Carlton premiership player Anthony Koutoufides has spoken about the moment the culture at his old club “changed overnight”.
Kouta told FIVEAA during an episode of Conversations with Cornesy about the moment long-time president John Elliott was dumped as president.
“Unfortunately Ian Collins came along and he’s told the board members don’t even talk to the players, just stand there and have a look — I felt like I was in a zoo. The culture just changed overnight.
“It’s sad to say.
“I walked in when I was 14, so in my head here I know exactly what the footy club’s all about…
“When it comes to the culture you can’t play with that. I think the three or four decades that the club created that culture was almost gone overnight.
“It was very tough for me to handle… As I started to get that little bit older all I wanted to do was play finals footy like we did for the decade I was there before that.”
Kouta said complaining about the 2002 penalties for breaching the salary cap was “unbelievable”.
“For two players — then we’ve got something wrong then at the club.
“If we’re going to, 15 years later, complain about two players that we didn’t get back then… if we’re not strong enough to recover from that then there’s an issue down there in my opinion.
“Essendon have gone through a drug saga that went on for three years and have a look at them: almost made finals footy this year.
“I think any management would be able to recover in a year or two or three if the management was right, in my opinion.
“We’ve got to look at some of the decisions we’ve made and some of the players we’ve let go and why they’ve become starts at other clubs.”
LISTEN to Kouta’s full Conversations with Cornesy episode here:
