Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon said his club wasn’t in crisis ... then what is it?
THE Western Bulldogs’ coach is gone and the captain is all but out the door. If this isn’t a crisis, what is, asks Mark Robinson.
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THIS is not a crisis, said president Peter Gordon.
Don’t know what constitutes a crisis if you’re captain walks out the door one day and the coach disappears the next.
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When Gordon didn’t endorse Brendan McCartney in his press release on Thursday, which condemned Ryan Griffen in passing, McCartney’s days were numbered.
The Bulldogs had the opportunity to make a statement to back the coach and they didn’t.
They had previously, just a week ago, but that now seems so shallow.
The Bulldogs jumped when they said they wouldn’t.
It was typical Peter Gordon on Friday: quick on his feet, passionate and honest. But his praising of the players? Spare us.
It doesn’t make sense.
The post-season review - which was brutally honest, appropriately honest, according to Gordon - clearly wasn’t brutal or appropriate enough.
McCartney had communication issues, which surfaced in the second half of this season, but it was deemed they were workable.
Then Griffen drops his bombshell, actually understates McCartney as a reason for him leaving, and the Dogs blinked.
Suddenly, there was an insurmountable problem.
It’s difficult to determine from the outside what constitutes “communications issues”.
It’s difficult to imagine McCartney abusing the players.
From best available evidence, he was brutally honest with some senior players at their exit interviews.
What did the players expect?
The team won seven games, lost 15 and finished 14th. Did they expect cuddles? Understanding and acceptance from the coach?
This is football, a challenging environment, and McCartney’s role was to get the players to confront the challenges.
He is a driven man, McCartney, and it’s why the Bulldogs signed him in the first place.
Yes, he was hard.
Bob Murphy would come into Fox Footy on a Tuesday night and after yet another heavy defeat, he would always be probed about how the coach responded.
He was brutal, he said. But we deserved it.
Clearly, some players didn’t think so.
Hence the communications issues. I’d argue communication wasn’t the issue, but the words used within the communication.
Courage, Gordon said, radiated throughout the playing group.
Courage, he said.
How about the courage to accept responsibility for your football, accept that you performed poorly, and accept the in-your-face feedback is about improving the group.
For God’s sake, the Bulldogs lost five of their last six matches.
Where’s the courage to take it like a man?
Accept Griffen approaching football director Chris Grant after the best and fairest count was a bold decision. There were problems, Griffen said. But they can be fixed, he agreed.
But then he demands a trade. Why wasn’t he more forthright in the review?
Why was everyone working together and now we haven’t got a coach?
The players have found a voice this post-season. Not just at the Bulldogs, but everywhere. Contracted players want out and they pick the clubs want to go to. At the Bulldogs, and in spite of what Gordon said, the players railed McCartney out the door.
He was sacked, it was said, because he cared too much, that he demanded too much and was “not demanding in the right way”.
He was sacked, it was said, because the players would struggle next year to deal with Griffen’s departure.
Please.
Essendon has been under siege for two years and finished the home-and-away season in the top eight in both seasons. Hawthorn had a mountain of issues and won the flag. The Bulldogs have a player who doesn’t want to be there, albeit the captain, and the players will struggle to play football next year?
It’s a tough world, probably tougher than you know it as you live in the cocoon of a football club. So, the coach demanded excellence. How dare he!
Agree that the breakdown of the coach and captain is pivotal, but whose fault was that?
Gordon said Griffen struggled with the captaincy, so why did he take it on in the first place. It was a wrong decision because McCartney’s idealism didn’t match Griffen’s application.
He played, and played exceptionally well, but captaincy is far beyond the white lines.
McCartney, as is his character, offered to resign. McCartney would blame himself for the Griffen situation.
Now, he would feel as if his heart has been ripped out. Asked on Thursday for an interview, he texted back: “Had my chance ... Will sit on it for a bit.”
But it’s onwards and upwards for the Bulldogs.
These players of “great courage” were paramount to McCartney’s departure.
“Our players don’t run this club,” Gordon said. Sorry, but that’s difficult to believe in this scenario.
At the end, Gordon spoke of honour and obligation, and if Griffen was in the room, I fully expected Gordon to get on his knees and kiss his feet.
This is the bloke who agreed to work with the coach, then walked, and then club sacked the coach.
Honour and obligation, two foreign words in football these days.
Originally published as Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon said his club wasn’t in crisis ... then what is it?
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