Unhappy supporters, there are other ways to voice your disappointment

[Moi]

Most of you love the Richmond Football Club – your passion is very evident.
But some of you also would prefer to see the club not survive for your own personal vanity.

Would you come out and publicly trash your family on a web site because you had a disagreement with one of them? Well, for most of us, the RFC is part of our family and we wouldn’t dream of trashing it.

I’m not saying you can’t have a personal opinion which might be not to my or someone else’s liking.
But when you deliberately try and undermine for your own personal conniving self-satisfaction or some kind of payback, is a different thing IMO.

The club has a pretty good democratic system where at the end of the year, you can vote off three? board members.  It’s where every member gets to have a say on how they feel the club is going, who they want to see the end of, etc.  It’s a good system, try it.

You can also contact the club if you feel so aggrieved.  You’re a member, you’re entitled to demand better if that’s how you see it.  If you see untoward practices at the club, by all means write to them. If you get no satisfaction, vote them off.

But to come on a public message board and say you luv the club but continually trash it, knowing you have a very good readership hanging on your every word, well you’re not a supporter to me, you’re a parasite.

Just my opinion!

[Ramps]

I agree that whats happened lately is over the top and not necessary. If people feel they are in possession of information then good for them, lets all just get on with the season now. Its gonna be a hard long season and everyone should probably start looking to find ways to get through it. As for me, Im taking great interest in Coburg and our young players. Lets get to the end of 2007 and Roll on 2008!

[julzqld]

Well said.

[letsgetiton!]

family is family , nothing comes close or equal too it

football is a passion  sport hobby and investment

we invest our heart solus and money in the club thus can be upset and publically go ape droppings. imo to compare it to family is ridiculous

your love for your family is so different for your love for ur club and is someone in your family was puttuing your name to shame you would deal with it differently

but when it comes to footy, footy is like an escape for many ppl. and we have every right to bag them if they are doing everyting totally wrong

just my opinion

maybe all the players and staff shoudl really read these forums to see how much they really hurt the most important ppl in footy, not th eclub, not the players. but us loyal fans
just my opinion

[Stephanie]

Well said.

x 2 

[Tigermonk]

Good post X
l'm with you family is different. l dont class following a football club family or talking to supporters supporting something the same as me family thats going beyond values
RFC is a buisness they ask us to support them & we do to keep them trading
We support them in buying memberships sometimes as many as 2 or 3 per family & we buy merchandise & memrobilla & at the gates
if your gunna deliver crap on the field you get crap back dumped at the door
there is no excuse in pumping supporters up every year for the supporters to see the same style of football from 5 years previous & l aint gunna support that type of football anymore until l myself see a different style out on the ground l aint watching RFC no more this year why cant they produce AFL football like the other clubs
l know we have some big name players injured but that dont cut it other teams like St-Kilda & Brisbane & Adelaide have bigger problems than us year after year l dont see them struggling because they dont play the same style football as us CHIP CHIP SIDEWAYS FOOTBALL.
We were told when TW come to the club that we be going direct to goals & kick more goals. well HELLO we cant get over 15 per week simply because we are still turning the ball over under no preasure at all & take too long to get it up there by chip chip sideways football that the defenders flood us poor Richo l love the guy you dont see how hard he works by sitting at home watching on TV you got to go see live how hard he works 75% of the time his sprinting free he has run 40 metres with no man then doubles back 40 metres to be picked up by 3 players which 2 have had time to run back down the centre to help out the defenders to create the flood      well coached Terry Wallace you not sucking me in anymore with your promises & same goes to you Miller & March us supporters got told by the same before you's arrived on the doorstep our style was gunna change well l'm getting old produce the goods or lose my support

l dont like saying this but l will
l like to see Richo go to another team that delivers to there full-forwards like Brisbane
l bet you see a real champion emerge & a different body language from Richo he kick 100 goals & deserve it than waiting for bozo's down the fields playing keeping's off

Oh Moi l respect your post & support it as well but if the supporters must be able to speak out to stop the rot

[julzqld]

Richo will not go to another club.  He will spend his days at Richmond.  Besides at 32 he would be considered too old.

[letsgetiton!]

not being disrespectful, but if richo played in the current coburg team, he woudl kick 150goals easy

says alot about how richmond play and deliver the ball fwd

btw what happened to terry wallaces we are going to kick 16 goasl a game bs

even with brown out, we have richo  jay cleve (soon jaxck) petts blingers etc in teh fwd line

surely with a decent game plan our team could kick 16 a game

terry wallace you have failed

[Tigermonk]

Richo will not go to another club.  He will spend his days at Richmond.  Besides at 32 he would be considered too old.

l know Richo very well & know he will never leave the club he has told me this himself
l was just saying l would like to see it to show to the footy community how good he really is as his frustrated & his body language would be alot healther at having players kick long to him, his very strong on top many backliners struggle to beat him most times you will see he is held / jumper grabbed / chopped arms / shepparded from leading or simply blocked when the ball arrives the umpires dont support great players unless your Judd
Clubs would line up to get 4 years service from him he will play till his 36 with his fitness & no wonder his kicking is off when you got Jade Rawling down there fair dinkum he was the worst kick at Hawthorn  
Richo covers more ground than some of our onballers because they only move the ball 10-20 metres at a time & going sideways & backwards thats why Richo comes down the ground so often thats why they move him to get him into the play his too good to be a scarecrow waiting for bozos down the ground and a lost the plot coaching staff to instruct to move the ball long & quick if we have so much trouble comming out of the backline then simple solution is bulk up another kid with muscle like Hughes to play CHF never moving him & breed him cause you can't buy a Wayne Carey, or Johnathan Brown, off the shelf & we all know Hughes can take a good grab & can kick the ball 60 metres so why cant we play & kick goals from CHF like all the other clubs most the time they go long over FF/FB

[Tigermonk]

haha X l see you got the super pussy Tivendale out again
l aint seen you with that one for a few years   

[julzqld]

Tigermonk I think you've just become my new best friend.

[DallasCrane]

The club has a pretty good democratic system where at the end of the year, you can vote off three? board members.  It’s where every member gets to have a say on how they feel the club is going, who they want to see the end of, etc.  It’s a good system, try it.

I agree with the thrust of what you are saying Moi but this isn't the same as getting elected to your local council or as President of your local footy club.

It's not that democratic, usually the board anoints who 'they' want as its successors and try to get them on the board.
Also it's not that democratic in the sense that if anyone wants to challenge the board via an AGM, aka the Pahoff challenge, which under the rules is a democratic right of every member, they get abused by all and sundry, not just these forums but the club pressures them to back off.
I can't think of any member-driven revolt that has resulted in any sort of meaningful change to an AFL club.

[Moi]

Oh Moi l respect your post & support it as well but if the supporters must be able to speak out to stop the rot

That's exactly what I was encouraging - talk to the club.
It's the lunacy on messageboards which makes weak clubs (like ours) do stupid things.  I wasn't talking about not being able to voice your opinions.  I was talking more about the propaganda machine of late and the damage that's doing.  Wallace getting the sack, Miller gone, hints of Sheedy coming back (give us a break, why would you want him after the poo he's given us over the years?) The only time he'd want to come back to us is when he's no longer wanted at the Bombers.  I'm sure that'll stir the masses    Can't compare the two as coaches, but don't think Sheedy would get this mob up before 2011 any better than what Wallace is doing.  So why?  I just can't fathom the thinking on that.

maybe all the players and staff shoudl really read these forums to see how much they really hurt the most important ppl in footy, not th eclub, not the players. but us loyal fans
just my opinion

Loyal fans?  Show me the loyalty 
Read these forums?  You kidding?  After you wish players to commit suicide 

I can't think of any member-driven revolt that has resulted in any sort of meaningful change to an AFL club.

I can't think of any message board revolt that has created good results for the club either.  A board election is hardly a revolt, it happens every year.  Whether candidates nominate is a different matter.  I think you're talking about the situation a couple of years ago - hopefully we never get to that stage again - and the process of annual elections will get the right people on the board.

We ask the players to be tough, but we all go to jelly in a heartbeat.  A bit of hypocrisy there I reckon.

And the RFC is part of my family whether it's yours or not - maybe not my nearest and dearest lol, but been in my life since 1965.  It's also one of the first things I think of when I wake up, when I go to sleep, during the day, 24/7, 365.  So it's important to me, and not just me, but 30,000 other people.  It's not just about a couple of individuals creating havoc behind the scenes for their own selfish reasons.  That's why elections are good, you get what the people genuinely want.