More of the latter i would say, sigh
You could downgrade your membership instead of cancelling if that makes you feel better about it.
Iāve been downgrading from High Mark since the latter Worstfold years. Problem is Iām at Flexi 4-game level now so the next level down is that āEssendon Insiderā bulltish.ā
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iām not cancelling my membership even though i donāt go to many if any games per year.
My loyalty to the club extends beyond current coaches and players . Iāve seen it all before .
The good times will come again ,hopefully iāll be around to see themā¦
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I really like this ā20 years of rubbish mantraā, which conveniently forgets the events that ripped the club apart, except when it is conveniently revived to justify what was done by and to the club then and since.
EFC was clearly on the way back to something great before the AFL/ASADA fit up and while it is now almost 10 years since then, the club is still living with the consequences of their kowtowing to the AFL witch hunt and the clubās failure to really support the then players and coach.
The Doc Reid approach should have been adopted by everyone involved, instead of weasling out of a real fight against the joke investigation and punishment which resulted in the players getting shafted (not to mention the near death of one of the club greats), while those in charge were shedding crocodile tears at the events.
Since then the club has proceeded to do everything to keep in the AFL good books such as meekly accepting their punishment with half hearted appeals, the hiring of AFL approved coaches and never appealing any suspensions when everyone else does successfully a lot of the time.
No doubt as always, when this taboo is raised, it will be shouted down, but it is, at least, a consideration to be taken into account when discussing the ongoing malaise, rather than leveling all the blame on Mr Dodoro and/or the current players.
This malaise still permeates EFC and not excising it by pretending it doesnāt matter, just lets the cancer metastasise.
EFC leaders have mostly behaved as patsies since the 1st press ādrugā conference by never really challenging the AFL PR line with occasional appropriate cover from time to time.
Those that didnāt play along have been moved on or sidelined.
Until the club shows some of its old mongrel (which it did have in the good old days with that other coach that many now continuously pillory) towards the AFL and opposition teams, nothing will change except the membership will fall away and the club will become even more an irrelevant laughing stock, without any winning āedgeā.
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The good doctor Bruce Reid had the AMA in his corner. They were never going to let him go down for this in some kangaroo court brought together Vlad and his cronies.
And the AFL were never going to take on the AMA, they knew to keep it in their wheelhouse which they had ultimate control over.
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Funny I just typed up a post and deleted it about we donāt have an identity and we have values that clash so the good community club that dont do a thing wrong versus a team that wants to be ruthless thatās strives to be successful which needs to a whole club thing - but were trying to be a good club so what wins out.
Being a good social community club is a great thing, but it seems that permeates as the main purpose at the club, not being ruthless to win. Yuo can do both with the right balance
We also never reset our identity post sheeds - he was Essendon. So who are we now? apart from moving to the drug saga club then the days without a finals win club
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I donāt think that was clear at all. The three seasons before that fateful press conference:
2010 - finish bottom 4, sack the coach
2011 - scrape into finals, get humiliated in them.
2012- Start with an 8-1 record, lose 10 of the last 13 games to miss finals.
Seemed very much business as usual to me.
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Agreed and in 2013 on footy classified bomber Thompson was trying to express how lacking the Essendon football club was, the episode where he was questioned about the supplements saga by Gary Lyon, Mathew Lloyd, Wilson and Hutchinson.
Paraphrasing but " everyone thinks Essendon as a very good club, it isnāt really a good club at all I walked into Essendon thinking thereās a lot of areas we need to fix up, not just the board, the this level, this level, the football department, the ways we were doing things wasnāt going to get us to top 8, top 4s, preliminary finals, grand finals, Premierships"
Now bomber said that 11 years ago and he had recently just came over from Geelong winning 2 flags himself at the time.
Iād argue he was bang on the money and also not much has changed since then.
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Itās pure copium.
2013?
That would be after the press conference. I.E. after the saga started.
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Our list was absolute pus during the saga. We were not on the way back
Whatās the significance of the February press conference to the teamās performance in 2013?
Oh please let this happen.
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It was the starting point that I clearly stated, but you already knew that.
Sorry, I genuinely donāt understand why the teamās performance in 2013 should be left out of the equation.
because I was replying to a post that said ābefore the AFL/ASADA stitch up,ā i.e the āsaga.ā
That all began at the press conference in Feb 2013, so anything after that would beā¦ well, after that.
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well isnāt that just convenient
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This is why big a sticks to politics
Mate all you need to understand is that the emotional attachment is all one way traffic on your part (which isnāt right or wrong btw).
The club is a business and to them you are simply a revenue opportunity.
That business understands and plays on your attachment, hence the membership card trick of displaying years of membership as some sort of ābadge of honourā to help emotionally blackmail members.
You ever notice how they havenāt got the number of days since Essendon won a final displayed on that same membership card they send you?
As for providing reasons for cancellation, I assure you the person from the membership department could not care less and just needs to work out which box to tick so the data on their internal reporting is accurate.