AFL 2020: Carlton great Mark Maclure says Blues have lost their culture as Stephen Silvagni hits out
A Carlton champion has hit out at the club for losing its identity and culture in the pursuit of commercial success, as the Blues continue to reel from comments made by Stephen Silvagni yesterday.
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Carlton great Mark Maclure says the club has lost some of its identity and culture in its quest for commercial success and lacks through-and-through Blues people in key roles.
Carlton Hall of Fame member Stephen Silvagni on Wednesday blasted the Blues for handling his exit as list manager last season in “amateur” fashion and claimed the club had accused him of potentially “sabotaging the trade period”.
Maclure – who won premierships with Carlton in 1979, 1981 and 1982 – said while it was hard to comment on Silvagni’s situation from outside the club, he believed the Blues had lost their way in some areas.
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“In the old days we had a bunch of pillars of society with Wes Lofts, Jack Wrout, Kevin Hall, Ian Collins, Keith McKenzie and so on and so on,” Maclure, a Fox Footy commentator, said.
“They worked for nothing for our football club. They were there to help. We now have a bunch of employees who really have no idea about the culture of our club.
“Now there’s people on huge money, huge wages, and to me they look like they’re looking after their paycheck.
“That’s my summation of what it looks like at the footy club now. It’s not a snap against anyone, it’s not a bash against anybody. Just to me it’s turned into commercial, highly-paid roles about footy.”
SOS lifts the lid on recruiting moves
Former Blues list boss Stephen Silvagni has lifted the lid on the Blues’ best and worst recruiting moves.
See his thoughts on how Mitch McGovern has been given a free ride and needs to get moving, how they missed out on Tom Papley, the pressure on son Jack and the money splashed on Eddie Betts.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH EDDIE BETTS?
“When you’re list manager, you have a look at the list and you work with people around you,” Silvagni told SEN.
“Fundamentally, those decision basically are reliant on you. But collectively you hope you come to a decision and you agree to it.
“Ultimately I look back … we all agreed that Eddie Betts should come to the Carlton Football Club. We all agreed on that. But it was at a price, in terms of what his deal looked like.
“But when someone above decides that, well, I don’t want to change those rules.
“The reasons why you get a little bit annoyed and frustrated at times … (is when things weren’t in a great state) and certain people start splashing money out, after we all agreed what that payment should look like.
“Particularly as a list manager, when you’ve got to manage other players … and you’ve got a 17-year player sitting there that you’ve just done a deal with, and you look eye-to-eye with them and say ‘this is all we can pay you’, and he’s been very loyal … and then another player comes in … and then you want to pay that player more than the player that had been sitting at that club, I don’t find that fair. We all have a responsibility to make sure that those players are looked after that are loyal to that football club.
“When you have people that overrule your decisions, that you’ve worked so hard for, and because they want memberships to look great or the accolade of ‘we’re bringing someone back’, is there intention the right intention for the Carlton Football Club? I don’t think it was.
“It does (become untenable).”
HOW CLOSE DID BLUES GET TO TOM PAPLEY?
“The Tom Papley approach got a little bit messy,” he said.
“Because obviously when you have a contracted player, you need to work with their management group really closely. Also that manager needs to condition the club, which would have been Sydney at the time … and give them some significant time to get themselves prepared should a deal be able to be done.
“When it comes at the last minute, it’s really difficult for clubs to actually to do deals, because they need to be respected as well and make sure they can search the market place and get their list in order and see what else is out there. When it comes late, those players that are contracted, it’s very, very difficult to get done.
“We gave Sydney a very, very good offer, but he was contracted to their football club for another two or three years, so they opted not to accept that deal and that’s what happened.”
WHY HASN’T MITCH McGOVERN WORKED OUT?
“As it stands at the minute, and Mitch is a great guy, and I think he’s got a lot of talent,” he said.
“I think Mitch was a better player at Adelaide, than he has been at Carlton.
“And that’s through a bit of that is his own fault in terms of the way he prepares and gets up for training each week.
“I feel as though the club hasn’t done him any favours, because they’ve played him when he’s been unfit and out of form.
“He’s got X-factor … he probably hasn’t delivered. He needs to get moving a bit, because he has got talent, but for what we got him to the club for and what he’s getting paid, he needs to get moving.
“He’s being given a bit of a free ride at the minute.
“I think he’s been very, very lucky to play a lot of football this year.
“I think there’s a spot for him – he can play back as well … he’s got to fight like any other player.”
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WHY DIDN’T THE BLUES TAKE DAN BUTLER?
The Blues were at one stage closely linked to former Tiger turned Saint Dan Butler.
“Dan Butler was certainly in the equation at some point, but as a list management team we decided not to go there.
“Eddie Betts was coming in, Tom Papley was supposedly coming in ...you also had Jack Martin coming in as a forward as well.
“At some point you’ve got to say which ones are your priority? And which ones are you going to let go?”
Originally published as AFL 2020: Carlton great Mark Maclure says Blues have lost their culture as Stephen Silvagni hits out