Agreed, strong performances on the field have their foundations in the organisation’s culture. If you want an example of a team with great talent that can not put together good performances think Adelaide and the litany of off-field problems they have achieved over the last few years. If you wanted examples of teams the perform well over a number of seasons or above their apparent talent, with teams great cultures. Think Geelong, Richmond, West Coast, Collingwood, I don’t know much about St Kilda but they seem to be putting it together. I don’t really know much about North but always felt they performed above they list.

Lever did not appear to be full of hubris in the pictures at the airport in Adelaide. He looked lonely and isolated.
However, at this stage it is pointless to think that the Lever was anything more than a symptom of greater problems. If what you say is correct a robust organisational culture would have addressed and negated any problem before getting to the airport in Adelaide. The Crows ability to slip from incident to incident says so much more than anything around one player.
If Adelaide really wants to improve, they will first need to know in their heads and hearts that change is required. As they stand at the moment, they are the club with whom I would least want my kids involved.

Every team has lots of talk like that, its just more banter.
Through the run to the finals, Richmond was in superb form and their game strategy had clicked. At that stage no team had developed or at least been capable of implementing a successful strategy against it. It took a couple of seasons for teams to be able to unpick it, Buckley picked the strategy but still had trouble implementing it until 2018.
But, the question remains, knowing Richmond’s form, the venue, and having sown their own seeds of destruction, how stupid do Adelaide look now?

I agree with your observation. But, the strategy required to bring down Richmond would have been very difficult for the Crows to implement on GF day. The weakness in Richmond’s strategy is getting a series of quick outlet hand passes from a pack so that Richmond’s set up around the edge of the pack is progressively stretched, then go for the outlet. It took Collingwood two years to get it right.
The problem with Adelaide’s performance on GF day was hubris. They never felt that it would matter if they didn’t have plans to negate the Tigers because the Tigers would always be chasing them. They didn’t think it was important to go as a team and isolating Lever would matter. But, in the end it all did.

I think there is something to your observation, but the appearance of not giving full effort comes from a lot of activity without direction. I see part of Carlton’s on field problems as being too many players trying to cover for others around them. Being third man in to assist is great when it works but creates a free man that good teams can exploit. I think this has been a factor in Carlton’s late game fades, then a couple of really poor games below their potential. At the moment the Blues need to play their own roles.
Steven Covey spoke of the need to sharpen the saw to stay at your best, at the moment and for the last few seasons I feel a lot of Carlton’s best have been used relentlessly and unless their long term welfare is considered they will have short careers, or leave to go to clubs where they will not have such a high workload.

I agree, but think the challenge with the first incidents was that they were relatively low impact with open hands. I understand that contact was with the forearms but the arms were not set hard and with a fist so probably more incidental contact and lacking intent to hurt.
If every time a person got a bump on the head, it would be a free kick every time there was a pack formed after a tackle. I doubt anyone would accept that.

The challenge for the AFL is how do they deal with constant harassment of players like Ablett, who was sniped and responded. I have no great problem with Ablett getting a week this time, but agree with him previously getting off.
In the NHL players can get time in the penalty box and further fines, or suspensions for fighting. However, the NHL also has a system of penalties for instigation. It is time to see some pain handed out to those who instigate as well as those who respond.

If you want a robust team environment, people who take risks need to believe that they will be protected by the group. It must always be no one forgotten, no one left behind. Or, if you like all for one and one for all. What message about Adelaide’s culture is sent when you look at the images of Lever sitting at the airport by himself on the way to the G? Adelaide lost that game before they left town.
If I was on the Adelaide committee I would have immediately cleaned out the captain, coach and managers that played any part in it. How can you ask young players to sacrifice themselves for a leadership group that has failed to put a stop to bullying and may have instigated it?

Hi PtF, You are correct, Tex was not necessarily the instigator of all of the things that have looked ham fisted at Adelaide. However, as a team leader he set the standard for behaviour; as a leader what you do not stop is what you accept.
To my eyes the Lever ostracism was deplorable and would have poisoned the culture within the team. Just think about the timing. As a young leader Walker should have been given personal development about what leadership involves and team building. In this respect, Walker’s failures are failures of Pyke and the Adelaide administration, and I have felt that Adelaide’s status within SA has allowed them to escape the kind of self examination that is required to have a fully successful organisation in a very competitive industry.

I agree the two team town thing is an issue. But, Adelaide has a history of shooting itself in the foot, starting with their foolish idea to try fire walking! During the same period the Eagles and Freo have lived quiet and effective lives.
Recently, the way they have treated players thinking about returning home including public criticism and ostracism, etc. Being passionate is one thing, but some of what happens at Adelaide is nothing short of a failure of management.

I have before said that the noise that keeps coming out of Adelaide every year, such as …[insert your favourite scandal here] … suggests a troubled culture and failure of leadership.
I think the club with the most to gain by a leadership change is Adelaide. But, with Pyke getting just enough wins each year, it will take a real failure to toss him over. Ironically, the worse his performance is perceived the more likely the selection process of a new coach is to become captured by zealots and consequently not to involve a rational process. To my mind, the way Adelaide sees itself as in some way special, different and oppressed, etc the less likely the selection of any new coach is to be successful.

Frankly, I don’t think Kelly, Martin or De Goey were ever going there. It was simply a way of strengthening their negotiating position.
North is not a destination club.

Hmmm … I’m not sure how that would work.

A Kangaroo walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and says, “Why the long face? …. It sort of works but it just isn’t as funny.

Sacking Richardson would seem like a strange decision by StKilda. They have stuck by Richardson as he developed the team into a unit capable of winning, since they had invested up front, why sell out early before they get the returns? To sell out now suggests that Richardson has not learnt anything worth keeping.

One of the reasons Carlton is in so much trouble now is the mistakes in their recent past. Any one who has been involved in organisational improvement will tell you that Carlton’s main problems are at an organisational level, not simply win loss ratio. But, at the moment the mix has been stirred so often and so recently that nobody can see what is working and what s not.
Is there any evidence that another round of sackings and new faces will actually improve things or simply be a case of more of the same having more of the same outcomes?

Its not a coach issue, Essendon should be looking very hard at their fitness and medical team. They look like a game of Jenga. When Buckley came in at Collingwood a number of key individuals went to Carlton with Malthouse and there were several years of injury problems (hamstrings) which were addressed by better training and fitness preparation. But, it seems like Essendon has been on this treadmill for too long.

Is Tex really the love child of Mr Potato Head? I like him best when he puts in his angry eyes!

Just sacking coach after coach is not a recipe for success, it is setting down the road to oblivion.

There are a lot of people in finance etc, who get more, perform worse and remain faceless. It really should not be about the money. But, as a person who has worked with politicians they all work long and hard. I am pretty sure that politicians and coaches are all under paid. Every pub I have ever walked into, has had half a dozen people who could coach better and lead the country better, and each was happy to tell me why for hours!
But, most coaches would tell you, as a coach, that your letter of dismissal is written the same day you start, ….. it just hasn’t been posted yet.
Its a tough job, and anyone taking is entitled to the respect of all commentators both here and on TV.

I may be wrong about the North fine, but I do remember that there were a number of clubs fined about that time, possibly Collingwood and also Essendon (?). The issue was caused by bringing players in for others with long term injures and having to pay both groups. So it was not really about recruitment or player retention. I think that the $30,000 amount was the normal amount for going over due to injuries, and it was frequently the club(s) that brought it to the attention of the AFL rather than have the AFL find it in the end of season audits. In the end I think that the AFL solved the problem of the minor breaches by creating a better way for clubs to deal with in season injuries and how they effected the salary cap.

I agree we do not want to see that in the game. So, take a leaf out of the NHL, and start penalising for instigating!

Anyone that suggested that Richmond under Hardwick would not be able to adjust and adapt had been ignoring what was always there to be seen. However, I have been impressed about the way Richmond has gone about their work and built into it.
For those people who are keen to sack coaches, it is important to consider the skills and experience Hardwick has drawn on to achieve this were almost certainly developed during the years when Richmond was battling away and the knives were out for Hardwick and co. How good does Peggy O’Neil and her board look now?

I can imagine Judd not welcoming the distraction, but he put Carro and Hutchy to bed pretty well on the being under pressure issue, I am sure that he could have also done it over “wine-gate”.
What an absolute non-event.

Players that caught in salary cap breaches are also victims, they are no able to know the ins and outs of the whole cap and what they should be paid. Similarly, they can not really know what is okay as an external payment and what is not because they can not know the club’s involvement.
It is entirely correct that any player answer honestly and correctly. They should never be placed in a position where they are expected to either lie of misdirect any investigation. But, further to that, the AFL was the first of the codes to require that players make their tax returns available. Asking a player to mislead the ATO is a completely different kettle of fish. Armed with the player’s tax return, what sort of a position do you expect a player to be able to take when questioned by trained investigators and forensic accountants?
The question should be when did institutionalised cheating become okay? The people who should be remembered and who were really to blame are the Carlton administration at the time, primarily John Elliott and then the people who didn’t stand up and say this is a bad idea and I will not be involved!

I agree about the passing, but it may come down to there being no one left that they want over someone already on their list who they didn’t want to push off.