INS AND OUTS

Mate, chill out, I appreciate your comment.

It's a tough time for the club right now & I'm just the same as you about the lack of success.

This has been a tough year. I was removed, have never been given a reason why, and after a short period of difficulty & counselling, I have offered support to the new Board several times and been knocked back every step of the way, even being blocked from sub-committees I'd been on for years. Disappointing by the new Board, IMO, but there you go.

Despite that, like most of us I'm a lifetime supporter, want Gavin and the players to do well and will always have red and black blood.

Right now, though, I've had more than my fill of football politics and false friends and just want to enjoy watching the Bloods and my offer to help still stands..

Thanks to those genuine friends and posters who have given me support.

Not sure I’m the one that needs to chill out but each to their own.

Time for you to just enjoy watching the game and move on.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing to get excited about for 2020.
Anyone who thinks we could be competitive with our current squad are kidding themselves.
We have two A grade players - Kaine Stevens and Tom Keough.
As it stands, the club have failed dismally in recruiting for 2020 given the amount of good players who have left the club during 2019.
Unless there are announcements soon, I think several members may decide not to get on board for 2020.

How do you "enjoy" watching the game, brodlach?

RODH2 wrote:How do you "enjoy" watching the game, brodlach?  

I sit in the outer, cold beer and relax watching the footy instead of worrying about other things

Admire your resilience, given we won a couple of games and finished bottom! I'd like a bit more from the West Adelaide Football Club, personally.........

Wolf Pack wrote:
Unless there are announcements soon, I think several members may decide not to get on board for 2020.

Well that would really help. That's just consigning the club to further misery. Criticise it and cajole it by all means, as I frequently do, but we must keep supporting it.

I have renewed my Membership and will always support the club.
There needs to be a review by the Incoming Football Director on why we haven’t been able to recruit quality players to the club.
Hopefully that review will identify what we need to do to get players to our club.

The way things are going we may need to put a Job description on SEEK
‘FOOTBALLERS REQUIRED TO JOIN WEST ADELAIDE’

aldo russian wrote:

Wolf Pack wrote:
Unless there are announcements soon, I think several members may decide not to get on board for 2020.

Well that would really help. That's just consigning the club to further misery. Criticise it and cajole it by all means, as I frequently do, but we must keep supporting it.

WE ARE HAEMORRAGING PLAYERS AND STAFF
WE HAVE  REGRESSED FINANCIALLY (according to Murray's address to members)
DESPITE HAVING A FULL SALARY CAP WE CAN’T RECRUIT PLAYERS TO THE CLUB
WE FINISHED BOTTOM THIS YEAR

The only thing missing to complete our demise would be for members not to renew their memberships, however how else can members register their disappointment. We've lost our voting rights and website link to the forum. The Facebook site is full of likes and smiley faces (and quite a bit of irrelevant fluff), but no meaningful discussions. Although members have been encouraged to contact Murray or Ben if they have any questions/concerns, this is unlikely to bring any more than reassurances/platitudes. As already mentioned in a previous post, when I complained about declining standards I was assured that the bistro/bar feedback had been all positive. Within a few weeks the chef and long serving staff have gone and I'm not sure about the Venue manager.
So, the club has failed miserably in two key areas this year, venue management and recruiting. I for one would like to read in Murray's monthly message to members:
1) What processes/changes will be implemented to ensure that the bar/bistro/gaming are areas run efficiently and profitably in the future
2) What changes will be made to ensure that our recruiting team are more successful in the future

Although I agree that the appointment of Derek Bonner, AFLW games at Richmond and the Hisense sponsorship deal will be good for the club, I'm still waiting to hear some good news regarding recruiting. We all want to look forward to the 2020 season, but realistically how can we at this stage. We easily finished bottom this year, we have lost about a third of our best 21 yet have only recruited two players currently regarded as league standard. This is extremely disappointing.

However, I agree with Aldo 100%, not renewing memberships is counterproductive. As loyal supporters we must support our club financially by buying memberships and patronising the bar/bistro. It is the board's role to make sure that these are positive experiences.

From a personal perspective the only upside to next year might be that our on field performances might exceed my expectations.

PS Can the board please upgrade the on-field PA system. This is a constant source of irritation to members, particularly when we are losing.

Sorry for going off topic here and not complaining about past and present boards.
But thought I’d go back to the topic heading. INS and OUTS
Couple interesting names popping up on the transfer website

Source:
South Australia National Football League (SANFL)

Destination:
Loxton

Player name: Pillion, Thomas

Result: Approved


Source:
South Australia National Football League (SANFL)

Destination:
Loxton

Player name: Evans, Jack

Result: Approved


Source:
South Australia National Football League (SANFL)

Destination:
Loxton

Player name: Evans, Lachlan

Result: Approved


Source:
South Australia National Football League (SANFL)

Destination:
Loxton

Player name: Gutsche, William

Result: Approved

Redblack32

Thanks for interesting information --- is Loxton their home league?

Oldfella
Cant say confidentially
But believe Gutsche maybe from Loxton. As for the other 3, not sure

brodlach wrote:Have people given the new board enough time? We are looking at about 8 months so surely no one thought it was only going to take 8 months to turn the club around? At least a decade of mismanagement is not going to be fixed overnight

The previous Board had members with varying lengths of service. As far as I recall, two members had only been on the Board for around 12 months or so. Were they given enough time? The person who had the longest amount of time on the Board, is still there until February 2020. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I don't recall seeing the position of Football Director being advertised this time last year. Why wasn't he put under the same scrutiny as everyone else for his performance? The whole process last December was "sus" as far as I am concerned.
As far as turning the club around, what does that mean? Surely, the club appeared to be on an upward trend according to last year's annual report? Are you suggesting that the Club's auditors are incompetent?

redblack32 wrote:Sorry for going off topic here and not complaining about past and present boards.
But thought I’d go back to the topic heading. INS and OUTS

You're forgiven.

Well said, Bruce Cameron. (The Venue Manager has departed also, FYI).

I agree with Aldo that at this time, we all need to support the club. However, a new Board that disregards so many long-standing members is risking their goodwill.

It's pertinent that the actual good news, which has been about sponsorship, has come from one Board member, Nick Karasoulas, who is a genuine West Adelaide person.

Brodlach, in a spirit of friendship, as a fellow Bloods' supporter, I'll soon reply to you about 'moving on', etc and why I post on here about what's happened. I think you'll agree that I know the inside story of the recent takeover, but I've refrained from going into any detail so as to not hurt the club.

There is only one outcome we all want and that is a successful and united Westies. We all love the club. It's now been taken over by business and outside influences and the dyed-in-the-wool West Adelaide people on the Board were removed, but we all need the current Board to succeed. There's no point to being a Bloods' supporter otherwise.

I'll give some more thoughts soon.

redblack32

Thank you, just surprised me that all are going to Loxton.

[quote="bruce cameron"]
WE ARE HAEMORRAGING PLAYERS AND STAFF
WE HAVE  REGRESSED FINANCIALLY (according to Murray's address to members)
DESPITE HAVING A FULL SALARY CAP WE CAN’T RECRUIT PLAYERS TO THE CLUB
WE FINISHED BOTTOM THIS YEAR...The only thing missing to complete our demise would be for members not to renew their memberships, however how else can members register their disappointment. We've lost our voting rights and website link to the forum...the club has failed miserably in two key areas this year, venue management and recruiting.



I agree Bruce.   Long-term West supporters will always wish the team well despite being "dumped on" by the Club's elite last year.  If the Club wants fans to renew their membership though they should give the members their rights back. It can't be that difficult - after all it proved surprisingly easy to remove the rights.  The Club has failed in venue management and public relations but most of all, it has failed on field.   Finishing bottom is the crowning failure for a once proud working-class Club.   I  hope that recruiting proves to be more fruitful than we fear.

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What has happened to all the others that used to post??? It seems to me the same old posters rehashing the same old what i done for the CLUB STUFF.

Umm, they have probably drifted away, bundy........... #surprise

Sorry for double post, computer glitch.........

I can't understand why most here are blaming the current board for poor recruiting or finishing bottom last year. How many other wooden spoons have we won with the previous boards? Quite a few.
When was the last time we recruited well?. All being a reduced salary cap the last few years.
We went top in 2015, who did we recruit that year? The only players i can think of is Travis Tuck and Ryley Milne, but i think we got Tuck the year before. The rest of the 2015 side were almost Westies boys who came through the junior ranks or returned from the AFL. Porplycia, Schmidt and Helbig.
As far as the restaurant / venue goes, it's always been changing hands and has always been handled poorly.  
That has to be sorted out which i agree with most on that subject. Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't recruiting  done mostly by the the fooball committee and coaches and not the board?

I'm still here.
Interested reading on the woe's of the football club.
It all points to one thing on field performance or lack there of.
The game (in club land) is simple - WIN games, Win some more games and the rest of the noise goes away. The club makes money, the supporters are happy and world peace is restored.

Infighting is no good for anyone and just sends us into more infighting.

All we can do is continue to support the club as we always have and now trust the people that some smarter people than I have put in charge and hopefully watch the club grow and be successful once again.

We finished bottom this season, financially we will apparently see a reversal from what was a significantly improving situation, morale at the Club is as low as it's been, and we have an "appointed" Board, with poor communication to the Members. I must be missing something.......

Yep you are missing something like all of us......wins!


Great post Whispy, someone else who “gets it”

Well, we actually recruited well last year, according to everyone at the time, with a restricted cap. Willsmore, Snelling, Levicki, etc.

Unfortunately we lost Snelling and Noble mid-season, which didn't help. IMO, our on-field woes are due to having a restricted cap over the last few years. It effectively meant we were about 5 good players short over 3 years, compared to other clubs.

I thought we might have recruited Richard Douglas, but how difficult is it when not only do we get beaten with a good offer, but Port AFL get beaten also, by Norwood, who had just beaten us to Rokahr and Bastinac.

We've identified and spoken to just about every player who has been recruited to the SANFL this year. It's tough, for whatever reason.

It's likely we'll lose Dunkin to the rookie draft as well.

As others have said, we all need to get on board to support the club, as most of us have done all our lives. That is still consistent with our right to have a say, but that should be done with respect.