They are everything we are not.
Successful
Combative
Team Oriented
Hard Working
Unbreakable
Driven
Resilient
Focused
Determined.
Here are the philosophies of the our clubs.
They are looking at 4 in a row. They are not discounting it. Sam Mitchell said the best premiership is the next one we play in snd you kind of half believe him too. If they think Lake or Hale or anyone else have passed their use by date goneskis, if anyone wants to leave they can close the door on the way out. Case in point Clinton Young where is he now all for 25-50K post 2012 GF.
Us our main aim is to win a final. We got to the finals in 2013 made Jeep ads like we climbed Everist and subsequently coughed up a 5 goal plus lead and failed, then at 3-10 in 2014 we internally claimed we were better than 2013 only to win 9 in a row and zsurrender meekly against Port and this year we made it with room to spare knocking off some big scalps along the way giving us the impression we had genuinely turned the corner. Wrong twice 21 points up and we blew it again. Yet the same blokes who have failed us in the past will be re-signed and the same players will fail time and time again when we need to make a move and move forward culturally on and off the field.
I don't know what our mantra will be next year but this club needs to aim higher and get rid of the fear of success/ failure complex it has and not knowing how to deal with it. I think it has to do as much with personnel at the club playing, match day and not playing as it has to with culture.
Until we solve this riddle we will wallow in mid table mediocrity with the token odd finals win here and there to appease the more easily satisfied supporters.
They on the other hand make every post a winner. On and off field. Members, sponsors, everything.
We could be anything if we got our on field act together and built a side with the aforementioned traits at the top of this post.
Today was Mums birthday well it was yesterday but for obvious reasons we celebrated today and we got together today for lunch. Coming from a Hawthorn family I felt reviled watching my cousins and Pop some of whom jumped on the bandwagon recently and some of whom who were absent from 92 through to 07 calling footy "Boganball" revell in their success and what it meant to them, even going to a few big games over the journey and even scoring tix to the big dance like it was a birthright they deserved, whilst I go week in and week out, interstate toad trips , support the club and go through thick and thin and by jolly the thin is threadbare and I feel a little jealous and aggrieved.
In 1982 our last GF we lead the Hawks by 10 flags to 4, yet in the susequent 33 years we have played in five finals series for a total nine finals consisting of two wins and seven losses whilst they now lead the Premierships by 13-10.
Us 9 finals.
Them 9 flags.
One flag every 3.67 years they have lost 4 GF's in that time too.
Us one final every 3.67 years.
We have a bloke who came from that system yet he cannot adopt that philosophy here and use those traits to help the club move to the next level. Same selections, same rhetoric, same mantra, same results. We have the perfect example to follow but we just cannot bite the bullet and make those right choices on and off the field and until we do ultimate success will always be a pipedream and GF day will always be looked at with a tinge of green from us who follow the yellow and black especially given the heartache we carry and all the time, effort and money we put into this club.
I just hope this changes and our loss three weeks ago was the catalyst. No point swearing at them it is clear they are better than us. Aspire not to be as successful as them but better and then and maybe only then we may draw up a blueprint for ultimate success and then be in a position to launch towards it because right now we are nowhere near them or even anything resembling that.
