I don't agree with a lot of what you say, but by the same token, we're no that far apart.
I'm not talking about any half-hearted overnight culture change, like washing your hair or something. I'm talking about forgetting about preparing the team to lose, or hoping we lose, or sending even the vaguest message that we don't really want to win. I'm talking about our approach and attitude, and I believe that it is crucial that we start now, not after we lose some games to get a slightly better draft pick.
Culture change doesn't happen because you decide to change it. If it were that easy we'd have done it a long time ago. Culture change happens over a longer period, but it starts with things like preparation, attitude, subliminal messages about improvement, etc, not just in the playing group but throughout the club. Take Brisbane for example. They investigated every possible means of bettering their club, right down to intravenous drips at half time. The fact that the players used drips was not in itself particularly advantageous, but it was the attitude that was important. They started flying at lower altitudes for away games. Once again, it wasn't the action so much as the attitude that we look at doing anything to improve performance.
That's why I believe that talking about losing games for the sake of a draft pick is actually at odds with developing a winning attitude. It isn't smart planning, it could actually be counter-productive in terms of developing the right culture. I'd go as far as saying that 'tanking' might actually be the way to go for a stronger club with a stronger culture, but for us, I believe it is destructive because of our very weak culture. We need to do what is right for Richmond, not what looks like it might be successful for another club. At Richmond, we finally need to start looking at the solutions within the club, not look at importing solutions from outside. When we adopt that attitude, we'll start to build a winning culture.
