The most confusing thing for me, and possibly for everyone is the lack of clarity around the strategy of the football club. Specifically around whether we're trying to be a professional unit that wins premierships (big decisions to change the culture eg move to high performance training facility, change of colours, recruit high profile coach) or be the poor boy of the afl that throws up tantalising glimpses of potential but which everyone knows will run off the rails at some point with no expectations of improvement. (poor management - personnel/medical/financial/supporters, take your pick)
Simon Sinek talks about starting with why. I feel like the club has lost its "why" somewhere along the way. I used to know why Freo was, well Freo. We had a shitty start, we were faced with a powerful incumbent team, but we were different, and we were going to do things differently. We might not have had the best players but there wasn't too many questions about their commitment to the game, at least not from the core group of players. I remember in the early 2000's driving through Freo after the Derby with the stereo blasting out the song (Poly would have been proud) and people on the streets were having a laugh and singing along. There may have been a march at some point but my memory has faded. If you tried that now, you'd get a bunch of funny looks from people wondering which home you'd escaped from.
Its waxed and waned over the years and peaked in 2013. We haven't been the same since, we'd tried to reach the summit, failed, and now we're back wondering how to get there again, oh and is it really worth it, why not just bum around in the middle of the ladder, we're all getting paid and the expectations aren't too high.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're going to be high performing, be high performing and manage accordingly. If you're going to be a football club first and AFL money making organisation second, then take the players and the coach out behind the stands and read them the bloody riot act in a way that they won't forget so at least we'll see some of that purple passion next week!
