I respect your view, but I disagree with it. From all reports we are currently spending up to the soft cap on football department spending, and our facilities have been upgraded to a very high standard. In short the players want for nothing and have no excuses. The only area where we are not spending the full amount is in TPP. But that is payed by the AFL and we are banking the extra for later.
If we are not spending the soft cap in the right way, it is at least not being detracted by the spend in other areas, like the huddle.
While I agree with you the football team and the football department sole responsability is win the games, the football club as whole has always had an essential element of community. My dad was born in Kensington, his brother even played a handfull of games for North, and it has always been about the community, keeping it strong and supporting each other. That is where the Shinboner spirit came from, the working class people, sticking together, supporting each other and if we lost making sure the others bloody well earned it.
The huddle formalises our community engagement, we actually do it, unlike some other clubs who just say they do, it opens avenues in government and other areas as well.
So while it is not enough to just have the huddle and community engagement. It is a seperate entity to the football department, who lack for nothing, espcially when compared to facilites the team in the 90's had