Let's be brutally honest, our real issue as a club – the reason we have an empty trophy cabinet and the reason we're not given the same respect as WC in the media - is that we have a culture that accepts failure. We're not the only club in that regard, but sharing a small city with a successful club puts it into sharp relief.
I thought the jumper change, nabbing Lyon and the move to Cockburn would mark a move to greater professionalism and a heightened expectation of success. But after a brief stab at glory we have settled right back into a familiar groove of low expectations... our season - our very history as a club - is essentially averageness punctuated by brief flashes of brilliance and not-so-brief periods of downright awfulness.
If anyone had any doubt that our club accepts failure, watch Roly's presser after the humiliating Hawthorn loss. He's not known for giving much away, but this was an occasion where the fans needed to see some emotion – some evidence that he was as horrified as we were. Instead we got served the usual rubbish about rebuilds and taking positives from the game. The powers that be predictably threw their support behind the coach.
Imagine any of the successful clubs shrugging it off so casually.
And now we'll go through the same old routine of getting excited by one or two incoming players who apparently will cure all our ills, only to watch our finals hopes euthanised before we even get to the middle of next season because we have a coach who throws an extra man down back when we play the bottom team at home.
Replacing Roly will not fix things, though. We need to change the mentality of the club from top to bottom. How do we communicate to them that we are fed up accepting sustained failure? After the Hawthorn debacle, the worst the supporters could muster in protest was some harshly-worded tweets. Perhaps this is part of the problem - from the club's point of view we look like we'll swallow whatever we're served.
I know you're supposed to support your club through thick and thin but I'm not paying hard-earned money next season to watch rubbish and be told it's all part of the plan. If Neale goes it's likely to be an even worse season, which is a horrifying thought. Perhaps a drop in memberships is the only thing that will effect change at the club.
