Drake Huggins wrote:There are a couple who will be moving very close to that category if they don't fire this year, Pres.
The professionalism has to come from the top down, I'm not saying the club fails in this department because it would be a very delicate balance between letting the young blokes be young blokes, but also getting them to understand that they are also professional athletes, and that requires some sacrifice.
Look at the most successful clubs of recent times
- Hawks
- Cats
- Pies
- Richmond
Ignoring game/coaching style, all of these clubs have a few things in common.
- Strong leadership from the top down (sometimes outspoken)
- The senior players created the club culture that lead to the success
- Collingwood might be the exception because they were so young, but with the others clubs, guys like Scarlett, Harley, Ling, Hodge, Mitchell, Cotchin, Rance all lead & created the culture, took the pay cuts required to get the best team together on the park all at once.
And most importantly... They stood by their young guys when they f**ked up.
Swan, Shaw, Martin, Stevie J and a whole host of others for incidents that might not have made the public eye.
Young guys are going to f**k up, as a club we need to understand this and support them.
This is something that I've always loved about Eddie McGuire. So many of those guys from the "Ratpack" era would've been sent on their way by other clubs. Even with the DeGoey situation right now... The first incident would've been a slap on the wrist & a lecture about being young, making mistakes, but understanding that he's going to be in the spotlight & he has to make some sacrifices... I doubt it was as nice this time around, more along the lines of "We stood by you, and we're going to stand by you again. But if you f**k up again, you've got no one to blame but yourself... You owe us, not put your head down & work your ass off"
Interesting 18-24 months ahead