Not good enough

When everything is going well the best and the brightest know it's the time to work on your weaknesses.

Let's face it, better to fix your roof in summer rather than wait for winter downpour to remind you that wet carpets don't make for happy houses.

In Adelaide this is a great time for the club. Hindmarsh was rocking on Saturday night as we recorded our fourth win on the trot. The crowds are starting to build - and they're happy crowds. The team is playing exciting, attacking football, led by a trio of stars in Leckie, Flores and Sergio. Even the much maligned Adam Hughes has redeemed himself in the eyes of most fans, fighting back from a year of personal pain to cement a justified place in the starting eleven.

And did I mention we're top of the table? No? We are. Quite like that.

So what's not good enough? Be assured that I'm not going down the road of A-League bashing that seems to have become the flavour of the month. Unquestionably the league has problems but none of them are insurmountable with proper management, the onset of warm weather and the end of egg-ball finals. I'm not surprised that we're experiencing a dip after the honeymoon but I fully expect the league to grow and flourish in the coming decades.

Right now though, Adelaide have a chance to score some off-field goals.

The local paper, especially football journalist Val Migliaccio, is giving the club great coverage but the club itself is not capitalising. In fact, at the moment, Val is our marketing! The club needs to wake up.

Ticketing has been badly managed and is too expensive. Why not have the next three games at reduced prices (especially for families) to draw people in? The best advertisement for the club is watching a great game in a full stadium.

Where is the blanket advertising focussing on the way the team is currently playing? Even if it was restricted to one platform (print or tv or cinema) it would still be worth it. You have to strike while the iron is hot. And we have two of the hottest players going around in Leckie and Flores. Sell them to the public.

Where is the concerted campaign to woo young players to the ground (bringing their parents with them) in the hope they'll go to bed dreaming of playing in the red shirt of Adelaide? Rather than some far distant team. There's an ad waiting to be made following a junior player through the glories of under 5s, primary school football, teenage glory and amateur leagues until he finally steps out onto the hallowed turf of Hindmarsh with 16000 fans cheering his name.

You have to create myths and legends. You have to nurture dreams.

And by nurturing the crowd the team grows wings for potential owners and sponsors. We need owners and now is the time for them to come forward and attach themselves to a club that's ready to fly. But how will they know about us when we're so quiet? How can they trust us if we're not selling ourselves?

The club is even quiet towards the members and fans. There's little communication. How hard is an email each week from Rini or Travis or...anyone? How difficult is it to thank the members each week for coming and remind them how appreciated they are and how much fun they had?

How much extra trouble would it be to send the whole team around the pitch after every game to talk to the fans - especially the kids - who wait patiently every week for the few baby footballs kicked into the crowd by a few players? If Travis Dodd spoke a sentence or two to my five year old, he'd remember it for years.

Hey, I know they're stuffed after a game but the fans want to know them and share their glory or pain. It's a small city and a manageable crowd. Loyal communities are built on small gestures of friendship repeated faithfully.

It's hard to express just how good it is to be an Adelaide fan this week. In fact, the only grey cloud is the fact Victory seem to have rediscovered their form. I am grateful and bloody excited about my team. But I am not blind to the leaks in the roof.

Right now, the mighty Reds have a chance to reach into the heart of what is a football city and draw people in. Either the FFA or new owners need to reach into the kitbag and bring out some fresh thinking and a new attitude to the fans. The goodwill is there. The time is right.

Let's not wait for the rain.