President's Message

2 mins ago

President’s Message to Members and Supporters – October 2020

As I write this message we are at the start of the finals season for footy. It is so disappointing for our Club not to be competing in finals at any level this year, and I know how much this hurts everyone involved. The hard work that has been done across all sections of the Club seems to have gone unrewarded, particularly in the on-field results. It’s been a year of disruption, uncertainty and dissatisfaction and I completely understand the impact this has had on players, coaches, employees, volunteers, members, supporters, sponsors and the whole Westies community


The Board of Directors, along with the CEO and Club Management, want to assure you that we are not taking our lack of on-field success lightly. We understand that our player recruiting will be critical over the next few months and that it is imperative that we retain players too. Much is being done by our Football Director to ensure that full support is being given to everyone involved in recruiting and player management. I must commend our playing group this year for their high level of effort and engagement, despite suffering from the inevitable fatigue that sets in when the win/loss ratio is not in our favour. I’m sure that our fabulous win in the final round at The Parade, however, will give players a great springboard as they start preparing for next season. Stay tuned for further footy updates over the coming weeks as we work towards a stronger 2021.

I must also say an enormous “thankyou” to Club members and supporters who have stuck with us throughout the whole year and beyond. I understand how difficult it is to remain positive during the hard times. It takes character and belief to stay the course. Westies people have always had a deep loyalty to our Club and this is what will ultimately underpin the positive results that will eventuate. I want you to know that the Board and the CEO appreciate all the support that you give the Club and that we are working as hard as possible to create the outcomes that we are after. I particularly want to acknowledge all those who made donations to our “Keep The Pack Running” campaign which raised in excess of $33,000 for the Club. It is wonderful to see the generosity of spirit that this represents.

It’s important that I let you know about the financial position of the Club at this time. You’ll recall that the Finance Director published an update back in July in which he reported that the Club was in a good position, despite the problems caused by the COVID-19 shutdown. Since then, we have continued to trade well and I’m confident that we will report a strong profit for the financial year ending 31st October 2020. Our balance sheet is the strongest it’s been for many years with amounts owing to creditors being the lowest I can recall and certainly well within trading terms. This puts us in a position where we can invest more in footy in the months ahead. Next financial year will continue to be a challenge however, and the Club will still rely heavily on improving its revenue streams to fund more footy investment. The Board recognises that on-field results must improve if we are to gain more revenue. It’s also worth noting that, at the time of writing, the amount of player salary cap across all SANFL clubs has not yet been set by the Commission. However, we are budgeting to take advantage of the full amount available once the salary cap is announced for next year.

I encourage all members to visit our website regularly. It’s our main method of keeping you informed. You’ll notice that it now displays the number of active members following a suggestion made at the Annual General Meeting this year. It’s pleasing to note that we have more members now than at the same time last year. We need to keep member numbers growing, so I encourage all of you to talk to friends and family and ask them to get on board. By the way, keep an eye out for notice of our upcoming member forum and start preparing your questions for the Board – more details to be announced soon.

Go Bloods.

Murray Forbes

President


Good to see a message at last.

Perhaps Murray could answer some questions to 'flesh out' the message:

Good that we are 'trading well', but is that due to increased turnover, or Government support.  How much is due to Jobkeeper and Government assistance?  It seems to me that we will be receiving very large Jobkeeper amounts and our wages bill will therefore be vastly lower than normal.  Can Murray advise how Covid has affected our gaming, bar and bistro turnover, and where are the improved results coming from, please?

The Board took away the link for this site and asked us to post on the Club's Facebook instead.  On that forum, none here can start a topic and can only respond to what the Club posts.  Given that many of the people who Murray rightly recognises as donating are regulars on this site and all are passionate supporters, will the Club reinstate the forum link as a sign of good faith? Separating it indicates an 'us or them' attitude which I'm sure isn't meant.

Our financial result for the year should be abnormally healthy with Jobkeeper and a huge under-spend on salary cap this year.

Go the Bloods.

(And remember, my book launch is on Friday 6th November at the Club at 6pm.  Hope everyone enjoys a great read.)

Slight correction if I may, the President points only to the club website which Member can ask confidential questions and get similar confidential (????) responses when it works. Reference "Facebook" Member can post comments by clicking the "post" button and the club does appear to respond. ---- I fully endorse your comments reference linking this Fan Chat Group Site!

A key comment that all should note/prepare questions & attend is quote "By the way, keep an eye out for notice of our upcoming member forum and start preparing your questions for the Board – more details to be announced soon."

DO NOT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY SLIP BY PLEASE ATTEND AND PARTICIPATE!
Any one interstate or rural that has questions send them to me and I am happy to present them.

I look forward to the Member Forum, it's been a long time since the last one, so that's good.

Lee,
only disappointment I had was so few took the opportunity to attend the last Members Forum I hope all Members strongly try to attend and participate.

To be fair, I did think at the last Members Forum the President did take all questions and try to answer openly but each may have a different opinion.

I was disappointed that at that Forum, Murray asked members to volunteer to serve on sub-committees, then rejected approaches that were made to do so.

I hope there's a different attitude next time.

That message makes the right noises but tells us nothing. Tell us how the Board is working hard. Tell us what they're doing. Tell us what, if anything, is being done to arrest the club-wide lack of talent, apart from recruiting for senior level.
If I was a Board member I'd be asking a lot of questions of everyone in the football department across all grades, because 7 wooden spoons in the last 16 seasons begs for some urgent and substantial action.

My thoughts exactly Aldo.

All boards are the same, need to know basis

How many know why Andrews is gone from Central after being appointed for three years after only coaching one?

Let Colville and the new recruitment team at least have the opportunity at an off season recruitment drive, they are yet to have one

brodlach wrote:All boards are the same, need to know basis

How many know why Andrews is gone from Central after being appointed for three years after only coaching one?

Let Colville and the new recruitment team at least have the opportunity at an off season recruitment drive, they are yet to have one

Very good comment IMO --- added to clarify I meant this specifically "Let Colville and the new recruitment team at least have the opportunity at an off season recruitment drive, they are yet to have one"

All Boards may be the same, (I doubt it) but communication, on field performance, and the Club itself seems poorly served by THIS Board since it's ,err, inception. One opinion.

brodlach wrote:All boards are the same, need to know basis

How many know why Andrews is gone from Central after being appointed for three years after only coaching one?

Let Colville and the new recruitment team at least have the opportunity at an off season recruitment drive, they are yet to have one

The reasons for a coach being sacked could be highly confidential or personal. I'm talking about what the Board is doing on a day to day basis to address the club's shortcomings. And recruiting at a senior level has little to do with the majority of the Board.

All due respect ROD02 no matter what this board does your views will be skewed in one direction

aldo russian wrote:

brodlach wrote:All boards are the same, need to know basis

How many know why Andrews is gone from Central after being appointed for three years after only coaching one?

Let Colville and the new recruitment team at least have the opportunity at an off season recruitment drive, they are yet to have one

The reasons for a coach being sacked could be highly confidential or personal. I'm talking about what the Board is doing on a day to day basis to address the club's shortcomings. And recruiting at a senior level has little to do with the majority of the Board.

Still a board decision

Would it be any better if they said “we are speaking to many potential recruits” or “we are all working an extra 20 hours a week to improve the club”? I don’t think so I, to me that’s just lip service, just tell us when it’s done not what you are or are going to do

I agree 7 spoons in 16 years is awful but this particular board is not responsible for all of these and IMO not even this years.

In terms of business confidentiality and many-many player/coach related issues over the years then overall yes I do consider all Boards are the same with a safety first attitude off need to know.

Even when we had a President who wanted to be more open with Members he was (I believe) limited by his overall Boards opinion and as a man of honor felt obliged to speak as spokesman in reference to the Board determinations.

Whilst I feel that the President & Board have provided overviews of various club issues (financial, staffing & football) ---- equally and disappointingly there has been very little detailed information of what they are actually doing or more importantly what has been done to address these various issues.

In terms of both day to day and in-process finance and especially football operations (recruiting & restructuring) activities there are factors that make release of operational information of these day to day and in-process activities very difficult (some example -- names of potential recruit --- sponsor negotiations --- contract negotiation).

Honestly I find that I am in the middle both agreeing & disagreeing with you both --- I have a split personality perhaps LOL. ----- I am honestly not sure where the middle ground is on these issues but am clear that issue mentioned my para 3 needs to be improved on?

brodlach wrote:All due respect ROD02 no matter what this board does your views will be skewed in one direction

Thanks, brodlach, have you any positives you can put forward regarding Westies this last year or two?

Not so many on field but a number of positives off field.

Said 12 months ago we that 2021 is where we need to be focused on

brodlach wrote:
Still a board decision

Would it be any better if they said “we are speaking to many potential recruits” or “we are all working an extra 20 hours a week to improve the club”? I don’t think so I, to me that’s just lip service, just tell us when it’s done not what you are or are going to do

I agree 7 spoons in 16 years is awful but this particular board is not responsible for all of these and IMO not even this years.

So you'd vote for a Board member who said 'I'm not telling you what I'm going to do, I'll just tell you what I've done when I've done it.'?

And no, the Board isn't responsible for the 7 spoons, but they're responsible for ensuring we improve. And as a member I'd like to know how they are going about that.

What are those off field positives, brodlach? Jobseeker/covid supplement payments will see them over the line financially, presumably, that's (hopefully) a one off, I can't see many other positives.

What in particular would you like them to say?

They appointed 2 new recruitment staff just before COVID hit, let them have a preseason to get things moving. We had no recruitment of note last preseason due to known reasons

RODH2 wrote:What are those off field positives, brodlach? Jobseeker/covid supplement payments will see them over the line financially, presumably, that's (hopefully) a one off, I can't see many other positives.

Some of my positives would be deleted quickly

Very few positives in life in 2020 but If JS has given the club a healthy bank balance I’ll take that. I want my club to survive.

Very little is deleted, brodlach, so you are welcome to post positives.

You are just as free to always defend the Board as others are to criticise.

All boards aren't the same at all, but they have one thing in common.  They all do their best to move the Club forward.  It's not a competition.

I'll say a couple of things from experience.  One is that the Club's financial position has been OK for the last few years.  I expect JobKeeper to strengthen that considerably this year.  The challenge is to keep the club viable when it finishes.

Secondly, to defend the previous Board, our two seasons were the last of Mark Mickan's and the first of Gavin Colville's - roughly 15 wins in 2 years.  To be fair for the next year, we lost John Noble and Will Snelling mid-season.

This year, as all would agree, was unacceptably uncompetitive and it's normal for supporters to have a strong say. As a club, that is vital and I'm glad there are those who care enough to ask for more.

Let's hope we can recruit very well and climb up the ladder, while supporting the Board to do that and hope the Board perhaps becomes a little more inclusive and provides much more detail.

With AFL list sizes decreasing, perhaps there will be more players to target but the impending Salary Cap announcement will certainly be a factor in recruiting.
At the end of the day, we probably need 5 or 6 players that can play league footy from the get go. Perhaps more depending on who leaves the club.
If the club cannot deliver in the off season, membership will continue to slide. I certainly won’t be renewing if things don’t change.