Blame is Important and strategic.
As another 4 year football campaign concludes the media will disembowel, regurgitate, agonise, then allocate blame accordingly to suit the football structure they see what Football should be in Australia.
Nothing new, the same process, and the same outcome will result if we qualify in 2022.
Yep the Australian Football guru’s have all the answers and anyone dares to change their vision will be dispatched, replaced or ostracised as Un Australian, ignorant of Australian culture.
My opinion from here on in might just get me 🛑red carded 🛑 but I’ve been around long enough to see this charades played out all resulting in Australian Football being the looser and I’m tied of it.
Why is it we see our football culture requiring we do things our way?
The simple fact is the biggest problem with Australian Football is their are too many Australians having too much say in how how the football culture develops.
We are a infantile nation in real football terms and even though we made to top table in the world we are merely nuisance value in the picture we want to become a player.
Our record with coaches says we cannot adjust or do not have the talent yet to elevate us past battler class and looking at the level of our professionals only Moyes is playing in what can be called world class premier leagues, while the rest making a living in clubs under the world super powers.
World Cup winners have players in the top echelon playing weekly at club level day in day out. Beyond the average Australians comprehension. It’s not NRL or AFL as Optus found out it’s massive game in Australia that has been underestimated for decades with supporters that might support Aussie eastern seaboard codes but their heart and culture will always be with world game.
The appointment of Arnold highlights the crucial fact we look continually look inward because we don’t have the football intellect to accept that countries no where near as wealthy as Australia have cultures that we cannot comprehend or compete.
We wonder why international coaches think twice about putting their reputation on the line when they are often surrounded by well meaning parochialism not prepared to look at a 5 or 10 year year plan beyond the World Cup timelines.
Postacogolas had that vision but that vision did not suit the boys clubs self appointed specialist journalists that feel they have all answers. They’ll blame coaches, they’ll blame referees, the Video but the simple fact is we are just not good enough …. Yet..
Until we accept that fact Nationally then Internationally we will not make any major steps to securing a top 8 performance. And doing the Australian thing is total bullshit.
We need spend on Youth Development at a level far above out A League level. We need to have Full Transitional Management Teams employed from selected countries at our Sporting Academy that will develop a style and professional culture that is competitive yet identifiable with Australia as Germany is identifiable with clinical, fastidious application to precise performance.
Our benchmarks are below that and until we choose to raise them we are just in the world pool of wanna bee’s
Tough decisions, not cheap, not easy but as I look around I see Women’s Football making the right noises, international players On local rosters, and the young will feed off that and it will become the normal while our men’s ALeague is becoming a exit lounge for the past icons.
No reflections intended on our 2018 squad, we did our best, I could not ask more as a Australian Football fan from coach or squad, that’s football.
But I don’t and will not accept is Blame lays on the pitch. Blame is fully on the FFA management team and for the sake of the game heads should roll at that level first and foremost.
The Lateral Hazard 