From the President: 6/6

Dear Members,

I apologise to you for the way in which our football department performed yesterday against Brisbane.

There will be some who will not be pleased in my publicly expressing my great disappointment at yesterday’s effort.

But since I have assumed the Presidency of the Club, I have introduced a level of transparency that I think has earned your trust. Since I personally wrote to you - our 50,000 members (there are now in excess of 52,000 members) - I receive each week hundreds of emails, to which I also personally respond .

So I think, as a result of your emails, I have a good idea of what the rank and file member is thinking and feeling right now. They feel let down, disappointed, and you have every right to be.

Even though we led at half time, the skills and tenacity at the ball was well below what we have come to expect at Hawthorn. Our passes, be they kicks or handballs, where so often badly directed. But worse we have lost what I think was our great strength last year and the reason we won on the last Saturday of September, our team work.

Yes, we have had legitimate excuses for part of our performance this year, injuries. However, that excuse is no longer a defence for the sort of game we put in against Adelaide two weeks ago, and Brisbane yesterday.

Both were a combination of our failure to apply the appropriate skills and effort to be competitive.

We are losing games, we should not be losing.

So we have reached the half way point of the season with a win loss ratio of 6/6. Clearly a top four position, while still possible, is going to be almost impossible to achieve without a major change in our approach to the game. So we compete for a top eight position on the ladder, and we all know the conversion rate from positions five to eight to premiership success. 

Can we rise up to the challenge? I think we can. But we will find out in two weeks when we travel to WA to take on West Coast. Between now and then, there has to be a lot of soul searching by our coaches and players, and a recommitment to the standard of play we know we are capable of producing.

Have we got the people to deliver, clearly the answer is yes. But right now as the going gets tough, the tough need to get going. The principles of Kokoda under which we play – Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice – need to be embraced more than ever by our football department.

If some do not like the contents of this message, I simply say eliminate the reasons that cause it to be written. No more excuses, we must lift our game or pay the price.

When so much at the Club is going so well, the one reason we exist is to play competitive football to give ourselves the opportunity of competing as we did last year, on the last day in September.

Today we are a long way from that standard of play.

Jeff Kennett
President
Hawthorn Football Club