It’s been an emotional seven days since the controversial and bewildering decision by the Fremantle Football Club to sack Mark Harvey, and seven days since morals and ethics were consigned to the trash can.

When I first heard of the sacking I was in absolute outrage and disgust, and immediately began questioning the sanity of the board. There appeared to be no logic or reasoning behind this controversial decision and I immediately started thinking that something substantial had occurred between the club and Harvey to justify the sacking. Internet forums were in meltdown as no-one was able to comprehend what had been done and why.

45 minutes later, confirmation of the madness arrived with the leaking that Ross Lyon had been appointed coach of the Fremantle Football Club, and that he was to be given a 4-year deal. I was shaking my head in disbelief and absolute outrage.

Ross Lyon coaching Fremantle for 4 years! I instantly started having horrible thoughts about the rubbish style of football that Fremantle were now going to be introduced to. This made me more angry and disgusted, and as a consequence, I started to turn the blowtorch on the individuals that had destroyed every bit of Fremantle that they possibly could. I am of course talking about President Steve Harris and CEO Steve Rosich.

Ever since they both took over in their respective roles, they have slowly started to destroy everything that Fremantle were about. They took away the anchor from our jumper and replaced it with bland and generic chevrons. They replaced the logo with something that looks like it was done on Microsoft Paint in 5 minutes. Now they’ve destroyed Fremantle’s free-flowing football by appointing a coach whose modus operendi is defense first.

The anger and disgust I felt finally snapped on Thursday night which led to a pretty harsh email heading to the Fremantle Football Club, questioning the sacking of Harvey and the rebrand. I even accused the President and CEO of not understanding anything about Fremantle which is how strong I feel about this. Sadly I got the generic reply which didn’t answer the questions I asked or anything like that, and got the response of “your comments have been noted.” My view is noted and ignored.

Anyway, the press conference on Friday was possibly the best 24 hours I’ve ever had as a very angry Fremantle supporter. It was the greatest PR clanger I’ve ever encountered which would hurt people who’re involved in public relations (President Harris) and contained more laughs than anything encountered before or since.

It was a press conference that was supposed to announce the appointment of Ross Lyon but instead turned into a debate on integrity, honesty and loyalty. This is definitely not one of President Harris or CEO Rosich’s finest hours, but it made me laugh with glee. It got even better when President Harris said “In regards to Andrew Demetriou’s comment about the manner of our signing of Ross Lyon, I’ve called him and advised him that those comments are inappropriate.” Talk about a President big-noting himself to sound important. The truth is that Andrew Demetriou isn’t really going to care what you think so naturally I laughed in glee at that too.

So having had a chance to finally get the emotion out of this, what do I think?

I think that this is a very large gamble by the hierarchy at the Fremantle Football Club and is a clear indication to me that they’re going for a rapid fix. As we’ve seen though, there is no such thing as a rapid fix and I suspect that it’s going to take time for Ross Lyon to implement the game plan that he wants Freo to play by. I’m also of the belief that expectations have been ramped up massively too and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the Fremantle Football Club to deliver now.

Ross Lyon is undoubtedly an exceptional coach (as shown by his 63% winning record), but it was achieved with one of the dullest game plans ever encountered. He comes across as really smug but I don’t doubt that he knows how to handle the media pressure (having experienced it with regards to both on and off-field matters). He’s strict and is a hard working coach, and will bring discipline and structure to Fremantle which is definitely something we need, but it’s the game plan I dread most.

As for Mark Harvey, he’s been paid out of the final year of his contract (reportedly $500k) but I believe that he was treated very poorly by the Fremantle board. There were fears at the end of last year that Fremantle hadn’t adequately replaced lost assistants due to their focus on rebranding and it’s those fears that have indeed come to pass as in my mind, Mark Harvey was left out to dry by a board that didn’t wholly support him.

I believe that Harvey deserved a lot better, and deserved a chance in 2012 to show what he was really capable of with a much fitter team than the team that was utterly decimated by injury in 2011. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about the board’s decision to sack him for Ross Lyon, but I know that if Fremantle are not in the finals next year, there will be unprecedented pressure on the President and CEO who’ve taken this gamble. 2012 is basically the President and CEO’s jobs on the line and should the team fail, I suspect they’ll have no choice but to do the decent thing and resign.