Punt Road Oval redevelopment a priority rather than a stand-alone VFL side (Age)

[taztiger4]

If we can't afford it we can't afford it but how long has Gary March been Pres/V.P and we are still on the bones of our behind.

The lack of effort put into this before this year is the issue, I think.

why dont we talk about since hes been president and actually had control.
seems to me a lot of posters want to repeat the leon daphne mistake all over. seems to me march has done many many good things for the club and yes along the way hes made his fair share of stuff ups.5.5 mil in debt and growing when march took over. it has gone down marginally. we had one man doing recruiting list management and running the footy dept. we had to get in part time recruiters to he;lp out. we had the worst facilities in the league we had few assitant coaches or develoment coaches. the list goes on and on and under march we have improved all those things and more while actually reducing the debt.yes he could have done things better and he could have made less mistakes but in the main hes done okay.i dont mind mistakes personally, i just dont want to see them repeated as long as those in charge learn from their mistakes and improve in the role they do im happy to have em.

to me there is one position twhere mistakes cant be tolerated and that is in recruiting. i dont have a problem with march but do have grave concerns about jackson and cameron.

Well done Claw, thats 2 positive threads you have started recently, are you really Claw !!!

[cub]

We have a mighty big hole to dig our sorry rses out of, hope we get there.

[Penelope]

If we can't afford it we can't afford it but how long has Gary March been Pres/V.P and we are still on the bones of our behind.

The lack of effort put into this before this year is the issue, I think.

why dont we talk about since hes been president and actually had control.
seems to me a lot of posters want to repeat the leon daphne mistake all over. seems to me march has done many many good things for the club and yes along the way hes made his fair share of stuff ups.5.5 mil in debt and growing when march took over. it has gone down marginally. we had one man doing recruiting list management and running the footy dept. we had to get in part time recruiters to he;lp out. we had the worst facilities in the league we had few assitant coaches or develoment coaches. the list goes on and on and under march we have improved all those things and more while actually reducing the debt.yes he could have done things better and he could have made less mistakes but in the main hes done okay.i dont mind mistakes personally, i just dont want to see them repeated as long as those in charge learn from their mistakes and improve in the role they do im happy to have em.

to me there is one position twhere mistakes cant be tolerated and that is in recruiting. i dont have a problem with march but do have grave concerns about jackson and cameron.

Well done Claw, thats 2 positive threads you have started recently, are you really Claw !!!

No...not the craw.....the craw

[bojangles17]

I support this, Im not convinced having a standlaone VFL team would make a scrap of difference

[the claw]

If we can't afford it we can't afford it but how long has Gary March been Pres/V.P and we are still on the bones of our behind.

The lack of effort put into this before this year is the issue, I think.

why dont we talk about since hes been president and actually had control.
seems to me a lot of posters want to repeat the leon daphne mistake all over. seems to me march has done many many good things for the club and yes along the way hes made his fair share of stuff ups.5.5 mil in debt and growing when march took over. it has gone down marginally. we had one man doing recruiting list management and running the footy dept. we had to get in part time recruiters to he;lp out. we had the worst facilities in the league we had few assitant coaches or develoment coaches. the list goes on and on and under march we have improved all those things and more while actually reducing the debt.yes he could have done things better and he could have made less mistakes but in the main hes done okay.i dont mind mistakes personally, i just dont want to see them repeated as long as those in charge learn from their mistakes and improve in the role they do im happy to have em.

to me there is one position twhere mistakes cant be tolerated and that is in recruiting. i dont have a problem with march but do have grave concerns about jackson and cameron.

Well done Claw, thats 2 positive threads you have started recently, are you really Claw !!!

ive not really said anything different to what ive always said.  what gets me into most trouble is my appraisal of our players that wont change either.

charlatans like clinton casey and the ineptness of beck the conning of miller ive railed against in the past. was critical of wallace but believe it or not i never really got into him too much plenty others were saying their piece on that front. its things like prioritising recruiting the way we use the rookie draft the lack of a rookie list the debt going up and up every yr these are things i have long yelled about.
the thing is i see march not as a failure  but someone who has improved many of these things since he was in charge, and yes imo there are some things he could have done better and somethings he has just plain got wrong. as i said when he gets things wrong i can live with it as long as it doesnt send us down the gurgler and he learns from it.

[yellowandback]

We are not raising $6 m unless there is a white knight waiting for something? Anything?

It looks more like we will raise $3m or low $3 m.

So I would question whether we are even capable of ever having a stand alone reserves side.

I'm agreeing with flagman , I'm frankly a bit tired of the broken promises and people like Gary march and Craig Cameron getting year after year of delivering mediocrity.

You reap what you sow.

[bojangles17]

my understanding is the big end of town was waiting for the masses to do all they can before they close the gap once the last curtain is drawn

[WilliamPowell]

We are not raising $6 m unless there is a white knight waiting for something? Anything?

It looks more like we will raise $3m or low $3 m.

So I would question whether we are even capable of ever having a stand alone reserves side.

I'm agreeing with flagman , I'm frankly a bit tired of the broken promises and people like Gary march and Craig Cameron getting year after year of delivering mediocrity.

You reap what you sow.

I agree about the FTF right now I don't think we will get the $6mil. I reckon we will get around $4-$4.2mil.

I was always of the belief that a stand alone VFL side in 2012 was always along shot unless the FTF was at $4mil right now. After the gala when we only raised $2.4 I thought it was going to be tough. 

Now that the AFL have changed the rules regarding stand alone teams then I am not sure exactly what people expect the CLub to do? Put into place something they cannot afford simple to appease people?

Having said that I think we will eventually have our own stand alone VFL team but I think (rightly) it needs to be done once the debt is gone and other more important areas in the footy dept are addressed.

Absolutely no point in having a VFL side if you cannot afford to maintain long term.

Regarding suppposed broken promises from people Gary March. I am not quite sure where exactly have they broken their word on a stand alone VFL side.

I've said numerous times it was made very clear when the FTF was launched that there were a number of things they wanted to do, they explained why the figure they were after was $6mil. At the gala dinner they gave numerous scenarios of what they would do based on the different levels of funds raised. So how have they broken thier word?

It seems to me that alot of people have seen the words "stand alone VFL team" and thought that's going to happen. There was no fine print it was clear from day of the FTF what needed to happen. Bottom line is it will happen when we have the funds to run it long term.   

[The Big Richo]

Can someone explain to me why it costs so much more to be stand alone?

I wouldn't have thought Coburg would have 2 sticks to rub together and I would have imagined we pay most of the costs currently anyway?

TBR Geelong said a few years ago it cost them around $400k-$500k to run their VFL side

First thing is the licence fee for AFL teams fielding their own VFL team, Caro said in the article that it is currently around $130k and likely to rise. VFL teams pay considerable (read a lot) less than this.

The other costs involved include carrying the minimum number of VFL only listed payers (I think it is at least 8-10) outside of the normal AFL list. Then there is the extra staff for match day (eg trainers, doctors, physios) that are required. that's just a few things off the top of my head

Also, would argue strongly that financially Coburg are pretty strong now, their balance sheet certainly shows that, cash in the bank for example. Granted Richmond would contribute but I don't think it would be most of their costs

Thanks WP. 

[yellowandback]

Absolutely no point in having a VFL side if you cannot afford to maintain long term.

Regarding suppposed broken promises from people Gary March. I am not quite sure where exactly have they broken their word on a stand alone VFL side.

I've said numerous times it was made very clear when the FTF was launched that there were a number of things they wanted to do, they explained why the figure they were after was $6mil. At the gala dinner they gave numerous scenarios of what they would do based on the different levels of funds raised. So how have they broken thier word?

It is probably less about broken promises than our club being enablers of below average management talent.
FFS, Gary March has been on the board how long?
A LEADER sees into the future, compares it to the current position and enables the future through a vision, a plan, a roadmap whatever you want to call it.
Like Benny Gales now doing.

March has sat on his hands before riding on the coattails of Bennys vision.

I know he employed him but why couldn't he have articulated this vision when he came on - even as President.
We might now have a stand alone team in the 2's.
We might have established a recruiting infrastructure that delivered a better draft record that we now have.

Its just effing sad.
W

[tony_montana]

STRIPES its been 30 years buddy. We dont have time. Time is of the essence. Its running out. A 50 year old 30 years ago is now 80 years old. Im 41 in 30 years Ill be 71. Stuff patience. We want action NOW! We want our reserves side NOW! Its time RFC admin went hard at achieving their goals NOW or they should go home!

Flagman: the FTF was step up for a reason, to firstly get rid of the debt and then create a 'war chest" of money for us to compete in areas (eg recruiting, player development, VFL team etc) where other clubs are ahead of us.

It was made very clear that to achieve all those things on the list they needed $6mil. We currently have $2.8mil half way through a 12 month campaign to raise the grand total. They also made it clear what the priorities would be based on how much they raise.

On top of that the AFL have obviously clearly changed the rules regarding stand alone VFL sides by saying that what ever you decide for 2012 you are locked into until the end of 2014.

So if you want VFL reserves side; what out of all the other things the Club's listed as wanting to do based on how much is raised by the FTF do they not do so they field a VFL side? 

Perhaps they not worry about paying any debt off and just keep paying $500k interest? Perhaps we continue to pay on 92.5% of the salary cap rather than paying 100%? Perhaps we don't worry about extra resoucres for recruiting or sports science and fitenss?

Bottom line is with out the $$$$ you cannot have/do everything, things need to be prioritised, that's what they've done.

If you honestly believe the stand alone VFL team is the most pressing issue they need to address then that is fair enough but then you cannot complain if the debt doesn't go or there isn't enough recruiting resources etc

wasnt it after the first 2mill we put 1 mill on the debt and 1 mill on the resurfacing

at 4mill we put another mill on debt and the other mill goes towards setting up a standalone VFL side?

 and then if we got 6 mill another mill to debt and the remaining mill in the warchest?

so at the end of it we wouldnt even pay off our debt of 4.5mill? lol

[WilliamPowell]

wasnt it after the first 2mill we put 1 mill on the debt and 1 mill on the resurfacing

at 4mill we put another mill on debt and the other mill goes towards setting up a standalone VFL side?

 and then if we got 6 mill another mill to debt and the remaining mill in the warchest?

so at the end of it we wouldnt even pay off our debt of 4.5mill? lol

Yeah it goes something like that. Although for memory they said at the FTF that paying 100% of the salary cap was before the VFL side of things

But the point is we pay $500k on our current debt reduce it by half or 2/3rds and you half the interest bill which automaticall frees up regular budgeted income to poured back into footy

But

[Mr Magic]

They've tried to raise the funds but fallen short. Very disappointing.

The rich clubs have an ever increasing advantage.

[JVT]

They've tried to raise the funds but fallen short. Very disappointing.

The rich clubs have an ever increasing advantage.

Still plenty of time to go, we are only 6 months through and have raised nearly half the amount we want. As far as I am aware there should be more events coming up to try bring us to the $6mil.

[WilliamPowell]

They've tried to raise the funds but fallen short. Very disappointing.

The rich clubs have an ever increasing advantage.

Still plenty of time to go, we are only 6 months through and have raised nearly half the amount we want. As far as I am aware there should be more events coming up to try bring us to the $6mil.

Correct still more things planned between now and Feb 2012 when it ends