Whoever we take will never be the right choice unless the culture issues are addressed, the disease is cured and the standards are raised.
We need to get out of this...
Culture wasn't mentioned last year when we were winning. But as soon as we start loosing it's a culture thing. I don't buy it.
People start looking for excuses when we loose but it's got nothing to do with culture, it's because we have a horrible game plan and a pig headed coach.
The fact that we draft badly and our development is putrid is why we have been so bad for so long.
We have had different people in and out of this club for 30 years, you cannot tell me they all have created this 'bad culture'
We need a better coaching team and better players and this problem will take care of itself when we start winning games.
What's the bet if we ever win another premiership that the coach will be heralded the bloke that cured our culture problem. But in reality his team has just coached, developed, traded and drafted well.
Bad culture is just another way of saying your club is bad at making good footy decisions.
I was still mentioning it last year and a few others too.
Last year as much as I enjoyed the wins I could see a pattern emerging that I didn't like. There's one thing that you need above anything else to be a successful finals team and that's toughness. I knew that the soft easy, uncontested nature of our play was never going to be successful during finals. We were found out in round 21 and our worst nightmare realised in the elimination final. Soft footy won't give you sustained success. And players were still getting games on the back of substandard performances.
I know what your saying though....
But Culture is all encompassing. It's the unknown force that drives a club. Good culture raises the standards, it's not satisfied with good enough, it makes the ordinary players better and gets consistant results, good culture raises the expectations, is always in the contest, is pushing for the ultimate prize and fight and fights to win.
Bad culture excepts mediocrity, is satisfied with near enough, pats you on the back of one finals game in twelve years, is shaken by the frenzy of expectation, it makes good players bad, it accepts mediocrity and rewards it and its happy because near enough is good enough.
Problem is that we only hope that the coaching staff/president/board/CEO address the issues.
You only know it hasn't been properly addressed when the same problems resurface, ie. development stagnates, players get worse, mediocrity gets rewarded etc.
But there's a major difference between clubs that persue excellence. Dermott was talking about it on Saturday on SEN. They had to change things at the club and approach things differently.
And sometimes a guy walks in (Clarkson) and does exactly what's required to change the way things are done and excellence is demanded and not just an option.
I remember earlier this year when the commentators were talking about the differences between clubs, coaching philosophy, facilities, player comradery and mateship etc. Campbell Brown was asked what he thought the major difference he had noticed when going from one club to another, he said when he looks back there's one thing that stands out more than anything and that was "Standards".
He said at Hawthorn they were pedantic at doing everything perfectly.
Even recently Sam Newman asked our captain about culture and if he wonders why teams like Hawthorn & Geelong are perpetually successful and why Richmond continue to struggle time after time.
Let's face it, unless your within the four walls we don't really know what it's like and we all hope they are doing the things required to make them a successful team with ongoing sustained success. So we as supporters hope that they will eventually acheive the results we are all looking for.
Hardwick, Gale and the players are all left scratching there heads as to why this year has turned out this way but as gutted as we all are, we as supporters of this club aren't really suprised to see it all fall over once again. The cycle that continues to re-emerge time after time and no one at the club has any answers for it makes me real angry and disappointed.
I really thought Wallace was going to bring in a culture of excellence but he didn't. I thought Hardwick did but what we see is the same pattern all over again, rewarding mediocrity, development stagnates or declines, standards are lowered you know it's been a complete balls up and they have failed to address the bigger issues again.
Everytime I hear Tom Harley or Cam Mooney or Cameron Ling on footy commentary and they see things that happen on the field that are basic team orientated things that aren't adhered too they say that those things were just expected at Geelong, we all knew what was expected of us and it didn't matter who was brought in they also knew what was expected also because those things were gospel.
I'm not saying its easy to change culture and I'm not saying they haven't made some inroads as to addressing the issues yet but it's the evidence that we see game day that makes me question what's been done at the club.
If it's not culture but recruiting but we have more resources than ever before.
If it's not culture but development but we have more resources in development than ever before.
If it's not culture but just bad coaches but we have pumped more money into football operations than ever before.
But once again the commentators are laughing at us because we wheel out a gantry with a punching bag because we want to be tougher in training simulation. It's embarrassing.
We haven't got excuses anymore but we still are going backwards and the same problems resurface again and again.
Just ask anyone at Sydney if culture isn't important. Paul Roos spoke about it earlier this year when he said “I just get a little bit surprised that every thing goes back to Jack Watts. We have a lot more problems at this club,” Roos said.
Now the Melbourne players talk about the culture changes he's made while he's come to the club. Players start improving and things get better.
I'm not saying it's not development or recruiting or game plan etc. what I am saying is that if culture is addressed and excellence is the standard then everything else falls into place. Recruiting gets better and development is better and on game day the coach has leaders that will adhere to the team rules and enforce those on the field too.
I only hope that last years debacle and this years inevitable decline has everyone at the club waking up and they end up improving on everything so that one day we all won't be complaining anymore but rejoicing together in the ecstasy of another premiership and and era of sustained success.
