bornadog
07-10-2014, 04:01 PM
Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has denied that coach Brendan McCartney was ever at risk of losing his job or that he was the central figure of the discord that has plagued the Kennel since the end of the season.
The Dogs have endured significant tumult after their underwhelming eight-win 2014 campaign, which has led to a thorough review of the football department amid reports a rift had developed between McCartney and his players.
But Gordon insisted everyone at the club had to take responsibility for the recent dramas at Whitten Oval, and he was not about to "scapegoat" McCartney.
"I certainly had a series of good discussions with management, with coaching staff and with players and they all had good discussions with each other," Gordon said at the unveiling of the Bulldogs' new logo on Tuesday.
"It's wrong to say there was one particular set of relationships [that were strained] with one particular individual player, coach or manager. There was simply a series of issues where we identified that we can get better and we're all part of that process.
"The most important thing to do is to do it honestly, to embrace the struggle - and that's our mantra - that we'll embrace these difficulties, we'll confront them honestly, we'll work on them together and we'll emerge stronger from them."
Gordon insisted the only way his club would progress was if the people within it opted against living in a "culture of blame" and stressed the importance of open and honest dialogue.
"When you have a season where you effectively did no better than the previous season, then, if you're honest with yourself and with your colleagues, your teammates and people that run the club with you, you're going to ask hard questions," Gordon said.
"So we've been through a period where we've asked each other hard questions and we've asked hard questions of ourselves as well.
"I think it's largely been a constructive process and I think you'll find in 2015 we will emerge stronger from it.
"When these things come up, and people have strongly held views, you can take two approaches to it – you can cover it up and tell people to shut up or you can embrace the struggle and you can embrace the difficulties and try and get an honest conversation going and that's what we've done. We've taken a mature approach to it."
Gordon was optimistic that, following the review, everyone at the club had bought into the mantra of "embracing the struggle".
"I'm confident that ... if there are difficulties or problems or concerns that they've got, that we can deal with them constructively and move forward," he said.
Communication was just one of the areas that needed improving at the Bulldogs, according to Gordon.
"I could stand here in front of you today and say everything is fine and all of these things are in their place," Gordon said.
"We are, as a group, dissatisfied with how we went [in 2014] and we all take our responsibility for that, but neither do we want to take some kind of superficial kneejerk reaction to it or scapegoat any particular individual.
"It's the responsibility of all of us, from the president down, to ensure that performance improves and that includes constantly improving communications, skills, abilities, the list, the support networks, all of those things, and that's what we're committed to doing."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-president-peter-gordon-denies-coach-brendan-mccartney-was-close-to-losing-his-job-20141007-10rbn9.html#ixzz3FQrkURkS
The Dogs have endured significant tumult after their underwhelming eight-win 2014 campaign, which has led to a thorough review of the football department amid reports a rift had developed between McCartney and his players.
But Gordon insisted everyone at the club had to take responsibility for the recent dramas at Whitten Oval, and he was not about to "scapegoat" McCartney.
"I certainly had a series of good discussions with management, with coaching staff and with players and they all had good discussions with each other," Gordon said at the unveiling of the Bulldogs' new logo on Tuesday.
"It's wrong to say there was one particular set of relationships [that were strained] with one particular individual player, coach or manager. There was simply a series of issues where we identified that we can get better and we're all part of that process.
"The most important thing to do is to do it honestly, to embrace the struggle - and that's our mantra - that we'll embrace these difficulties, we'll confront them honestly, we'll work on them together and we'll emerge stronger from them."
Gordon insisted the only way his club would progress was if the people within it opted against living in a "culture of blame" and stressed the importance of open and honest dialogue.
"When you have a season where you effectively did no better than the previous season, then, if you're honest with yourself and with your colleagues, your teammates and people that run the club with you, you're going to ask hard questions," Gordon said.
"So we've been through a period where we've asked each other hard questions and we've asked hard questions of ourselves as well.
"I think it's largely been a constructive process and I think you'll find in 2015 we will emerge stronger from it.
"When these things come up, and people have strongly held views, you can take two approaches to it – you can cover it up and tell people to shut up or you can embrace the struggle and you can embrace the difficulties and try and get an honest conversation going and that's what we've done. We've taken a mature approach to it."
Gordon was optimistic that, following the review, everyone at the club had bought into the mantra of "embracing the struggle".
"I'm confident that ... if there are difficulties or problems or concerns that they've got, that we can deal with them constructively and move forward," he said.
Communication was just one of the areas that needed improving at the Bulldogs, according to Gordon.
"I could stand here in front of you today and say everything is fine and all of these things are in their place," Gordon said.
"We are, as a group, dissatisfied with how we went [in 2014] and we all take our responsibility for that, but neither do we want to take some kind of superficial kneejerk reaction to it or scapegoat any particular individual.
"It's the responsibility of all of us, from the president down, to ensure that performance improves and that includes constantly improving communications, skills, abilities, the list, the support networks, all of those things, and that's what we're committed to doing."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-president-peter-gordon-denies-coach-brendan-mccartney-was-close-to-losing-his-job-20141007-10rbn9.html#ixzz3FQrkURkS