We hear so much about culture these days. Culture is something that is readily described- by commentators, players, coaches and administrators but rarely are the ingredients easily recognised.
With something so that we are told is so vital to a club success, surely the football community would have a better idea of how to cultivate it?
Yeah, well…
On Saturday night two teams faced each other that had been rocked with pre-season scandals. One, Essendon, was accused of having an arrogant culture with the way that it allowed the scandal to occur.
However, that same culture is now being praised as resilient and tough as they are two wins from two games and on top of the AFL ladder.
The other side – Melbourne – was accused of deliberately playing its team out of position in order to lose games and gain preferable draft picks. It’s culture has long been described as toxic, leaderless, bereft and terrible.
It currently sits last on the table after two losses of 79 and 149 and the idea of culture is being raised again.
It’s not as if Melbourne have tried things to make their culture better. Mark Neeld was brought in from the tough Mick Malthouse school of coaching because some believed that he could instil a degree of grit from the Collingwood culture. So far that seems to have not been the case.
Neil Craig, the former fitness guru from Adelaide was hired also to help the Demons address this from a fitness and stamina perspective.
So why did it not work? Perhaps because culture is not something that can be manufactured- rather, it begins and ends at home.
The Sydney Swans culture that has taken them to two premierships in 2005 and 2012 was something unique to them.
It was founded under Paul Roos and maintained/modified by John Longmire. When Ross Lyon departed to coach St Kilda he certainly took some of the ideas of Sydney football, but he never tried to impose Sydney’s culture.
Perhaps Melbourne felt that their own culture was too fractious, too toxic to attempt to build any sort of team around and that’s why they went to outside for help?
Seems reasonable enough – particularly when you remember the press around Mark Neeld’s appointment- but why are Cameron Schwab and Chris Connolly still there? Does the bad culture only stop with the coach?
As Essendon annihilated Melbourne on the weekend one got the sense that one side knew what its identity was. The scandal may have hurt; it may have caused controversy that Essendon would have more than willingly done without, but the players knew who to turn to and that the club was strong.
Melbourne gave off a sense of a club that players knew no such identity – and the trust between the echelons of the club seemed frayed at best.
In other words, a club without a culture.
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