Maybe we all need to go back and watch David Williamson's "The Club" as it might be a lot closer to the truth than we think.
I'm the first to admit that I do not have a true insight into the back room politics of our club but as a supporter of our Club for 40 years, I do know that despite its true origins, destabilisation in any organisation is a recipe for disaster.
In the past our Club has been one of the few where quality players and staff looking for a gig would regularly and quite often publicly rule out as a realistic option. The only people of note who would come, would only do so if they were offered plenty of cash or long term contracts, (Brown, Simmonds, Wallace and so on...) This would guarantee them a stable opportunity in an environment that has been described as volatile for many years. I got the feeling that even Cuz may have preferred to go elsewhere if other opportunities had arisen for him.
Lets face it, our club has been on an unstable fault line since the mid 80's. We went from 5 premierships in 13 years to zero in the subsequent 13. We became victims of our own freakish success and every year that passed where we did not meet expectations, the pressure to regain those glory days ever increased. Pressure from us the supporters, pressure from sponsors and pressure from past players. In order to achieve this success and to overcome a massive loss of talent through retirement, the club became impatient, looking for a quick fix or a magic pill and with this came a multitude of poor decisions that we have suffered for almost 30 years. Who knows, The Brisbane Lions may become the next Richmond if they don't win another premiership in the next 5-10 years. They too will feel the heat trying to live up to their freakish successes of 2001-2003.
I believe we have finally learned our lesson with the appointment of Hardwick. He has made no promises of short term success, he is painting a real picture of where we are at and is taking what he believes are the right steps toward future long term success but most of all, he is attempting to instill a culture of patience. Something that our club has not had since 1980. Sure we all still crave success as shown by the recent banter on our practice matches, but I for one have finally realised that we won't play finals this year or maybe even next year, but when we do, I am confident that it will be based on a solid foundation of proactive decisions born through an instilled culture of patience and not a culture based on impatience and unrealistic expectations.
