Operation “What Happened, Power” (Port 58 – 62 West Coast)
I concur with Keith Thomas that "the status quo is not acceptable. "There is a hell lot of heart and talent in our club, but we
miss the brains and the souls of champions. There is no hard work that will give us that. Unfortunately, I have no answers to solve this; just questions... and a suspect!
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In the preview of our next game, Us
against the rest said, at BigFooty: “This is classic backs to the wall stuff, it's now or never.” However, that will be the fourth consecutive week like that. We have lost the past two! Do we want to win a Premiership going full ‘Rocky Balboa?’ We can play Finals, sure; but for what? We are pretenders. We aren't ready. We won't be ready. It is time to accept that. We are not championship material; and we are probably clueless on why we are not championship material. This has to change!
It is OK to doubt about things from time to time. It is healthy, even. During preseason, the club invited members for a convention in which we were given a measure. Port told us how we would look like and how we were working to get there. However, some months later, the club has fallen short of its own expectations. They cannot deny their failure. We lost four of our last 5 games. We choked. We threw the whole season away, when we should be at our strongest. It is inexcusable.
Things aren't happening as they should. There should be people being held accountable for this: directors, coaches, and leadership players. I sympathize with them all. The greatest hole here is in my understanding of the game. We miss something, but I have no idea what it is. I suggest we should start an Operation “What Happened, Power” to investigate the issue.
I would rather not leave any stone unturned while doing so. Why does our football department look like the aggregate of autonomous parts, each one doing its own thing, with no cohesion whatsoever? I am not sure whether coaches, players, physical trainers, list managers, doctors, etc., are on the same page. If our players don't fit into our gameplan, what would be the main issue: players, coaching, recruiting, something else, all of those? What would be our CLUBPLAN? Who has come with it? Who is responsible for its execution?
There is a principle in the Science of Business Administration which states that "in a company, qualified people tend to be promoted up to the position right above their limit of competence."[1] There is an assumption that qualified people must be promoted, which leads moving them up the chain until they become unqualified — when they stop being promoted. This makes a company ending up with unqualified people in every position! I wonder whether our club has fallen into this corporative trap.
I don't think we failed for lack of effort. I don't think that the people in the club are bad; but I suspect most are being misused. They all have plenty of qualities, but those may be not being properly managed to get us maximum benefit from them. Still, I can't identify precisely who is in the wrong place, what the right place would be (including out of the club), and who should replace those who would need to be replaced. Having said that, I don't think the club is struggling in other areas as much as we are in football – if we are struggling at all. Hence, we should look there first.
Players are having problems executing the gameplan after twenty games practicing it. Ken Hinkley, as head coach, has great responsibility over it. After all, he is our Colonel. If his base is underperforming, either the expectations were wrong[2] or he failed on something. However, does Hinkley report to whom? Who is in charge of holding Hinkley accountable for coaching decisions; of making sure that eventual mistakes wouldn't be repeated?
The CEO, our Lieutenant-General, is not solely responsible for our football. Would there be someone below the CEO, but above the football departments: analytics, academy, list management, physical training, Magpies, Power, etc? Is there someone above Hinkley, only responsible to coordinate Port's football as a whole? In other words, who is our Football “Brigadier?” He would be my first suspect.
My first suspect, then, would be our Head-of-Football, Chris Davies. I would begin taking a look at his responsibilities as head of football and what he has done, and then going down from there. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should get rid of Davies. I am just saying that I would start looking for the source of our football problems at his role.
For instance, I still think our list management this Summer was good, even though those pointing to our lack of back-up ruckmen ended up being proven right Perhaps, we should have Davies as our List Manager, while having someone else above him as Port’s Head-of-Football; or, maybe, we are not giving Davies the autonomy necessary to do his job. I sincerely don't know.
I just think that any serious attempt of improving our football should begin by looking into our Head-of-Football, checking what has been done and what could have been done and what can be done differently. Then, I would take a look, always going from top to bottom, into our football teams,[3] our High Performance department, analytics, medical staff, etc. Whatever the solution is, it is something different than what we have now. “The status quo is not acceptable.”
Meanwhile, we still have a season to play. Forgive my initial rant. We can’t give up. It is NOT the Port’s way. Let’s get into Finals and see what we can pull off from there. We must play for winning. I don’t want to throw the baby out along with the dirty water. There are good things going on at Alberton; lots of good things. They are simply not ENOUGH.
CARN THE PORT!
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Notes:
It is OK to doubt about things from time to time. It is healthy, even. During preseason, the club invited members for a convention in which we were given a measure. Port told us how we would look like and how we were working to get there. However, some months later, the club has fallen short of its own expectations. They cannot deny their failure. We lost four of our last 5 games. We choked. We threw the whole season away, when we should be at our strongest. It is inexcusable.
Things aren't happening as they should. There should be people being held accountable for this: directors, coaches, and leadership players. I sympathize with them all. The greatest hole here is in my understanding of the game. We miss something, but I have no idea what it is. I suggest we should start an Operation “What Happened, Power” to investigate the issue.
I would rather not leave any stone unturned while doing so. Why does our football department look like the aggregate of autonomous parts, each one doing its own thing, with no cohesion whatsoever? I am not sure whether coaches, players, physical trainers, list managers, doctors, etc., are on the same page. If our players don't fit into our gameplan, what would be the main issue: players, coaching, recruiting, something else, all of those? What would be our CLUBPLAN? Who has come with it? Who is responsible for its execution?
There is a principle in the Science of Business Administration which states that "in a company, qualified people tend to be promoted up to the position right above their limit of competence."[1] There is an assumption that qualified people must be promoted, which leads moving them up the chain until they become unqualified — when they stop being promoted. This makes a company ending up with unqualified people in every position! I wonder whether our club has fallen into this corporative trap.
I don't think we failed for lack of effort. I don't think that the people in the club are bad; but I suspect most are being misused. They all have plenty of qualities, but those may be not being properly managed to get us maximum benefit from them. Still, I can't identify precisely who is in the wrong place, what the right place would be (including out of the club), and who should replace those who would need to be replaced. Having said that, I don't think the club is struggling in other areas as much as we are in football – if we are struggling at all. Hence, we should look there first.
Players are having problems executing the gameplan after twenty games practicing it. Ken Hinkley, as head coach, has great responsibility over it. After all, he is our Colonel. If his base is underperforming, either the expectations were wrong[2] or he failed on something. However, does Hinkley report to whom? Who is in charge of holding Hinkley accountable for coaching decisions; of making sure that eventual mistakes wouldn't be repeated?
The CEO, our Lieutenant-General, is not solely responsible for our football. Would there be someone below the CEO, but above the football departments: analytics, academy, list management, physical training, Magpies, Power, etc? Is there someone above Hinkley, only responsible to coordinate Port's football as a whole? In other words, who is our Football “Brigadier?” He would be my first suspect.
My first suspect, then, would be our Head-of-Football, Chris Davies. I would begin taking a look at his responsibilities as head of football and what he has done, and then going down from there. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should get rid of Davies. I am just saying that I would start looking for the source of our football problems at his role.
For instance, I still think our list management this Summer was good, even though those pointing to our lack of back-up ruckmen ended up being proven right Perhaps, we should have Davies as our List Manager, while having someone else above him as Port’s Head-of-Football; or, maybe, we are not giving Davies the autonomy necessary to do his job. I sincerely don't know.
I just think that any serious attempt of improving our football should begin by looking into our Head-of-Football, checking what has been done and what could have been done and what can be done differently. Then, I would take a look, always going from top to bottom, into our football teams,[3] our High Performance department, analytics, medical staff, etc. Whatever the solution is, it is something different than what we have now. “The status quo is not acceptable.”
Meanwhile, we still have a season to play. Forgive my initial rant. We can’t give up. It is NOT the Port’s way. Let’s get into Finals and see what we can pull off from there. We must play for winning. I don’t want to throw the baby out along with the dirty water. There are good things going on at Alberton; lots of good things. They are simply not ENOUGH.
CARN THE PORT!
---
Notes:
[1] The Peter
Principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle. I would like to thank theDuckFarmer for reminding me of its name.
[2] Either from the
beginning or they weren't adjusted later to changes in circumstances.
[3] In order: Power head
coach; Power assistant coaches; Power captain; Power leadership group; AFL senior
players; Magpies head coach; Magpies assistant coaches; and the rest of the group.
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