I would like to preface this piece by stating my allegiance to Melbourne Heart, holding a membership since day one four seasons ago and travelling across the country for those glorious away days.
Recently, there has been much debate surrounding Heart’s identity, core values or even purpose in the Victorian and Australian sporting landscape.
I’m not offering a definitive answer, rather suggesting Melbourne Heart has inadvertently developed through the AFL’s system of operation as opposed to that of the FFA or local subsidiary FFV.
While the AFL has undoubtedly developed into Australia’s premier code for administration (overlooking the recent drug scandal), football’s growth in Australia must develop free from an AFL culture to fully flourish.
It must carefully develop those football-specific traits and qualities that make our code universal, yet unique in each of the global interpretations.
When the Club’s inaugural CEO, Scott Munn, decreed in 2010 the that Heart would become the club for “purists”, it seemed no one was listening.
His strategy of bringing in new fans, as opposed to splitting existing, disgruntled supporters from the other club in Melbourne, seemed a great way to grow Victorian football.
By reaching out to nonpartisan observers and families, the club would complement their outreach to NSL fans who declined an invitation to join the party in 2005.
But of course, as we’ve witnessed over the past four seasons, buzzwords and hyperbolic statements seem to be the true value held closest at Heart HQ; where the words flow freely but the defining, decisive action is like a second-year deal to Gerry Sibon (non-existent).
So how has Mr Munn enforced this culture of deceptively-hollow media releases and regular PR spin upon the Heart?
It seems his previous position as AFL club Gold Coast Suns’ Chief Operating Officer encouraged such statements and allowed the fledgling club to generate short-term attention in that notoriously disposable sporting landscape.
Such an approach doesn’t work here in Melbourne, however – refer to One Direction, Usain Bolt and Jon Bon Jovi, among others.
It smacks of a shallow club desperately searching for the next, short-term media quick-fix rather than its core objective of football.
The club’s AFL-entrenched roots extend further to foundation Chairman, Peter Sidwell, who has poured great economic and human resources into this project; however, one must question the direction and strategy five years down the track.
Sidwell is former Collingwood and current Carlton coach, Mick Malthouse’s long-term manager and has regularly relied on AFL-produced strategies, advice and experience to develop his fledgling club.
Another example of this incestuous culture relates to Heart’s 2010/11 Round 5 clash with North Queensland.
Munn and co offered fans of the Collingwood and Western Bulldogs AFL clubs with a ticket to their MCG blockbuster half-price admission to the round-five AAMI Park game – a decent concept in theory, but a failure in reality with only 4,184 fans attending and AAMI Park echoing at 14% capacity.
Once again it seemed the club’s AFL connection had further distanced itself from the self appointed ‘purists’ tag that promised grassroots, community and a commitment to the round ball.
At this point in time, with the Heart allegedly within weeks of a full-takeover, I call on the club, for the good of its fans and the game’s overall growth, to return to a football-oriented model – one that values football and community over the glitz, glam and hyperbole of AFL marketing.
For the sake of the A-League and Victorian football, please don’t plague us with moronic media statements, compromising circuses and unachievable promises any longer.
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