I feel sick saying it, and I'm a long way away from it yet... But look at Port...
Good administration, great coach, fantastic young list...
I couldn't ever bring myself to abandon the Crows, but I've never actually felt jealous of Port supporters before - yet, now, I feel so disenfranchised and disrespected by the management of the Crows, I do.
Oh, and that's in the midst of being in discussions with the AFC to buy a corporate package worth around $9k for the first Adelaide Oval season.
Yes but it wasn't always that way.
They were seriously in trouble but their club had the good sense to realise things had to change and had the guts and courage to do it.
Good people sacrificed their own standing within that organisation to allow the changes to proceed.
The SANFL installed Keith Thomas a proven and successful business manager and a football person who knew how football clubs worked.
The board and the CEO realised they needed to bring in a charismatic president who could raise their profile,bring in sponsorship money and had credibility in the eyes of the
whole Australian community.
They took their time and looked long and hard to find the right candidate and found what they were after.They then convinced him to take the job and they also brought in more expertise to the board with the likes of Amanda Vanstone.
Whether you like them or not they have the ears of a lot of influential,well connected and wealthy people within government,media,AFL house and business.
Port people who are willing to do the hard yards and use their contacts and networks to change the perception of Port as a 'basketcase' in terms of a financial liability and re-brand them as a team on the move prepared to do the hard yards.
The CEO and board revamped their football department bringing in fresh faces and for a change
'non Port people' who had no allegiances to the old regime and owed no favours to anyone.
They also made good choices employing Burgess and Hinkley.
They had low draft picks to work with bringing in tough hard edge players such as Wingard and Wines and traded cleverly, such as the deal to get Jack Hombsch and Jake Neade for pick 29.
They were also able to keep interstate players at Alberton namely Boak and Trengove.
In other words they put a broom through the whole club had a specific list of wants and worked there way through them.
The other aspect of this process is that they have no set time table.
We on the other hand had the exact same opportunity.
Trigg after 11 years on the job could have been legitimately released because of the Tippett affair.
A new injection at the top of the club could have been seamlessly implemented.
Fresh ideas and new people could have reinvigorated what now appears to be a stale hierarchy.
A new CEO who owed no favours and was the best candidate from the whole of Australia could have been head-hunted.
The other major restructure that needed to take place was for the license holder, the SANFL to be convinced that the configuration or make up of the board needed to be altered to a model more in line with all existing AFL clubs. A representative or representatives on the board who are elected by the members of the AFC.
I fear this is now a wish list once the Crows management take over their own license.
Any new board member will be voted from within the peers of the favoured ones or as someone once sung the 'fortunate sons' and the average Joe Punter won't have any say. The SANFL representative on the board will also soon become redundant when the license is sold and they were at least somewhat independent.
Chapman IMO has now demonstrated to me he is not the man for the job.
Firstly the boards decision to not remove the CEO after the raft of fines and draft pick losses was beyond belief and entrenches a culture of 'failure' not changes it to one of accountability.
His performance in replying to Kennett lacked any substantial coherent argument but instead became a parochial diatribe of insular popularism.
The club has now chosen the path of 'more of the same' and I for one don't put much trust in this club hierarchy because I've seen the penalties and draft losses we've now been shackled with.
I've seen our inability to keep required players which doesn't seem to inflict other successful clubs.
Mostly I've seen a club which doesn't want to or hasn't the ability to change.
Our returning CEO calling those who can't agree with his return- "
agitators" to me demonstrates he still doesn't get it.
These are the very supporters he must convince through his work hard that he rightly deserves this second chance not the ones who readily applaud his return.
I am a passionate supporter of the Adelaide Football club but that doesn't mean I idly sit by and not question the whole state of affairs that has played out.
If I was presented with some logical and persuasive arguments as to why his retention was for the betterment of the club then I would be silent as yet I've not heard one word that has swayed my position.
I guess that makes me an agitator.