Most aspects of a footy club are ephemeral: the players, the coach, the admin, and yes, in our case even the jumper and training base (and perhaps the song in time). So when you say you're supporting 'the club', it's hard to disentangle what bits of the club you're supporting.
Perhaps the current admin are good at certain aspects of running an AFL club - it's hard to tell from the outside - but it's clear to me they don't share my views of what the Fremantle Football Club should be about. It's a shame, because it makes it more challenging for me to support 'the club' as a whole.
I take comfort in the fact that the admin are temporary (although in Rosich's case, not as temporary as I'd like). I hope in time the club will pivot more towards the type of club that in my youth I was drawn to.
But at the end of the day 'the club' doesn't belong to those numpties in offices in Cockburn, or even those at the WAFC that own the licence. They are merely the custodians. The club is ultimately about the people wearing purple in the stands cheering on a bunch of young blokes on a field. What makes the club for includes the beers I have with mates before the games, the banter at the office, the excuse to call up my ageing Mum to discuss the game and check in that she's ok (she hates the umpires). It's the purple beanie that was the first thing on my kid's head, and the old woollen jumper from those first seasons, given to me when I was a teenager, that will probably be the one decent possession I'll leave him with. Hell, it's even about me arguing with Yeti about how much blame for our scoring woes resides with the coach.
Damn right I support the club, and I'll be buggered if I let a bunch of administrators, or even a coach of allegedly questionable repute, get in the way of beers with my mates, sitting in the crowd in purple (and red and green) watching some blokes I've seen grown up before my eyes giving their all on the field, and then listening to my Mum go on about the umpires the following day (I'm telling you, she really hates them).
