WHEN Andrew Fagan was appointed CEO of the Adelaide Crows last September, he entered a football club that was losing sight of its identity.
The glory days of the late '90s and the success of the mid 2000s were fading from memory; the club was internally divided on its values and core beliefs.
Adelaide not Crowing, says club's new CEO
The previous two years had seen poor on-field results, reflecting the off-field chaos in the wake of the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal.
Speaking to AFL.com.au, Fagan said the club had set itself on a dangerous path.
His aim of taking Adelaide "from good to great" involves far more than subtle tweaks – the Crows need to reinvent themselves.
"The Adelaide Football Club probably stood for a number of things depending on who it was making the observation," Fagan said.
"As a fresh set of eyes coming into the footy club, one of the comments I made internally was that unless we were all on the same page I didn't think we could expect our supporters to be.
"It was time to just draw a line in the sand and redefine how we wish to act as a footy club and where we wish to take the footy club.
"There's been some controversy, there was a period of time when the CEO wasn’t in the seat, there's been some significant change in personnel, there's been some underperformance on the field, which just increases the pressure on the club.
"In that environment it's probably not unusual for some of the direction or identity to be not as strongly delivered as you would otherwise have liked.
"It's significant enough for me to think it needed a reboot, so that's what I've been driving."
Key to Fagan's redefining of the Adelaide Football Club will be the listening to the views of those from the outside.
Since his arrival he has enlisted the services of external agencies to cast an objective eye over the entire club, he's listened to his staff and the club's members have also been asked to put forward their views.
Phil Walsh was brought in from Port Adelaide as senior coach and dual premiership captain turned assistant coach Mark Bickley was replaced by former Sydney Swans and Carlton stars Ryan O'Keefe and David Teague.
Other than Fagan's own appointment, the off-field change has been highlighted by the luring of Adelaide-born Daniel Johnson from English Premier League giant Arsenal as general manager of commercial.
Fagan doesn't see the future of Adelaide resting solely with those tied to its past; he wants his club to be challenged by fresh and sometimes uncomfortable opinions.
"It's sometimes hard to reinvent yourself if you've been anywhere for too long and, not wanting to sound clichéd, but you can get to the point where you can't see the forest for the trees," he said.
"Change is tough, change is challenging, it can be difficult, it can be culturally challenging, but it's a lot easier when someone comes in new and isn't tied to previous decisions."
The Crows are expected to reveal a redefined vision and set of valuesearly in the 2015 season.
Core to the adjustments will be Fagan's desire to run what he called an "authentic" football club.
"It's about being willing to put your hand up when you make a mistake, it's about speaking as directly as you can to address issues, and as clubs, given the scrutiny we're under, sometimes we find it difficult to do that and we can become defensive," he said.
"That's not what we're going to do because we want to have the courage to be innovative and drive things, and I speak in the office about the courage to throw 10 darts knowing that seven might land and three might miss.
"But we'll put our hand up when those three miss and say, 'We were trying'."
