Sign of the times? Where’s the Hawks banner?

Subiaco-based iiNet is a major sponsor of the Hawthorn Football Club with its HQ almost next door to where the Hawks meet West Coast Eagles tonight, yet we haven’t seen the same kind of enthusiasm for their team as we have from other local corporate backers – so we thought we'd help them.

The picture above is how they could have done things, like Fremantle Dockers major sponsor Woodside Petroleum has with its huge Go Freo sign and, for the first time this week, BHP Billiton followed suit with Go Eagles atop its Perth office tower.

Of course, it's possible iiNet has been distracted by other things this week, such as the reality of David Teoh-led TPG Telecom’s successful takeover which has started to impact this past fortnight, letting go key management and telling staff that the ‘country club’ atmosphere has to end.

Under those conditions who wants to be the person who wasted precious company time putting up the sign?

And maybe it doesn’t matter anyway. Surely iiNet backed the Hawks as part of its strategy to grow business outside of Western Australia where the club’s following is dwarfed by the two home town giants?

Few Hawthorn supporters are going to stumble to the western end of Hay Street before or after tonight’s final; let’s face it, the crowd will mainly be Eagles fans and iiNet’s office is only near a couple of the most distant bars from Domain Stadium.

So maybe no-one will notice?