Richmond CEO Brendon Gale says club is a collective failure * Alistair Paton
* From: Herald Sun
* March 10, 2010 12:33PMRICHMOND CEO Brendon Gale today said the club had been a "collective failure" for the past 30 years.
This season marks three decades since Richmond's last premiership in 1980.
The Tigers have made the finals just twice since their last Grand Final appearance in 1982, and have endured nine years of pain since tasting September action most recently in 2001.
"I think it’s fair to say, as much as I hate to say it, for the last 30 years we’ve been a collective failure as a club," Gale said on SEN radio.
"I put up my hand, and a lot of other people are willing to put up their hands.
"We’ve had a lot of wonderful contributors, we’ve been successful in a range of measures, but not in the measure that matters most, and that’s premiership success."
The Tigers today unveiled their blueprint for success on and off the field.
Titled "Winning together", the plan aims to deliver the club's 11th premiership and has set ambitious goals of three finals appearances, including one top-four finish, zero debt and 75,000 members by 2014.
Gale said the plan had been four months in preparation and was posted on the club's website today after being revealed to the "entire club" in the Punt Rd gym last week - "board, staff, players, football operations staff, volunteers … we’re talking probably 150 people".
He said the targets were ambitious but not unrealistic.
"An enormous amount of work has gone into it ... it’s not just rhetoric," Gale said.
He said the club had more than 40,000 members when non-ticketed members were taken into account, and 100,000 lapsed members over the past decade.
"When you factor in all those things we don’t think 75,000 members is fanciful."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/tigers-ceo-brendon-gale-says-club-is-a-collective-failure/story-e6frf9io-1225839122540