Precisely. Being admired for excellence doesn't imply for a second that you're not ruthlessly competitive. We're hated right now, but in a pitiful, contemptuous way that has the best footballing talent running a mile. Our organisation needs to have a halo effect that enhances value, not a tarnishing effect that diminishes it. Ambitious, self-respecting athletes are not going to choose to devalue their careers that way.MatthewBoydFanClub wrote:Sorry but I disagree totally with you. If we pursue an us versus them strategy this football club is stuffed. We live in the 21st century now. It's about living with everybody else. Making enemies of Adam Goodes and Caroline Wilson like Eddie did is the last thing this football club should be doing.Lazza wrote:The non PC question is “How can Browne get Collingwood to the position of being the most hated football club in Australia?” In our history we have played some of our best football when it has been an “us versus them” scenario where we have had our backs against the wall. Hafey made an art form of orchestrating this. You know Collingwood is in deep shit when the hack media and feral opposition supporters start feeling sorry for us. This happens when we consistently lose. If we ever get to the glory days of when we used to annihilate teams, we will be doing well but team salary cap equalisation makes this task improbable. So we need to start winning more than we lose and slowly start to piss off the Collingwood haters. That will be a great start.
Moreover, our us-versus-the-world stance makes us a predictable one-trick pony. We're laughably easy to goad and manipulate, which is why we're everyone's bunnies.