Gary Ablett of the Suns and Heath Scotland of the Blues wrestle during the AFL Round 02 match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Carlton Blues at the Gabba, Brisbane.
Each AFL club has a certain word or phrase that you can associate with them. With the season now entering finals time, I have attempted to link them all.
Adelaide: Powerful with a whole state behind them. Struggling at present, but they will return.
Brisbane: They are a rabble with a CEO who is scared or in love with the coach… who knows. Poor off-season moves proved costly. I predict that the Suns will be more popular in three years.
Carlton: A winning and arrogant mentality. They expect to win finals, however the last 10 years have been tough. But the Carlton of old is definitely on its way back.
Collingwood: Poles apart in what they believe in and what they are. Battlers from the inner city, us versus them, everyone out to get them – couldn’t be further from reality. They have more money, sponsors, members and supporters than anyone else in the league.
They thrive on playing up to their ‘army’ – ‘doing it for the fans’, a common theme is just the type of marketing rubbish they go along with, and it keeps the great unwashed content for another day.
The reality is that Collingwood players, officials and the club in general would love nothing more than to not have to deal with this rabble. I guarantee Daisy Thomas hates it when he is recognised by their toothless masses.
Essendon: One word sums them up: ruthless. The Bombers are similar to Carlton, but more cut throat in their expectations. Sheeds was almost tipped out many a time, but the wily old fox always managed to be close to a flag in the final year of his contract.
The way the Essendon faithful, backroom powerbrokers and media buddies essentially got rid off Knights was typical Essendon. They are ruthless in their assessment of their own players as well. Lucas, Stanton, Ryder, all on the end of jeers from their own at some point.
Fremantle: Worst trade blunders, worst theme song, and worst motivational speech by a captain to get them up for a game – “put on your superman capes boys, its Wharfy time!”
Geelong: The Cats are the ‘country’ club who developed an under-achievers status prior to eliminating that belief by winning premierships and setting records. Located down the highway with the best home ground advantage, they are down to earth and liked by all – well, almost all.
Gold Coast: Too early to tell, but the early signs are of a professional outfit flush with AFL dollars.
Hawthorn: They maintain a winning culture as well as having good values. Look at the number of ex coaches and players who are still a part of the fold. The Hawks take care of their own people irrespective of what happened in the past. A true reflection of their character is that the club is bigger than the individual.
Melbourne: No idea what their values are. If they weren’t called Melbourne, I doubt they would exist due to mergers.
North Melbourne: Battlers forever. Still haven’t reached it back to the top since the King left in that well-known incident.
Port Adelaide: Who knows what they stand for anymore? I don’t think anyone in South Australia does either. What a shocking year they had and potentially may lose their promising forward in Butcher to Victoria.
Richmond: They eat their own. Constant board battles, KB still holding a grudge, Richo taking 15 years to understand it is a team game, memberships being thrown at players by Round 4. Oh, and then there is the thrill of finishing eighth.
St Kilda: Loser culture. Have done for years, hence why they have only won one flag. They continually shoot themselves in the foot. They almost won it all last year then the St Kilda school girl fiasco kicked in.
They have been this way for a long time. Stan Alves getting sacked after taking them to a flag, for example. They then appoint Tim Watson as coach when he was he was reading the Channel 7 sports report rather than being directly involved in footy.
Sydney: They seem to continually milk the best out of everything – players such as Captain Kirk, small supporter base, 1920s nickname, etc.
West Coast: They have the soul of a corporation. The Eagles have been built without grassroots or a specific area to associate them to the lower levels, just a money making machine way out west – but a successful one at that.
Western Bulldogs: Same battler mentality as the Kangaroos. They need to add some flashy stuff and win over a new generation of fans. Dour football doesn’t win the hearts and minds of kids.
AdamS
Roar Guru
Lol at Richmond. You have to understand James, supporting Richmond isn't a whim or a hobby. It's a calling.
Republican
Guest
They stand for whatever the commercial engineers deem profitable and are little more than generic constructs to be prosaically consumed. That they are so removed from their historic roots, it's little wonder that loyalty is subject to the psychology of fickleness, akin to brands that may or may not catch the consumers eye of whimsy, on their weekly pilgrimage to their preferred Super Market.
James
Guest
Collingwood – The Horde [and proud of it!] Carlton – Lygon st and pointy shoes Adelaide – Insert Croweater stereotype here Essendon – Expectant snobs Geelong – Collingwood down the coastline Giants – Abortion in waiting Gold Coast – Yay! Bubbly! Hawthorn – Wealthy and cliquey North Melbourne – The pathetic kid from a disney movie Port Adelaide – Collingwood in Adelaide St Kilda – Why does God hate us? Drink up! West Coast – Boring fans, interesting players. Western Bulldogs – perpetual strugglers Brisbane – A day out drinking Fremantle – Working class hero/zero Richmond – Like Collingwood, only bad at it.
James
Guest
As a vic let me say the Freo club culture seems to be very hooked into the city and it's working class culture. If you ever travel over there you realise that the Freo fans are much louder and more passionate than their WC brothers.
amazonfan
Roar Guru
You may be right, I'm not sure.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
I thought Williams may have been in Collingwood's 1981 losing grand final side and Clarkson may have been in Melbourne's 1988 losing grand final side (although I don't know for sure).
amazonfan
Roar Guru
Clubs generally operate on a 'follow the leader' basis. The fact that so many current premiership coaches were premiership players is indicative of that. Many of the best coaches in history (such as Allan Jeans or Dennis Pagan) weren't premiership players, and many weren't particularly good players. However clubs have a short-term memory. They only remember what a coach did in his dark last days, and they only remember the premiership coach of the previous season. I'm not convinced that a premiership coach needs to have been a premiership player, however I do think they need to have assistant coaching experience. The worst mistake Voss has arguably ever made was turning down the assistant coaching gig at West Coast. You mention Footscray. That was 30 years ago, and I doubt it will ever happen again. Even then, it could have gone any number of ways. I do agree that one positive of playing in a premiership means that one has worked with successful people, however I think that being an assistant coach means one has more of a direct role. Also, I don't believe that Williams or Clarkson have contested GFs (although Williams might have done so in the SANFL.)
stabpass
Guest
Actually, the more i think about it, the more i am totally amazed, the suburb of Collingwood is absolutely tiny, it is bordered by a river then Hawthorn on one side, Fitzroy and Carlton by another, and Richmond by another. At the peak of it's population in the 1920/30's it had around 35,000 people live in it, it is not a City like many of the soccer clubs mentioned, or half a city like Manchester City is, or known world wide, or even Europe wide, or the game of Australian football respected and liked all over this country. An absolutely amazing achievement, and hence why i mentioned it's capacity to grow.
Richard
Roar Guru
No wonder you're bitter. Here's my "word or phrase" which sums up the clubs for me: Collingwood - The Club. Carlton - Whatever it takes. Adelaide - Look at me. Look at me. Essendon - Eat my dust. (Or kiss my @r$#) Geelong - What a good boy am I. Giants - Lost in space. Gold Coast - Adventures in Paradise Hawthorn - Brown; dirty brown; dirty brown copper. North Melbourne - Try-hards. Port Adelaide - On remand. St Kilda - Watchout, don't step in it. West Coast - Got some stuff? Western Bulldogs - Also-rans. Brisbane - We'll get you, you bu##@&$. Fremantle - Some Day, One Day Richmond - Punch-Drunk Love.
stabpass
Guest
Cheers.
Titus
Guest
Their playing squad certainly isn't more valuable than Manchester City
stabpass
Guest
Suprising, and BTW, the world is still really an oyster, especially with the forecast of 250,000 people playing Australian football outside of this country, within several years. Who knows what the supporter base, income, sponsorship etc could grow to, of a properly marketed club like Collingwood. Eddie is on it, as we speak.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Lol, beat me :P
Nathan of Perth
Guest
He did one for 2010 which can be seen here: http://www.worthyofthename.com/documents/Thetop10sportingbrandsinAustralia_000.pdf No one has laid out the list like that so far with 2011 though...
stabpass
Guest
http://www.worthyofthename.com/documents/Thetop10sportingbrandsinAustralia.pdf Yes, Collingwood has gone up a lot since last year, very subjective IMO.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
I'd like to see all teams valued by the same source - that's a great number for Collingwood.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Still looking for a media mob to actually put up the full top ten for 2011
The Cattery
Roar Guru
More valuable than Hamburg and Manchester City - that's quite an achievement.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Footscray took a punt on Malthouse, having just finished his playing days, zero coaching experience, about 30 years old, but it least he had experience playing in finals and winning a premiership, and I reckon that counts for a lot. In fact, the great coaches, having won premierships, end up with plenty of their charges taking up successful coaching positions, they themselves having played in premiership winning sides. Over a 22 year period, the number of coaches who have won premierships having never experienced winning one as player or coach, by estimation, adds up to 3: Williams, Roos and Clarkson, all have won a premiership each as a coach, not as a player, although each of them actually played in at least one grand final.
stabpass
Guest
Well if your club name was Collingwood, it would now stand for $344 million $$$. Unbelievable amount of money, and $87 million ahead of Geelong. ''From a humble little footy club that started off in the worst socio-economic area of Melbourne, it's been fantastic. On a world scale, it's big-time.'' http://www.smh.com.au/afl/collingwood-magpies/from-a-humble-little-footy-club-to-344m-giant-20110903-1jrc2.html