You know how sometimes there is a really trendy restaurant that's always full, so someone opens a similar restaurant right next door with the intention of servicing the overflow of patrons that can't get in to the good place? That's what the WAFC set up Freo to be. It was up to Freo to make itself something better.
To follow this (forced) analogy, the original managers of Freo decided there was no point being a direct imitation, and instead tried to provide a different offering. We were a little bit more casual, and little more quirky, and a little more fun. Sure, we didn't win any awards and we'd never be as popular as the fancy place next door, but the regulars loved it, and on its day, you wouldn't want to be anywhere different. Both sets of customers could look to the other, and genuinely say 'I don't know what they see in that place'.
The the new managers came in, got rid of the comfy furniture, changed the menu to 'Modern Australian', and tried, wherever possible to imitate the fancy place. For a while it worked, kind of, but eventually it was exposed as a poor imitation. Now, when the customers in the original fancy place look down their nose at the regulars of the knock-off joint, and wonder 'what do they see in that place?', it's a legitimate question. It's why some of the locals have stopped going.
That's where Freo are now. it sucks. People are complaining about the head chef, and the front of house manager. They are a symptom, not a cause. The problem is the place doesn't know what it wants to be. The owners genuinely want us to be a knock off overflow place, and so that's how we are being run.
To Polly's point, I don't know if it is the WAFC, the Board, the CEO, but the club is rotten.
