When Brian Cook was CEO of Geelong, he had a folder on his computer for all the vicious emails he received from fans, coterie groups and board members. He labelled it “Assassins”.
It’s easy to forget just how dire things were at the Cats when he took over. The coach and captain walked out. The team was useless and the club had no money. Garry Hocking was forced to change his name by deed poll to ‘Whiskas’ to rustle up 100 grand. “The organisation had no structures, no layers,” Cook told writer James Button. “It was like a local footy club.”
In the depths of Covid, he took on the Carlton job. The Blues have had more five-year plans than the Soviets, but this felt different. “This is a significant pillar of the club’s reset strategy,” president Luke Sayers said. “My first focus,” Cook added, “will be on connecting with as many people as possible, and making sure we are aligned on how we are going to push this football club to achieve the success it is striving for.” A few days later, Michael Voss was appointed coach. The day after that, John Elliott died. The old Carlton was dead.
With a slick new regime and a team ready to pop, Carlton were flying at the halfway point last year. The captain, Patrick Cripps, was in career-best form and the Blues were a great team to watch. The entire club had its swagger back. But they’ve since won just eight from 21 games.
Their final fortnight of the 2022 season was a textbook study in how a football club can drive a supporter base to the brink. In the final two minutes of the Collingwood game in round 23, the look on the face of broadcaster and supporter Andrew Maher was a neat snapshot of the Carlton condition. It was the look of a man doing deep, emotional calculus. How do I hold it together here, he seemed to be thinking as the Blues slid to a one-point defeat. How do I resist the urge to exit the box, and throttle one of the 60,000 Collingwood supporters celebrating like loons? How, in the name of Jumping Jesaulenko, did my team lose that game?
