Opinion
Call me Les if you so please, lament the article I scribe. Your choice does not change this indisputable fact.
Collingwood’s last bastion of relevance is its unbelievably large, loyal and unequalled-in-resilience fan-base. That’s all this club has to hang its hat on, nothing from a performance perspective.
Opposition supporters hate Collingwood. We’re probably still the most hated club in the competition. I wouldn’t mind that if it is because we’re an on-field powerhouse, but we aren’t and haven’t been for some time. We’re hated because of what Eddie McGuire has said or because we (supposedly) are looked after by HQ, or because the club used to be successful. We’re not hated for any relevance now, nor have we been for some time.
It’s an embarrassment, in fact it’s more pity than hate or envy these days, and has been for a long time.
Some will argue that our performance is not as bad as other teams. Granted, but I’d immediately put that argument to bed by pointing many more teams with more success – the idea of the competition is to be better than your competition.
I often get this line from other Pies fans on other forums. ‘I don’t care about other teams’ records, I only care about Collingwood’. Well then what’s the point? Why not just watch training and forget about watching the team compete against other competitors? Kick to kick should suffice for such a low bar.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
I’m not going to bring up the numbers of this club from an on-field record point of view – we all know what it is and it’s deplorable. Argue that record in futility, it is far from the benchmark, which is the whole idea of the competition.
What really grates about all of the above is the potential is never reached, yet at other clubs it seems regular. We’ve seen four dynasties in one fifth of a century so far. Yet at Collingwood I’ve read and heard this: the 2018 prelim stopping a four-peat is as good as a flag.
That’s right, some of those fans who like to stick their fingers in their ears in blissful ignorance somehow view stopping another team (which is speculative anyway) from a four-peat is as good as a flag. Really? That’s what you call success?
We won a flag with the second youngest team in the history of the comp, and the next year went on to a 20-2 record with the second highest percentage ever in the comp but with only one flag to show for all of that. Those two records, in any way you boil it down and dissect it, should have been a dynasty. They would’ve been at another club, anyone can argue that in futility if they so wish.
Collingwood will likely always have the opportunity and the tools at its disposal to garner dynasties and actual relevance. It all depends on how it moves forward.
The club makes questionable decisions, in its own control, to the detriment of the club itself and by extension the team’s chances of success.
So right now there is speculation from some corners of the industry, including media, that this is the biggest club in the country. What I will agree with is that it is the highest profile sporting club in the country. No doubt.
And that is only because of the fan-base, which includes the members that have stuck fat regardless of the deplorable record in the last six decades.
The profile is not on the back of any stellar on-field records. It’s the fans and members with steely resolve in the hope this club will finally one day live up to that profile that has kept the relevance alive.
Testament to those fans and members, this club would be a club of low profile and mediocrity without them. Certainly the on-field record reflects such a low bar. Kudos.
As for the club, it is time to earn that profile, not ride on the back of your fans and members. Shame on you.
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