Hackenschmidt wrote:
Apparently, you can't be a successful football club without having a winning culture. You can't win games of football unless you have the right sort of culture off the field. The time has come for the Carlton Football Club to seriously review and overhaul its culture. Of course, when looking for ''competition's best practice'', one need look no further than the reigning premiers for inspiration.
It is of course the leader of a football team that sets the tone for his team mates. When Chris Judd said that AFL players were not role models he wasn't kidding, because the West Coast Eagles have consistently been the worst behaved team in the competition in the 21st century. Cousins, Kerr, Embley, Lynch, Fletcher et al have all brought shame upon their football club in various off-field indiscretions.
From forging friendships with underworld figures, to reckless drink driving, to drunken assaults(sometimes on their own team mates), to bizzare attempts to procure drugs with shonky prescriptions, the West Coast Eagles have frequently behaved in an appalling, shameful, irresponsible and anti-social manner.
So what has been the result of this sustained culture of disgraceful behaviour ? A premiership, that's what ! Maybe they're on to something.
It's all very well talking the talk about not being a role model, it's about time Chris Judd embraced the culture of his football club and started walking the walk by disgracing himself off the field. This is why Ben Cousins was acknowledged as the ''spiritual leader'' of the West Coast Eagles as he personifies the culture of his football club - top player on the field, total disgrace off the field.
I therefore fully support Fevola's drunken headlock. It might just be the first step towards building the shameful culture needed to win premierships.
Don't confuse off-field behaviour with the team culture. West Coast may have a bunch of shady characters off-field. But within the team it's pretty hard to deny they have a strong culture. Their self-belief was pretty evident in the string of come back victories they had during the year. The culture of giving everything on-field for each other, and the self belief (and the confidence that comes with that) is something that CFC needs to develop. I don't think the off-field rubbish has to come with it, and I hope we can steer clear of that.
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