support to achieve that from those with more experience who could help him achieve this. Whoever we find as the new coach needs not only to be given full support from the board of their vision for the club, but also the required help to get there.
Finally, our players- it is impossible to grow as a team when the transition from a top finals side (granted now several years ago) to a young side on the rise is not embraced by older, 'senior' players more intent on their own affairs than the success of the football club which employs them. Regardless of any spat with the coach, these guys are supposed to be leaders and have collectively shown themselves to be anything but that. Griffen was the wrong choice for captain, a fact which blame should be placed not only on those who offered the role but also on the man for accepting it. Fortunately it appears that several of our younger group are displaying these required strong leadership qualities.
The point of this post is not to bag the club as a whole, but to make decent discussion on what people think must be done to shift the culture of the place from where it is currently at to one which begins to thrive both on and off field.
We had a real chance today to set that tone going forward but instead blinked and that is not good enough.
I don't want to talk down Gordon's efforts in bringing this club back from the brink many years ago, but to me there is clearly evidence of incompetence across the entire organisation and without some serious change we will continue to stagnate and go backwards.
Starting with the top management, Gordon is terrific at getting his point across and there is clearly evidence of the hard work and change which he is striving to make at our club, some of which I think were necessary after years with Smorgon in charge. However, and it is still early days at the moment for him, but Gordon has a monumental challenge moving our club in the direction which it needs, particularly with issues like 'equalisation' and free agency causing huge headaches. I believe he is a good asset for the club but has a massive task at hand.
However, today's press conference from Gordon I did not find satisfactory from somebody usually so good at articulating his point- talk of the players not running the club before almost proving this to be the case, getting sidetracked by issues such as free agency and compensation, talking up Griffen etc. This was in combination with Garlick's constant reassurances that everything was fine from the senior group and that the coach was safe for next year. To talk so much about sticking with the club's direction and backing in the coach before such a big backflip is a horrible look. Outside perception is absolutely crucial for a club like ours given any loss in membership hurts a great deal and media dealings must be spot on. Whether Garlick as CEO is the right man for the job, I don't know.
Our coaching ranks have not been settled for some time and I think our financial position makes this difficult to rectify. McCartney in the end was acknowledged to have some limitations but did not have the support of a coaching director/head of operations as is now the general trend and as such, as a first time coach, I think given too much control of how to manage where the group was headed- when things go wrong, they go really wrong. McCartney was brought in with a clear direction of where he wanted the culture and style of this club to head but not given appropriate support to achieve that from those with more experience who could help him achieve this. Whoever we find as the new coach needs not only to be given full support from the board of their vision for the club, but also the required help to get there.
Finally, our players- it is impossible to grow as a team when the transition from a top finals side (granted now several years ago) to a young side on the rise is not embraced by older, 'senior' players more intent on their own affairs than the success of the football club which employs them. Regardless of any spat with the coach, these guys are supposed to be leaders and have collectively shown themselves to be anything but that. Griffen was the wrong choice for captain, a fact which blame should be placed not only on those who offered the role but also on the man for accepting it. Fortunately it appears that several of our younger group are displaying these required strong leadership qualities.
The point of this post is not to bag the club as a whole, but to make decent discussion on what people think must be done to shift the culture of the place from where it is currently at to one which begins to thrive both on and off field.
We had a real chance today to set that tone going forward but instead blinked and that is not good enough.
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