A black and white manifesto

Still no person’s publicly providing a imaginative and prescient for Collingwood’s future.

So I’m going to go first. But I’m not going to speak in regards to the now. Collingwood’s issues are greater than the now, stemming from a generational psyche that informs the current and sees us repeat the errors of the previous.

Here are the ten issues I’d deal with if I have been in cost.

10. Acknowledge the issue
We’re not an excellent membership; we’re a membership with an excellent historical past. There’s a profound distinction.

Since 1958 we’ve gained simply two flags – two in 63 years. That makes us extra profitable than St Kilda and as profitable in the identical time because the Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans.

Comparatively, in that very same time Hawthorn has gained 13 flags; Carlton and Richmond eight; Essendon six; Geelong, West Coast and North Melbourne 4; and Brisbane and Melbourne three.

That’s the truth if you put it in context.

This perpetuation of Collingwood’s greatness solely will get in the best way of the membership discovering that edge to go above and past. Why hassle if you have a good time being the best for merely current?

We’re not an excellent membership anymore.

Problem acknowledged.

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

9. Prioritise what the membership is about
In the final ten years the membership has gave the impression to be extra about philanthropy than the rest. Ex-president Eddie McGuire even stated soccer wasn’t nearly premierships.

I admire golf equipment have the facility to do loads of good – from charitable work we punters by no means hear about to positively impacting the neighborhood and to grooming footballers into additionally turning into upstanding residents who’ll have productive lives as soon as their careers are achieved.

But the objective is all the time premierships.

Anybody who doesn’t have premierships on the prime of their checklist and isn’t working to make {that a} actuality ought to be proven the door.

8. Change the narrative
I’m sick of all the justifications about why Collingwood has failed on the ultimate hurdle. I’ll use the 1979 grand ultimate for instance: Wayne Harmes tapped the ball in (allegedly) from outdoors the boundary, resulting in a Ken Sheldon objective.

To at the present time individuals nonetheless lament this – although the objective didn’t put Carlton in entrance; they have been already in entrance. Eddie McGuire nonetheless tells fairytale of the ball being out of bounds with satisfaction.

Years in the past I learn Carlton nice Wayne Johnson’s autobiography. He talked in regards to the incident and stated the Collingwood gamers gave up the chase, anticipating the ball to exit, whereas Harmes chased it fanatically to maintain it alive.

That’s the actual distinction.

How many of those tales exist at Collingwood? They’re recounted with a way of martyrdom. When you make excuses you qualify losses – “We would’ve won, but…” – you don’t settle for the easy fact. We weren’t adequate.

So change the narrative about these losses. Instil throughout the membership the truth that we have to get higher reasonably than the assumption that we might’ve gained if not for circumstances – learn: excuses – which all the time gives a security internet.

We must be afraid of failing unconditionally if we’re going to succeed.

7. Take the ego out of the membership
Collingwood is such a blustery membership that we may energy a yacht within the America’s Cup to victory by the size of the Atlantic Ocean. But what’s there to bluster about?

We don’t lead the premiership tally, we don’t have probably the most members, everyone has comparable services now and the one two data we are able to boast about are the four-peat (the 1927–28–29–30 flags) and that we’ve misplaced extra grand finals than anyone else.

We have this angle of superiority that has been handed down generationally – a superiority that has remodeled right into a burdensome entitlement.

The actuality is that our forebears may justifiably have a good time once we have been sitting on 11 flags in 1936, once we have been usually making grand finals and no person was close to us, however within the right here and now the panorama has modified, but our attitudes stay the identical.

This is why individuals detest Collingwood. It’s not out of envying success – as a result of there’s valuable little of it within the trendy period – however bemusement at how mightily, if not pompously, we maintain ourselves.

We’re the bully who swaggers round till anyone stands as much as us.

Cue grand ultimate.

6. Kill the messiah complicated
We’re all the time about [inster big name], who’s going to avoid wasting us. We see it at present in relation to Jeff Browne. He’s advised us nothing about his imaginative and prescient for Collingwood, he’s stated nothing about his plans for the long run, and but regardless of this platform of nothing, we gravitate to him as a result of his profile fills a vacuum.

If you’re shopping for that narrative of silence, you in all probability haven’t thought a lot about what the membership wants. As a sidenote, sure, I imagine the incumbents additionally want to supply a imaginative and prescient.

Now we additionally see this angle in relation to our subsequent coach.

It needs to be an enormous title. Collingwood can not probably entertain an untried coach. It needs to be anyone confirmed with success behind them.

Do that since 2000 solely 5 flags have been gained by what we’d think about a confirmed coach?

They are:

• 2000: Kevin Sheedy (Essendon);
• 2001-03: Leigh Matthews (Brisbane); and
• 2010: Mick Malthouse (Collingwood).

The relaxation have been new coaches:

• 2004: Mark Williams (Port Adelaide);
• 2005: Paul Roos (Sydney);
• 2006: John Worsfold (West Coast);
• 2007: Mark Thompson (Geelong);
• 2008: Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn);
• 2009: Mark Thompson (Geelong);
• 2011: Chris Scott (Geelong);
• 2012: John Longmire (Sydney);
• 2013-15: Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn);
• 2016: Luke Beveridge (Western Bulldogs);
• 2017: Damien Hardwick (Richmond);
• 2018: Adam Simpson (West Coast); and
• 2019-20: Damien Hardwick (Richmond).

So roughly 75 per cent of flags have been gained by coaches of their first gig – discounting Kevin Sheedy; Sheedy was 20 years into his first gig when Essendon gained in 2000. For the sake of argument, let’s settle for him as confirmed.

A confirmed coach doesn’t assure success. We noticed that with Mick Malthouse at Carlton, John Worsfold at Essendon, Ross Lyon at Fremantle – properly, there are many examples.

That’s to not say a confirmed coach isn’t the best way to go, however don’t do it for the sake of doing it.

Pleasingly, in an article Michael Gleeson wrote for the Age on 13 June, Collingwood soccer director Paul Licuria stated each candidate would undergo an exhaustive interview course of, and then the membership would decide.

This would be the solely time such a course of has been employed at Collingwood.

Kill this want for an enormous profile to avoid wasting the membership – it simply matches into the standard Collingwood narrative of bluster and ego and that perception that if we simply get that proper id, all the pieces will click on into place.

Hey, guess what? It’s by no means occurred.

Jesus couldn’t have saved this membership from itself.

5. Stop being valuable
As supporters we would deride opposition golf equipment, we would maintain sure golf equipment in low regard, however what? The gamers love their golf equipment unconditionally.

Who can overlook Brendon Goddard’s first look for Essendon towards St Kilda and the emotional post-game interview he gave? This is a man who’d gone from one of the vital unsuccessful golf equipment ever to one of many powerhouses, and but he nonetheless had that love for his authentic membership.

The level? All golf equipment are equal (as houses) within the eyes of gamers. It’s not like the perfect gamers are attempting to gravitate to Collingwood, Richmond, Hawthorn or whoever due to their stature. They play the place they play and typically like it and respect that membership.

So can we cease being valuable about Collingwood, like we’re the one membership in existence?

An instance is Port Adelaide desirous to put on their SANFL Magpies jumper. Who cares in the event that they put on it annually? Back in June of final 12 months I wrote about how Collingwood and Port Adelaide could turn their jumper tussle into an exciting rivalry.

Can we cease clawing onto custom when the choice represents alternative and evolution?

There are all the time helpful new pathways to be explored.

4. Focus and steadiness
I settle for that each now and once more gamers are going to mess up off the sector. These are younger individuals nonetheless discovering their manner into maturity. They have numerous cash, spare time and movie star. It’s really a credit score to gamers and golf equipment that this doesn’t occur extra typically.

But everyone else ought to be centered on the prize: flags. Celebrate success, compartmentalise it, however keep a steadiness and then refocus.

Something that has infuriated me in loads of my time following Collingwood is the fixed noise coming from off-field identities. Allan McAlister did it within the second half of his tenure. Eddie McGuire did it always; Caroline Wilson even took a shot at him about it throughout an episode of Footy Classified final 12 months, a mirrored image on how such outbursts can influence on-field fortunes.

As a participant, I can not reconcile how distracting it could be to have this chatter flaring up within the background, bringing the membership below pointless scrutiny and taking focus away from on-field endeavours.

3. Stop evaluating down
I get in loads of arguments after I say these things. The rejoinder all the time is one thing like, “Would you rather follow St Kilda?”. This is how we make ourselves really feel higher – by evaluating ourselves to golf equipment who haven’t had the success or don’t benefit from the stature we do.

What does that obtain? It genuinely feels like anyone struggling an inferiority complicated looking for a strategy to really feel higher about themselves.

In the fashionable period Hawthorn is probably the most profitable membership. In the brand new millennium Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong, Brisbane, Sydney and West Coast have all been extra profitable than Collingwood.

Use the perfect as your benchmark.

2. Stand united
People may assume {that a} membership is robotically united by advantage of working for a similar organisation. I question whether or not this has been the case at Collingwood for some time now.

In any organisation you use individuals due to their specialised ability set. They can do one thing higher than anyone else can, and they need to be given the freedom to train their ability set. Obviously they’re answerable to a superior, however a membership is about greater than a single particular person.

To win flags, to take pleasure in success, each single a part of that organisation needs to be hitting their mark day in, time out, week in, week out.

There is not any room for egos, dictators or schisms.

There ought to be room for strong dialogue, to problem concepts and even for disagreements, however on the finish of the day everyone ought to be contributing their experience to the concord of attempting to grasp that singular imaginative and prescient.

1. Who are we?
One factor I admire the membership is attempting to do is reconnect with its fan-base. Once Collingwood moved from Victoria Park we misplaced some side of our id.

In 2001 the membership inverted the colouring on their jumper so it had a black base – no matter what you’re advised, Collingwood has by no means worn this jumper. There have been variations on stripe sizes et cetera, however the jumper has all the time had a white base.

More and extra all through the 2000s the membership grew to become this company entity – a pal as soon as referred to as it the McGuirisation of Collingwood.

Clubs develop, evolve and change, however at Collingwood there’s been a marked shift that belies our working class roots. You can’t maintain onto that id if you’ve moved so far-off from it. It’s nice to forge a brand new id, however what precisely is it?

The final level, merely, is to work out who we’re.

Conclusion
This is Collingwood’s coronary heart assault second – that is when the membership has had the scare of the lifetime, confronted their mortality and ought to realise that they should begin doing issues otherwise.

Everything we’ve recognized hasn’t labored. Over and over. It’s led to average success, however absolutely this membership – each membership – desires to be greater than that.

With Collingwood, it begins with our personal self-perception.