Anyone who has played team sport will understand the difficulties of balancing the human instinct of self interest and the search for a real team spirit and single-minded determination as a group to sacrifice for each other for a common goal.

This, in my opinion, is the greatest hurdle our Football Department has to overcome.

The problem for this club, in terms of balancing the two, is that it is some of the leaders of the FD who are crossing the line and looking after their own interests TOO MUCH at the expense of the greater goal of true team spirit and they are tipping the balance too much in the favour of self-interest.
An example;

Denis Pagan – The massive financial interest has blinded him from the glaring record and overall state of where the playing list is and has been during his time. He will continue with the blinkers firmly on AT ANY COST for his own self-interest.

Lance Whitnall – Blindly took on the prestigious and financially rewarding position of Captain in self-interest disregarding the negative impact his physical and personal issues would have on the Club and his team mates.

Brendon Fevola – Our best natural footballer at the moment but has lost perspective of where and how much his presence fits in with team balance …wants too much for himself which is to the detriment of the team.

The massive negative effect this situation must have on our team orientated youngsters such as Murphy, Gibbs, Simpson, O’hAilpin, etc. must be terribly deflating and frustrating and shouldn’t be allowed to continue day after day ‘till the end of the season’.

The club must not stand on its heels while they know this situation is ongoing.
They must show strength by removing this overload of self-interest from the club immediately and in the case of the senior coaching position install someone, ANYONE, who has the club and team spirit as their priority as a stand-in for the remainder of the season before the longer term replacement is installed.

The kids should not be expected to put up with self-interested ‘leaders’. The CFC Board, Swann & Icke have a responsibility to show true leadership and act now in the interest of future team spirit.

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There's so much I could say...

Well said Budzy. We need to transform the culture of this club. Winning culture is a positive culture. Easier said then done when the team is not winning. That's where the role of everyone other than the playing group comes in.

We need to somehow drill into the minds of the players that everyone needs to stick together and transform this club. The Lions of the early 2000s is a great example. Everyone stayed together, were willing to take a paycut to play together and keep the team together. We need this at Carlton. It's a bloody tough gig and I wouldn't like to be doing it. But it has to be done. I'm sure CFC knows this already.

I just hope all the players at the club are strong enough to will each other through this down period.

Agree Budz.

But I have faith in Swann in particular to start to right this. It is why I feel that Pagan won't be coaching next year, and that Fevola will at least be looked at for trading, if not necessarily traded.

Swann is a shrewd and professional operator...I think we will see just how big a coup it was to get him over the next few months. He knows that success is not only built on hard work, discipline, sacrifice, team work etc, but also on making the tough decisions.

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!