We all want a winning culture, Mariners spirit etc. as many have posted. Top six minimum many others have said.
Well I think
@Forum Phoenix nailed it in a paragraph in his post on page 8 in The Reign of Mike Mulvey thread.
“
I think Mulvey will be aiming to win the league. Which is EXACTLY what any coach should be doing. You dream it, make a plan to achieve it, and then work your guts out trying to successfully execute it. And then see where you land. Want to reach the moon. Aim for the stars.”
So how do we go about it, how do we go about building a winning culture?
Set Goals
We can’t win anything by not setting the right goals and defining a path to success. It’s critical that both attainable goals and lofty, seemingly unattainable goals are set in order to drive us forward. We need to get out of our comfort zone and push our squad / club hard. Sure, celebrating the small wins is important as it keeps people engaged but we shouldn’t get hung up on the little achievements. If this is done too frequently, we start to master mediocrity and spend less time on working towards the tougher goals. A top six finish is not a good enough goal, our Goals for 2018/2019 should be:
1. Win the FFA Cup
2. Win the Premiership
3. Win the Championship
On review of this season, I wonder, what was Okon’s goal? Was it just to beat Sydney? In hindsight, it may have been. We were good that night, everything he had said he was trying to get the team to do; they did, and look what the result was. It should have been celebrated as a small win, he should have played a poker face and talked about where things in the game were good, they were below what was expected, challenging the squad to be better. But no, he celebrated like he had just won the treble, but we were only in Round 6. Our season was over front that point onwards.
We need to define our Values
Not only define them, but ingrain them in everything you do. The values and guiding principles should be so important, that without them the club fails.
Values such as working hard, pride, helping each other having each other’s back being a special part and representative of the local community.
For example, Mulvey could from day 1 of training say to the whole squad. One night per week, each and every one of you is to have one team mate over to your home for dinner, until every member of the squad has been to your house. While you are there you need to get to know your guest, what makes them tick, what things they hold dear. Just imagine the individual bonding that is instilled, and more importantly the environment of trust created. All of a sudden, everyone is looking after one another, and we will never see another example of one of our team hurt, and the other 10 not giving a flying f@#k. Instead, there would be 10 players around him, making sure he is ok. That’s a true team orientated wining culture.
We are a small community club. If we truly value our community to have pride in our team, pride in our shirt, then all key stakeholders need to be engaged from sponsors, volunteers, members, fans, and ex-players.
Imagine if we use the dinner example above and extend it further. Instead of just a team mate, have an employee from one of our sponsor’s, a volunteer and a member. Get to know all of them, the Players will know who they are playing for and the others will be truly supportive of the players representing them.
Never underestimate the role the female members of our club / community could play.
Imagine if a Female supporters group was set up, run by one of the player’s wives, girlfriends or mums. They all meet at Julie’s kitchen for nibblies before the game, and all marched down to the stadium pre-game, all in there pink Mariners top and straight into a designated bay.
Ex-players such as Zwaanswijk, McBreen, Sterjovski, Gumps, and Kwas etc. and get them to become involved. It could run along the lines of in addition to the team training sessions, Zwaanswijk does a session with just the defensive unit, whilst McBreen and Sterjovski doing a session with our attackers.
Why do something like all of this?
Because we need change and it’s not necessarily about finances.
A winning culture is not just about setting the right goals and pushing hard to achieve them, it’s about measuring performance,
learning from mistakes, and holding every stakeholder accountable.
A new Mariners Moto: We train for football, and we fight to win, for every person in the Central Coast community.
