ONCE WE WERE DEMONS ...

by Whispering Jack

PART ONE

Speaking at the club's best and fairest on Thursday night, Melbourne President Jim Stynes told 650 ardent Demon fans that "he plans to see the club become a premiership contender before his tenure is up". He warned the assembled faithful that the challenge would not be an easy one because the club has in recent years been held back both on and off the field but …

We're not afraid to make decisions if they help us to get where we want to go. I want to see it happen in my time and I want to see us challenge for a premiership again.

Stynes spoke of some of the clubs well-documented recent setbacks including its financial plight, the losing of major sponsor iPrimus and twice changing its CEO.

Then there was the matter of the team's on field performances and the fact that it finished a dismal last in the 16 team AFL competition.

"The Hawks this year in their Grand final had nine players taken in the top 20. At the start of next year we will have 14 players who were taken in the top 20 draft picks on our list," he said in support of his belief that Melbourne’s young squad has the ability to emulate the Hawks at some time in the not too distant future.

The road back up to the top is long and steep but Stynes and his new board know exactly what’s involved in bringing about the club's rejuvenation. Off the field, the club needs to re-establish its financial position (the debt reduction of over $3m raised to date has been merely a first step), relationships with the MCC and the AFL need to be secured, redefined and improved and a final decision needs to be made about its home and its training base. This requires some tough decision making, a good measure of strong discipline and a lot of patience.

In many ways, the club is following the formula laid out by the Hawks including the planned setting up of training facilities at Casey Fields, which Stynes sees as going some way to solving the Demons’ identity crisis.

We're a club that’s been born out of a stadium not out of a suburb and it’s about time we got involved in grass roots in the local communities.

The Melbourne Age reported that Stynes was encouraging the club to "embrace its history and look forward to the future":

The next couple of years are going to be tough because we've got a very, very young list, but we (the board) are not afraid to make decisions (and) I want to see us challenging for a premiership again.

While one of the innovations of the new Stynes board has been the restoration of the Demon identity that was shunned by the club in some recent marketing and while I have no problem with "embracing" our history and recognising and honouring the past, by far the more important part of the Synes plan is the need to consolidate the club's future. We neeed to look at the conditions and requirements for success in the 21st century and not back to the ‘fifties and 'sixties as we have done for so long in our recent past.

In many ways, we need to look at the most recent success stories at clubs like Geelong and Hawthorn who not long ago also were experiencing the pain of our current situation. At the same time, we will need to do things in our own way and always remain the Demons.

PART TWO

There was something inspirational about the way in which Hawthorn's 2008 premiership came about that transcended a booming Buddy Franklin goal from outside 50 metres or a desperate lunge from Luke Hodge to smother and prevent an opposition scoring opportunity. That something was the way the Hawks went about setting the scene for success, for they did so without being hidebound and restricted by past glories and traditions.

I'm convinced that the formula laid out by the Hawthorn board some four years ago, based on an innovative approach to modern conditions, could not have worked at some other traditional clubs that cling on to their past as if it was some sort of security blanket clutched forever in uncertain hands. Hawthorn dared to do something new and clever, something simple and logical, yet daring and requiring discipline, nerve and patience.

And it paid off!

The Hawk formula has been well publicised over recent weeks. In her excellent new book "The Draft", Emma Quayle's devotes an entire chapter to the process

that began in 2004 when the club was in a shambolic state both on and off the field. The entire club was rebuilt from its very roots and we've seen the results of that process over the past week - a premiership victory, a $4m plus profit, elation from the Hawk faithful and admiration from the great bulk of the football world.

Why couldn't we do that?

The clubs that hold tightly to their traditions simply could never do it while they remain steeped in their past - not Collingwood, which knows better than anyone else, and not Carlton, which just throws money at its problems. As an aside, one of the things I loved about Hawthorn winning this flag was the fact that 12 months ago Chris Judd wasn't even prepared to deign the Hawks worthy of an audience when he went through his farcical "club selection" process. In return, they showed the Visy environmentalist what football's all about and it doesn't come in paper bags or cardboard boxes!

Of course the old conservative Melbourne (ah, let someone else try it first) couldn't have done what Hawthorn did - we've been stuck in the fifties/sixties time warp for far too long!

The lessons are there for the future but if anyone thinks it's all just about following the Hawthorn pattern they would be wrong. Times have changed; the economic situation today is different now making it more difficult to raise funds to build a secure club. The drafting and trading conditions are different making it more difficult to secure early draft picks in bulk with which to custom build a team in double quick time. Priority draft selections are harder to come by and clubs are less likely today to hand out first round picks for the likes of a Hay or a Thompson.

But the principle still stands. You need to have a vision and be brave and innovative and above all, your club has to be united. Much has been made of Hawthorn's financial bonanza resulting from its connection with the Tasmanian government. Most of us have forgotten however, that this sort of initiative was floated at Melbourne early this decade when Joe Gutnick was chairman of the club and before he was summarily deposed by his disjointed board. How many opportunities did the club miss while it was pre-occupied with the in fighting and instability of those times?

So, once we were Demons. We can be Demons again but not the Demons of bygone years. We have a young group of players and more young talent is on

its way to the club soon. For inspiration, we can only look forward, be innovative and be aware as the faithful heard on Thursday night that this is a time of tough decision making, strong discipline and a lot of patience.