Essendon's Jobe Watson runs with the ball away from Melbourne's Matt Jones of the Demons last Saturday. Source: Getty Images
IF Melbourne, with combined losses of 227 points after just two rounds of football, cannot help itself then the AFL is ready to intervene, aware of the damage a wallowing club can do to the competition.
AFL officials were deeply troubled by the club's attitude after Saturday night's mauling by Essendon. On Sunday, the club sent out football boss Neil Craig mainly, chief executive Cameron Schwab and president Don McLardy sparingly, to reassure their supporters the club had matters under control.
It is not a confidence shared by the football community. It is believed the AFL has received correspondence from Melbourne members asking the AFL to step in immediately as faith in the present club administration evaporates. This plea for AFL help from supporters is unprecedented.
McLardy is convinced the club has the right people in the right places to reset the club course to work up the ladder. Others question what is the foundation of the president's optimism, given the club has won just 32 of its past 134 games and never played worse than in its 148-point defeat by Essendon. The playing list is the weakest in a decade, the leadership brittle and undefined.
AFL officials believe the decision by the club to allow television access to coach Mark Neeld's pre-match address is evidence that the club hierarchy is numb to the depth of the problems wracking the club. It suggested that the club leaders were naive enough to think the first-round loss to Port was an aberration and not an affliction.
The television access could only ever open up the club to ridicule. There was no upside.
Viewers saw a coach, nervous and uninspiring, speaking to what appeared a mostly bored or uninterested group of players. Presumably Schwab, as chief executive officer, approved the move, which only further questions the judgment of the man who was sacked in 2011 only to be reinstated within hours. Coach Dean Bailey was sacked in his place.
In Sydney yesterday to look at Greater Western Sydney's new home base at Sydney Olympic Park, AFL chief Andrew Demetriou in addressing the media made clear that the concern from headquarters was not posturing.
"In a competition where you want every team to be competitive, it's not where we would like Melbourne to be," he said. "As a Melbourne supporter, that's the most disheartening thing.
"They're a club that was established in 1858; they're the oldest club in the land that we know of, and everyone wants to see them succeed. Hopefully there's people at the club that understand what needs to be done to turn it around, and any support that we can offer, we will."
That last statement is hardly unconditional support for the present administration at Melbourne. While the AFL cannot legally intervene in Melbourne's affairs unless the club faced insolvency - which it certainly doesn't - it is expected that the league will pressure the club to make changes if it is unwilling to do so itself.
The Melbourne message on Sunday was that supporters should stick solid and that there would be no decisions made in haste or because the rebuilding - yet again - was taking longer than expected. McLardy told his members: "We do not believe that the results to date are a true reflection of the quality of our playing list, or the effort and improvement they have shown over a tough and demanding pre-season campaign."
Demetriou's concern is that having all but overcome the growing pains of the new teams - Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants - Melbourne has replaced them as the easybeat of the competition, distorting the draw and damaging the professional profile of the league.
"If you look at the way our two newest clubs are going, the Giants on Saturday night and of course the Gold Coast Suns, they've performed particularly well and probably ahead of people's expectations," he said. "If you look at Melbourne, it's going to be hard. They're struggling at the moment, and hopefully they turn it around. Everyone at Melbourne would understand they've got their rightful place in the competition and we all want to see improvement. We're all desperate to see (Melbourne) improve," he said. If only the Melbourne board appeared to share that same desperation.
Schwab has had long enough at the club to make the football department competitive. He has done the hiring and firing. Time he was delisted himself. Neeld, who has won four games out of the 24 he has coached, admits he has not been able to get the players to transfer training form into games. If he can't, he shouldn't be coach.
Melbourne is in greater disarray than it cares to admit or even recognise. And that is why the AFL is hovering.
No comments:
Post a Comment