Firstly let me say, I am a first timer but I have watched from the sidelines for a long time.
I am a voting member of the Football Club.
Here are my observations
The majority of posters here are not representative of the views of the footy club. The footy club has about 1000 members of which, I estimate 50% are over 55 years old (based on looking around the room at the AGM’s).
Of those (say) 500, I estimate that maybe 10 look at this site.
So that’s 500 votes that aren’t swayed by public opinion here and are also staunchly loyal to maintaining the status quo, because once you’re over that certain age, you like things as they are.
In saying that, the moves a few years ago to oust Dib were probably warranted after his increase salary cap fiasco failed. I don’t think he can be blamed entirely because It appears Todd gave Des free rein.
I don’t think he was such a bad Chairman, just took a gamble and lost. I believe that he had the interests of the Club in mind.
Similarly, McIntyre gambled and lost. After the cap scandal, poor old Gary would get up at every AGM to try and explain what happened with Oasis. It got so tedious that Dr George would shut him down. He still carries on about it on Talkin Sport. He’s like the Keyser Trad of the Dogs....the go to guy for controversy.
George also I believe had the best interests in mind but also got caught up in the Des drama as well as the 3 year car park build at the League Club, but fled the scene pretty quickly when his tenure was up. Don’t know why.
So the Anderson’s got swept into power but had said at their forums that they believed there was cap dramas but they were unaware of the extent.
When they arrived, they made no bones advising that the drama was much worse than they believed ( without having access to the books), and stated that there were a number of backended contracts that needed to be sorted.
What did they do, moved on the world beater Mbye (who is still trying to find his best position), Reynolds and Woods. Soon after best friend Klemmer spat the dummy and left.
No loss any of them.
At the subsequent fan forums, they advised that they aligned with the Northern Rivers district and had invested heavily in the local leagues. But what is always forgotten or never mentioned, is that the local area is predominantly(?) relatively from a Middle Eastern or European background and league is a foreign sport. Your parents influence the game you play and league is probably not the no.1 sport of choice. Why we haven’t targeted the Pacific countries like everyone else is beyond me.
The NRL rules are that you must have 30 registered players with a total spend of $9.6M (forgive me if that number is wrong). Because of the salary cap issues, it seems we had to sign players who were cheap enough to keep us under that figure. Hence the bad results over the last few years.
It was claimed that improvement would not be seen until 2021.
So where are we now.
A board that has done some good things with some failures but re-elected just 7 months ago when they weren’t challenged. It cannot be challenged that the 9 pillars have not been met.
They have signed Cotric (who on his own will not make any difference), Green and Waddell. They have released 9 players so there are still 6 spots to go. Nov 1 is not far away.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not convinced on this board yet either and they have just a few weeks to do something really worthwhile. If they fail to get any decent players, then I think the current motion would get traction.
So we have the faceless who have weighed in. A few weeks ago they claimed to have had 400 signatures to force an EGM. Now that number is 116. Led by the famous YouTuber John K. Telling all and sundry that the minor sponsors are annoyed that the major sponsor wants a say in how well his sponsorship dollars get spent. In the same way that minor members are annoyed that the major players have the say in the running of the place. Doesn’t make sense. (Don’t start on the freebies, everyone knows that there will be payment dates on normal commercial terms and If Laundy wants to get his hands dirty what’s the problem).
Their platform has been...don’t know. Who are they wanting on the Board...don’t know. Who is behind the push...Don’t know.
Presumably Coorey is behind it after the revelations of his indiscretions were announced to the SMH. you can probably guess who was behind that revelation.
Since that original SMH article, the gloves have been off on both sides.
All the while this is damaging further the brand.
What is the motive?
Maybe it’s good old fashioned revenge.
Anyway that’s my take. I believe the membership will give the current lot until 2021 to get it right. I believe that the current motion will fail, mostly because they are offering no alternative.
I think that there will be significant signings after Nov 1 and when TB and his clan arrive things will calm down.
Maybe I’ve misread the room but there is certainly too many power plays going on and the media know exactly who to call. This latest article by the SMH proves that.
