I have a different view than many here about what happened and it’s probably not a popular one.
In 2002, on the same day in WA, Hird had his face totally busted and Lloyd suffered a serious finger injury.
Both missed many weeks. The team was already starting to struggle having lost surprisingly to Collingwood on a wet Anzac Day.
We needed players to stand up and be leaders in the absence of Hird & Lloyd. With 4-5+ years under their belts I fully expected Heffernan, Blumfield & Caracella to really step up.
In the absence of Hird & Lloyd, none of them did. All 3 played poor football and looked nothing like the players they were when Hird & Lloyd were around. Yet others like Scott Lucas stood tall and stepped up. I remember watching the game against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium and being ropable with how Blumfield, Caracella & Heffernan played that night.
I wasn’t surprised in the slightest they were marched out the door at the end of the year although for entirely the wrong reason - namely a mis-reading of the salary cap by the club’s administration (who may in turn been misled by the AFL). In no way do my views exonerate the behaviour of the club’s administration - led by Jackson - at the time.
With regular, million dollar profits you would think there would have been investment in facilities, recruitment & player development. Yet there seemed to be none. As Robert Shaw correctly points out we went from having the best facilities to the worst facilities in the AFL over the course of a decade despite becoming a “financial powerhouse”. We lost sight of what making that money was for it seems.
I liked Robert Shaw’s article but it is dangerously nostalgic on how chummy the players & coaches were.
Having led teams of people myself for many years you need emotional separation, as a leader, from those you lead. That’s so you make clear-headed decisions free of sentiment for any particular individual. It doesn’t mean you don’t empathise - you do & you must - but there is a line you shouldn’t cross as a leader and that’s becoming a “mate” with the players. Once you cross that line and become a mate your decision-making becomes compromised and you shy away from taking the necessary hard decisions you must take to ensure success.
In reading Shaw’s article, it seemed to me the coaching staff crossed that line in 2002.
As I said it doesn’t excuse poor administration and lack of investment in facilities/recruitment/player development but we didn’t become mediocre only because of that. We became mediocre because we stopped being ruthless in our decision-making from the Board down and got caught up in the romance of Sheedy’s longevity as a coach (one contract too many) and basking in the 2000 flag.
In his early years, Sheedy was as ruthless a coach as there ever was. In his last 5+ years he was anything but. We recruited poorly because we didn’t invest resources, we did little by way in player development. Our facilities fell way behind and player recovery & recuperation became compromised, Sheedy became sentimental, the club became sentimental and brought Hird in as coach - with zero experience - although Mark Williams had much better credentials. And our Win-Loss record wallowed in mediocrity as a result. (Note: it would have made perfect sense to appoint Mark Williams as senior coach and Hird as an assistant, telling Hird he had to learn the ropes first before being considered for the senior role).
If you don’t invest in your football department, make poor management decisions & become sentimental in your people management you will be mediocre no matter how much “trust” there is between players & coach. And that’s been us for more than a decade.
Only now, with a ruthless, experienced coach in Worsfold, a much stronger administration steeled in the fire of the saga, a strong & well resourced recruitment department & player development program and the best facilities in the competition do we look like heading in the right direction. As long those things stay in place we will become successful and win premierships.
The coach and players don’t have to be best mates for success. There just has to be two-way respect as professionals. And that’s from my own personal experience over many years.