A faint heartbeat

Coming into the A-League in the shadow of the competitions biggest and (at the time) most successful club, Melbourne Heart always had a tough task ahead of them. Last Thursday night CEO Scott Munn and manager of football operations John Didulica met with supporters to talk about how far they've come, and where they will go next.
Munn admitted that the club had fallen 25 per cent short of its target of 9,000 members this season and conceding that this was a failure, however he refused to accept that "we are a new club" was an acceptable excuse anymore. He also admitted that the club can't afford to operate a women's team and that it has been difficult for the club to generate brand recognition due to the pervasive presence of the AFL here.
On a positive note he pointed out that the club has the second highest revenue growth in the A-League and that the club was in the process of trying to secure improved training facilities. He also took time to (rightly) praise the Yarraside, that passionate band of supporters who do a great job of covering for the lack of numbers in the stands at Heart games.
Didulica spoke of tapping into the history of the game, and the importance of players understanding their responsibility to the club and its community. He admitted that some of the players, most notably Curtis Good and Eli Babalj, are likely to leave sooner rather than later but backed Hearts football department to locate suitable replacements, and to find the right attacking options to solve the goalscoring problems at the club.
The hard truth is that whilst the club is growing (slowly), it's still a long way short of everyones hopes and predictions. They may have the second fastest growing revenue, but when you start from a low point it's not hard to make huge percentage increases. They may back themselves to find the new forwards, but the men doing this work are the same guys who failed to find the right mix in the last two years... Actually, the group is less experienced having lost John van't Schip and Ante Milicic.
With Didulica talking of history and community, and Munn raising concerns about the club's training facilities, it was interesting to cast one's mind back to the criminally ignored Southern Cross bid, which carried both history and excellent facilities with it. The truth is that for all the big talk, Heart is still struggling to create a distinct identity. Next season, when Postecoglou has Victory playing an up tempo fast passing game, Heart will have lost another of their supposed differentiators. It will be very interesting to see what the club can do to move out of the shadows.