So ahhhh...
look, I'll just get it out there. I watch other sports. One in particular involves the use of an oval ball. It's a weird sport to those not used to it and of course, there's an off side line so footy fans get all weirded out by that straight away, like chickens hypnotised by a line drawn in the sand straight out from the point of their beak...(true story, try it).
Anyway, it's a very structured game. The players do have specific roles but the speed of it means the really good teams...
i) have players who know what do do regardless of where on the park they are,
ii) where in the game they are
iii) how to best position themselves to run support and cover defense.
So yeah... it's different to footy, but those principles apply. So do these...
iv) players coming into the team from reserve grades know where they fit and what to do,
v) systems are in place right throughout the organisation that ensure consistency and team ethos apply to everyone involved regardless of role or rank.
Of great comfort to me is that those two teams I follow specifically don't seem to have indoctrinated the players into the whole 'staying on message' corporate bullsh*t thing. They speak honestly and usually with humility.
So all that stands out to me as being distinct from what is happening at Freo... supposedly a professional sporting outfit led by a modern master coach. What I see is a bunch of young blokes who have been educated well in the business of empty positive speak and wellbeing jargon. When you want to see that talk being backed up with action you get performances fit for a misguided rabble. When you want to see the club present itself as an entity worthy of pride and motivation you get stonewall and whitewash.
So what's going on? In the cosy world of WA football it's all good, situation normal. Potential profit drops through poor on field performances by one of the local teams is a worry from a revenue perspective but both business are trading well with packages and merchandise sales maintaining a consistent level.
Local criticsm of performance, strategy and long term planning will be non existent due to the aforementioned cosy world of WA footy. A small town that has long been subject to the dominance of one team, regardless of merit, has too many partnerships and affiliations dependent on the status quo to cater for any serious introspection or hard review. Any criticsm will be published to boost page views and usually originate from interstate, when one of those on the fringes of the VFL360 purple circle trips over something newsworthy and despairingly flings it at the bars of his / her cage like a silverback at a zoo.
We're being dudded right up the dudhole by Dud Duddley and the Corporate Dud Brothers.
