Never let it be said that Eastern States media have any bias against Western Australia, they are fair, balanced and informative at every opportunity...

Ostriches lift heads, briefly

Richard Hinds, April 30, 2007
www.realfooty.com.au (Fairfax)


ON a rare weekend in Melbourne, hundreds of kilometres from their slavishly devoted fans and in a place where their bully boy threats and intimidation did not carry much weight, indignity and humiliation had loomed from all sides for the proud West Coast Ostriches.

For several years now, the Ostriches' players had fulfilled their part of the bargain with courage and conviction: keep winning games and the club's coaches and officials will keep their heads buried in the sand.

In the past it had been drugs and booze and violence and criminal mates. Lately, it had been childish petulance at the tribunal, defiant cursing in public speeches, a nasty piece of sexist sledging. Yet, regardless of the offence, in their failure to punish their players - or by doing it with a slap of the tail feather - the message from the Ostriches' hierarchy was always the same: just win, baby.

Even before they stepped off the plane, the Ostriches had sharpened their beaks. Coach John Worsfold had told other clubs to mind their own business - never mind that opposition players, coaches and club officials were being tarred with the Ostriches' brush.

Worsfold had also claimed he would not rush Ben Cousins back into the team - either a radical departure in policy or an attempt to avoid retribution, given the Ostriches had never previously put a premium on anything other than on-field success.

But against untidy, unfashionable Richmond at the MCG on Saturday, that success proved unexpectedly elusive. Ostriches' stars Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr showed occasional flashes of brilliance. Burly full-forward Quinten Lynch took a grab when needed. The Ostriches' skills were vastly superior. But, as they trailed in the first quarter and were challenged in the last, it was as if their minds were elsewhere.

If they were, every time the Ostriches got the ball a Richmond supporter was there to kindly remind them that they were not just in Melbourne to play football.

Across the fence came the now obligatory drug references. Lines about lines. And when Adam Selwood got a touch, he was chastised for his alleged sexism - Richmond's notoriously sensitive core of male members having made their way to the MCG from the street stalls they had manned to raise money for the local women's crisis centre.

In the end, the fact that the Ostriches satisfied their craving for four points was due mostly to Richmond's bungled forays into attack and the fact that the umpires seemed to share the view of the Ostriches' fans that they can do no wrong.

But if one indignity had been narrowly averted, even greater humiliation was in store. Less than 24 hours later, several Ostriches' board members, executives, coaches and players were sitting in a room at AFL headquarters viewing a video chronicling five years of off-field indiscretion.

Presumably it was X-rated.

Then the AFL Commission's new chairman and lead baritone, Mike Fitzpatrick, asked for something that the Ostriches' board should have demanded a long time ago: an explanation.

It would have come as a disappointment to those who had wanted to see harsh penalties imposed on the Ostriches - fines, suspensions or even draft picks and premiership points removed - that their explanation was good enough to convince the AFL Commission not to take things further.

Against a backdrop of Ben Cousins returning from drug rehab and Ostriches' players striking notes of bitter defiance, it was tempting to think the Commission had fallen for the Ostriches' talk of SAS commanders leading the club's new "core value committee" and how it was "developing an acceptable culture".

However, one significant result was achieved. While Fitzpatrick sat beside him harshly chastising the club's recent record, Ostriches' chairman Dalton Gooding was forced to pull his head from the sand and apologise.

It was a humbling moment for a club that had previously practised savage self-defence.

It remains to be seen, though, whether Gooding's quiet sentiments were held as closely to the Ostriches' bosoms as those precious four points.