- Aug 1, 2008
- 15,149
- 25,678
- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
- Banned
- #1
Posted by KDF67 - yesterday
Here is the truth of the situation, and you can all debate it and rant about the minutiae of the current situation, but the bigger picture is where the answer lies.
First of all, though, let me declare my admiration for Brendan McCartney and his intentions. He was two wins away from being able to carry out his plan. The reason he didn't get the two wins is that his senior players let him down - not the kids who were coming through, but the supposed leaders of the club. Had we got a little more from some of the elder statesmen of the group we would have snagged those two wins and we wouldn't have the crisis. It was edifying to hear Cameron Mooney speak after Macca's sacking about the 'sooks' on the list. They would be the same ones who undermined our chances of sustained success by not putting in when it counted. At Geelong, according to Moons, the sooks would have been whacked by the group and brought into line. Ruthlessly. It would have been a self-correcting aberration that didn't stand in the way of the greater purpose of winning premierships. At the Bulldogs, there is no culture of winning, no ingrained understanding of what it takes to win. It takes hard players, with strong minds and ruthless intent.
Decoded, Macca's espousal of 'good people' playing 'the right way' was about being ruthless, hard-arsed bastards who are prepared to win at any cost. You can lament the loss of Shaun Higgins and Liam Jones all you like, but as long as their arses point to the ground they will not be hard bastards who are prepared to win at any cost. Cooney either. These are blokes who proved over a long period that they were only prepared to float through. [By the way, I was absolutely spewing to read that Jones is putting in some early hard yards so that he can be at his best for his first pre-season at Carlton. Might have helped his cause at our club had he brought the same application to doing what was necessary.]
There are others. I had a chat to an inner sanctum member last year after one of ours was nominated for a Rising Star. Apparently, Macca was filthy and wanted to drop the player for disobeying team orders to rack up possessions allowing his man to be one of the opposition's best. But the politicians prevailed. In my opinion, it was the start of the end for him. From that time on he re-doubled his efforts to push the group to take on the hard-arse principles that drive teams to ultimate success. History told what actually happened; the sooks didn't like being held accountable and it showed in their performances.
If we had a few more members, I think the board would have stayed with 'Plan A' and kept Macca on to see out his vision of building a flag capable team. We would have cleaned out the last of the influential soft c0cks, would have snagged Boyd a year later, the young flag-winning* VFL players would have brought some new steel to the group (this will still happen), and we would have moved towards a sustainable winning culture. But, we don't have the 5000 or so discretionary memberships to lose on the back of some hard decisions, and instead went with 'Plan B', which is short term gain (survival) and potentially another 60 years in the wilderness.
*Interesting to note, Black Pup and others, that Chris Maple coached a premiership winning side. Was it because he: a) followed Macca's game plan, b) can coach, c) can't coach, d) got lucky? If you said a) and/or b) give yourself a gold star!
Surface watchers, like Mattdougie, The Athenian and The (spell-check averse) Proffessor, can blame the ex-coach for the situation, but those who look a little deeper will understand the truly epic proportions of the opportunity we have just missed. It was caused not by a coach who 'lost' the players, but a change-resistant culture of losing that stretches back to the mid 1950s. Until we are able to break our connection to being 'battlers' and end our love affair with OK instead of demanding excellence, we are doomed to re-living 'bulldog day' forever.
End of KDK67
-------------------------------
This post eloquently and succinctly expresses the feelings of every bulldogs supporter I meet in the real world. It is a post which the club Peter Gordon, Board and Players all need to read.
It also a post which a good club would answer and respond to.
There are a small cabal of posters on this board, who you can verify, joined the board around June/July 2013. Their posts exclusively vilify Brendan MacCartney. When during the July/August period of the 2013 season the bulldogs had some success this cabal is entirely absent from the board. They are not in the least interested in any success. They did not log a single post from July 2013 until 30 march 2014 following our second round loss - where the insults against Brendan resume
No posts from july 9 to 30 mar - about any win, any player, any draft of bontempelli, any trade re Crameri.
During the 8 months of posting one member of this cabal has logged 2200 posts - 98% about you know who - that is near 10 anti Macca posts a day.
To continue with the Shakesperean tragic theme - there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.
Here is the truth of the situation, and you can all debate it and rant about the minutiae of the current situation, but the bigger picture is where the answer lies.
First of all, though, let me declare my admiration for Brendan McCartney and his intentions. He was two wins away from being able to carry out his plan. The reason he didn't get the two wins is that his senior players let him down - not the kids who were coming through, but the supposed leaders of the club. Had we got a little more from some of the elder statesmen of the group we would have snagged those two wins and we wouldn't have the crisis. It was edifying to hear Cameron Mooney speak after Macca's sacking about the 'sooks' on the list. They would be the same ones who undermined our chances of sustained success by not putting in when it counted. At Geelong, according to Moons, the sooks would have been whacked by the group and brought into line. Ruthlessly. It would have been a self-correcting aberration that didn't stand in the way of the greater purpose of winning premierships. At the Bulldogs, there is no culture of winning, no ingrained understanding of what it takes to win. It takes hard players, with strong minds and ruthless intent.
Decoded, Macca's espousal of 'good people' playing 'the right way' was about being ruthless, hard-arsed bastards who are prepared to win at any cost. You can lament the loss of Shaun Higgins and Liam Jones all you like, but as long as their arses point to the ground they will not be hard bastards who are prepared to win at any cost. Cooney either. These are blokes who proved over a long period that they were only prepared to float through. [By the way, I was absolutely spewing to read that Jones is putting in some early hard yards so that he can be at his best for his first pre-season at Carlton. Might have helped his cause at our club had he brought the same application to doing what was necessary.]
There are others. I had a chat to an inner sanctum member last year after one of ours was nominated for a Rising Star. Apparently, Macca was filthy and wanted to drop the player for disobeying team orders to rack up possessions allowing his man to be one of the opposition's best. But the politicians prevailed. In my opinion, it was the start of the end for him. From that time on he re-doubled his efforts to push the group to take on the hard-arse principles that drive teams to ultimate success. History told what actually happened; the sooks didn't like being held accountable and it showed in their performances.
If we had a few more members, I think the board would have stayed with 'Plan A' and kept Macca on to see out his vision of building a flag capable team. We would have cleaned out the last of the influential soft c0cks, would have snagged Boyd a year later, the young flag-winning* VFL players would have brought some new steel to the group (this will still happen), and we would have moved towards a sustainable winning culture. But, we don't have the 5000 or so discretionary memberships to lose on the back of some hard decisions, and instead went with 'Plan B', which is short term gain (survival) and potentially another 60 years in the wilderness.
*Interesting to note, Black Pup and others, that Chris Maple coached a premiership winning side. Was it because he: a) followed Macca's game plan, b) can coach, c) can't coach, d) got lucky? If you said a) and/or b) give yourself a gold star!
Surface watchers, like Mattdougie, The Athenian and The (spell-check averse) Proffessor, can blame the ex-coach for the situation, but those who look a little deeper will understand the truly epic proportions of the opportunity we have just missed. It was caused not by a coach who 'lost' the players, but a change-resistant culture of losing that stretches back to the mid 1950s. Until we are able to break our connection to being 'battlers' and end our love affair with OK instead of demanding excellence, we are doomed to re-living 'bulldog day' forever.
End of KDK67
-------------------------------
This post eloquently and succinctly expresses the feelings of every bulldogs supporter I meet in the real world. It is a post which the club Peter Gordon, Board and Players all need to read.
It also a post which a good club would answer and respond to.
There are a small cabal of posters on this board, who you can verify, joined the board around June/July 2013. Their posts exclusively vilify Brendan MacCartney. When during the July/August period of the 2013 season the bulldogs had some success this cabal is entirely absent from the board. They are not in the least interested in any success. They did not log a single post from July 2013 until 30 march 2014 following our second round loss - where the insults against Brendan resume
No posts from july 9 to 30 mar - about any win, any player, any draft of bontempelli, any trade re Crameri.
During the 8 months of posting one member of this cabal has logged 2200 posts - 98% about you know who - that is near 10 anti Macca posts a day.
To continue with the Shakesperean tragic theme - there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.
