Summary
* Yeah it is a tough time with what's going around Oz and we encourage everyone to donate to the floods. All we saying is members are the lifeblood of the club so we're asking for all Tiger fans to become a member as all funds go directly to the club.
* Excess = success in regards to footy dept. expenditure. Collingwood spends $2m more than Richmond and other sides. We are crippled by debt with $500k spent on debt repayments. That money could be used instead on improved facilites, staffing, development of coaches and players. We feel like we are hamdstrung. We fell like we need the capital investment in our footy dept. to go forward.
* We need our own reserves side. The future of our players needs to be in our hands. We need to be able to play say Griffs at CHF/CHB without worrying about the results. Our relationship is outstanding with Coburg but they are trying to win. We need to develop our players and we are probably robbing development to focus on results at the lower level.
* The poaching of players by GWS will affect more the younger players and the development sides like us and Melbourne. We need to be paying 100% of a salary cap now. Develop a war chest to be able to prepay our current players such as Martin when he is next up to renew his contract to lock them away and then have cash available to target players from other clubs like Judd when they do come out of contract (presuming he's talking about free agency)
* We felt we made a number of hard calls with our list over the last 2 years. We feel the time to strike is now with our good young list - Cotch, Martin, Lids, Jack, Conca, Edwards. We want them to give them the best chance to play in a successful side. Like any business venture you need to invest normally first before the dividends come. Rather than slowly waiting for the young guys to get better we need to strike now and invest now in our footy dept.
* Unfortunately we make compromises. Other clubs are also in the same boat. He wants to be able to look in the player eyes and say no stone has been left unturned. We're tried our best but right now due to lack of funds we constantly run into road blocks. We travel to Craigieburn, Bulleen, etc to train. All grounds need fixing; facilities upgrading which is happening. We need to stand up and take control of our own destiny.
* Is it going to be difficult (in response to Maher saying if we do nothing will it be extremely diffult to win premierships and hold onto our best players). Right now we are existing but we want to success. Asking supporters to become members but more importantly help win us a flag. We can see by increasing footy expenditure directly results into success. We need to get back on that train and invest in our footy dept. and give Cotch, Lids, etc the success they crave.
