Galbally article

[O Grobbecker]

http://www.theage.com.au/realfooty/...ugh-and-through/2005/10/14/1128796706315.html

I'm curious what supporters think about the article.

 

[Jabso]

A good article.

 

[Madd Matt]

Excellent read.
We used to have seats next to the Galbally's at Vic Park (My mum's friend's grandfather was mayor of Collingwood or something, and got the best seats on the wing, right over where the players ran out from).

It seems that there have always been people trying to "change" the club (generally for the better), but the 'old heads' never want to actually change, and, as the article said, are happy just to make finals, and accept mediocrity (as per Lenny29's signature).
Sadly, I believe that despite all Eddie's done, he isn't yet focussing on the performances on-field, preferring to complain about other clubs, or defend positions. To "boldly declare" that he was doing a "thorough review of the off-field structure", and then to fire nobody and hire one person, only shows that he is in fact happy with who we have and what they are doing, hence either accepting our current position on the ladder, or putting the blame 100% onto the players.

I don't know what we need to become a successful club once more, but that's not my job, either. Hopefully those who ARE resposible for it work it out soon.

 

[MarkT]

“He was firmly of the view that Collingwood had come to accept mediocrity”

It’s all too sad. All the way back in the 1950’s mediocrity was seen infecting our club but we pushed away the enlightened. Here we are in intensive care praying no one gets injured just so we can field a side that won’t lose to Freo by 100 points. Still, we have our sponsors don’t we.

 

[MarkT]

I don't know what we need to become a successful club once more,

Accountability would be a good start.

 

[hotpie]

“He was firmly of the view that Collingwood had come to accept mediocrity”

It’s all too sad. All the way back in the 1950’s mediocrity was seen infecting our club but we pushed away the enlightened. Here we are in intensive care praying no one gets injured just so we can field a side that won’t lose to Freo by 100 points. Still, we have our sponsors don’t we.

Political instability in the 1950's has ZERO to do with how the club is run today. You have drawn a very very long bow here.

The man was a passionate and influential Collingwood supporter. Thats all you can read into it. He was no prophet.

 

[Madd Matt]

Accountability would be a good start.

I suppose that's right... it seems that any poor showing always has a readymade excuse to go with it.

Funny thing is, Malthouse did say a number of times during the year that the team DID play ordinary, however (from here) the club hasn't appear to try to rectify it to ensure we don't play like that in the future.

 

[MarkT]

Political instability in the 1950's has ZERO to do with how the club is run today. You have drawn a very very long bow here.

The man was a passionate and influential Collingwood supporter. Thats all you can read into it. He was no prophet.

Acceptance of mediocrity has everything to do with why we will soon have 1 flag in 50 years. Arrogance and a lack of accountability are at the core of where mediocrity came from and why it remains to this day. We see losing a GF as a failure we may begin to change our mediocrity accepting culture. What has amazed me most is how easily Eddie has accepted this and how little he has done about it. In the areas he feels confident he has lifted the bar enormously. The football department should m have been shot en mass a long tome ago starting with the failed coach.

As for Galbally, he saw what those that worked to defeat him either didn't see or, more likely, didn't want to see. That Collingwood was being left behind while it tried to keep doing it the old way. Even Barassi, the Collingwood hating ankle, has spoken about this (same applied to him old club).

 

[MarkT]

I suppose that's right... it seems that any poor showing always has a readymade excuse to go with it.

Funny thing is, Malthouse did say a number of times during the year that the team DID play ordinary, however (from here) the club hasn't appear to try to rectify it to ensure we don't play like that in the future.

Only once in 6 years have I heard MM come close to accepting any blame for anything and that was after the Essendon game when Eddie reportedly gave them all a bake. He said “the buck stops with me but” which is a classic I will take the heat but it isn’t really my fault.

That’s only half the problem though. MM’s lack of accountability is one thing but the football department is not accountable for results and the board is not accountable for the football department. This is just how Collingwood operate and this is what we don’t win premierships and can lose multiple premierships with a competitive squad that never has the culprits sacked and the holes filled. I’ve seen it all before and I watched it all again this last 5 years.

 

[hotpie]

Just about every candidate for presidency at every club in their history would have brought out the tired old line of

"A vote for the other bloke is a vote for mediocrity".

I cant see how a bloke's sales pitch 50 years ago to win a high profile public position has anything to do with Eddie McGuire or Mick Malthouse. Nothing at all. Its a tenuous connection at best.

 

[MarkT]

It isn't just 50 years ago hotpie. He was around and later David for a long time. No doubt every candidate carries a similar I'm better than them message. The bottom line is we have been and are still mediocre and we do far too little about it. For a very long time we were presided over by people that thought all you had to do was be Collingwood, that thought our players were all greats and that anyone else should feel privileged to enter the hallowed walls of Victoria Park. The bottom line is we lost grand finals again and again. We can make all the excuse we like and throw up all the hard done by stories we like but we never adequately took control of our own destiny by demanding excellence and removing those, on or off the field, that didn't measure up.

 

[hotpie]

It isn't just 50 years ago hotpie. He was around and later David for a long time..

So what. They were good at talking the talk. Thats what lawyers do best, they make good things sound bad, and bad things sound good.

But you have no idea whether they would have been any better or worse than the presidents that preceded them or followed them. Our mediocrity (or poor luck) has nothing to do with the Galbally's. They are just supporters who had strong opinions.

 

[MarkT]

I obviously can't know for sure but I can't see how we could have too many fewer flags. I'm not so much trying to promote the Galballys as I am trying to say how much we have been the victims of our own mediocrity. My point about Galbally is that he saw it. Whether his way was any better or not we can't really know. As I say when people ask who should be coaching instead of MM, how much worse off could we be?

Hotpie, ultimately what concerns me is what we can influence now which is the future. I see a football department who have failed and yet by and large retained their jobs. I see a football department review which openly excluded the coach who the president and CEO bit repeatedly said they hope to renew during 2006 and I see the people who brought us Andrew Williams, kept Ben Kinnear and didn't bring us a ruckman when we so clearly needed one retain their jobs. I see no accountability by or for the football department. I read a flier from the club the other week. It said something to the effect that while we are crap please rejoice in our money. The board has done a great job. well they haven’t done a great job they have failed because their football department’s appointments have failed and they have not acted on that.

Same sh.it, different decade - and I for one am totally sick of it.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

 

[Daicosian Didak]

It isn't just 50 years ago hotpie. He was around and later David for a long time. No doubt every candidate carries a similar I'm better than them message. The bottom line is we have been and are still mediocre and we do far too little about it. For a very long time we were presided over by people that thought all you had to do was be Collingwood, that thought our players were all greats and that anyone else should feel privileged to enter the hallowed walls of Victoria Park. The bottom line is we lost grand finals again and again. We can make all the excuse we like and throw up all the hard done by stories we like but we never adequately took control of our own destiny by demanding excellence and removing those, on or off the field, that didn't measure up.

Many losing GF's, with many different coaches and personell to go with it, so what do you recommend Mark, perhaps the Richmond approach of the last 20 years - we all know what frequent upheavals have done for that clubs proud history of late. If the formula was so simplistic, why do the pies still hold the record for 4 in a row, surely over 110 years of football this would have been smashed by those who have got it right and continued with their winning formula. Melbourne had it in the 50's and were dominant, but yet there were many that they lost in that period.

 

[Madd Matt]

Personally I think that in the beginning, Eddie was SEEN to be someone that wouldn't take **** from anybody. He'd worked his arse off to be where he was, and he wanted his club, Collingwood, to become a powerhouse on the field, rather than an embarassment (which was what we were from 1993-2000).
However, it almost seems that 2002-03 was enough, and although he was **********ed that we lost them, he wasn't THAT upset about it. After 04 and half of 05, he'd had enough, and looked like he was going to tear the footy department a new one. Instead, he threatens, and then gives the green light for all to continue.

Any team (except Carlscum) can give excuses for not winning the flag the past two years, ours has been "injuries". But in the end, if you're using injuries as an excuse for poor performance, you're really saying "we haven't developed/maintained enough players for AFL standard". Who's fault is that? It can't be the players fault, well, not entirely. It has to be either the coaching staff for not improving the players skills, or the recruiting staff for choosing the wrong players. We already know that the recruiting staff have made some bad choices (Roach, Nixon, etc), but (I think) that's being rectified. What about the coaching staff?

 

[MarkT]

Many losing GF's, with many different coaches and personell to go with it, so what do you recommend Mark, perhaps the Richmond approach of the last 20 years - we all know what frequent upheavals have done for that clubs proud history of late. If the formula was so simplistic, why do the pies still hold the record for 4 in a row, surely over 110 years of football this would have been smashed by those who have got it right and continued with their winning formula. Melbourne had it in the 50's and were dominant, but yet there were many that they lost in that period.

You don't win as few from as many attempts as we have over 50 years without reason. We blame luck, circumstances, umpires, salary caps etc but we do far too little to control our own destiny. We accept mediocrity as a club and as supporters every time we talk about how great it is that we made it. I am no less guilt than anyone else. The fact is we have to see losing a GF as failure pr we will go another 50 years being disappointed.

When it happens next time, a very critical analysis of the players and if need be the coaches involved must occur. For example after 2002 we should have very clearly seen the need for a ruckman, having already ignored it so badly, when we were beaten in the ruck and lost the premiership. Brisbane beat us in the time on periods when Brisbane cleared the centre against a tiring ruckman. McKee who could never compete well enough to actually win at his best anyway. The proof is in his delisting not long thereafter and being overlooked during 2003. Then in 2003 we get absolutely smashed in the ruck and the game was never anywhere near being played on our terms. No critical analysis of MM, no delisting/trading of the players that again let us down and no recruiting of the players we so clearly lacked - a ruckman, quick midfielders, an enforcer....

WE DID NOTHING!

Here we are facing 2006 still without ruckman who have won in the ruck more than a handful of times between them, still slow, soft and poorly skilled and still with the same coach who has recruited dud after dud and with an abysmal win loss record over 6 season and most importantly who has seen us get to a position where we have a list almost devoid of youngsters we have any real confidence in, let alone any obvious future stars. Our best players are all 27+.

All this and the president and the CEO have repeatedly said they will renew the coach’s contract during 2006. That is not acceptance of mediocrity it is acceptance of failure. Hell it is asking for it. No worse it is paying $800k p.a. for it and that’s ignoring the cast of thousands in the coaching team and football department. I understand cardigans and dessert boots will be our standard issue next year. We’ll give those other public service outfits a run for their money!

 

[O Grobbecker]

Thanks for the replies. Interesting to read assessments without the usual derision. I'd picked up on the historical/sociological rather than the modernisation angle.

David Galbally says that his father saw Collingwood as representing the working class. To a man growing up in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s, the depression and the war, that phrase would have meant something different from what it means today. That’s a calling, a mission, a vocation. What made Collingwood great between wars was the fact that it meant something to so many.

Who does Collingwood represent today ? Whose aspirations does it carry ? How important is the Club in the lives of its supporters ? Is it a club that represents or just showbiz ? Is glamour more important than achievement ? Is it more important to create a public image/career path or to play good football ? Do its directors/employees work for the club or does the club work for them ?