http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/ ... 42,00.htmlsunday herald sun
by JACKIE EPSTEIN
FORMER St Kilda president Rod Butterss has slammed the club and its board saying they have no direction and no plan for the future.
Ousted by Greg Westaway's Footy First ticket, Butterss also said the club would struggle to recruit Ben Cousins because there was no strategy in place.
"Ben's a quality player, but you've got to have a plan, a strategy," he said.
"One thing I know about football and footy clubs is you must have a plan, a clearly identifiable plan of how you're going to achieve your goals."
"We've always had a position on recruiting that was very simple. Will the person you're about to recruit play in our next premiership side."
"If you genuinely believe that he is then you recruit him. If you think you're far off, then you're better off going with kids. Having said that I don't know what their plan is."
Butterss said the board contained no one with business experience and was led by an "ordinary performer" in Westaway.
He labelled chief executive Archie Fraser "a goose" and blasted the club's move to Frankston.
"I think it's a terrible decision. How many players do you know live in Frankston or want to live in Frankston or desire to? They all live around bayside in Elwood, Middle Park, Albert Park. That's where they want to be. But that's Archie. He'd pick a fight with a blowfly. He's a goose."
ST KILDA president Greg Westaway yesterday hit back at predecessor Rod Butterss, saying the former club boss had left the Saints with "a legacy of liabilities and no strategic plan". Westaway was responding to a scathing attack by Butterss at the weekend when he said the Saints had no direction or plan for the future.
Westaway called his predecessor "old news" and "juvenile" and said he needed to "grow up".
Chief executive Archie Fraser, who was appointed by Butterss in 2006, said the former president had been overwhelmingly ousted by Saints members 9000 votes to 135 a year ago.
"I doubt even his own family voted for him with such a dismal result," Fraser said yesterday.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, Butterss said the Westaway-Fraser administration had no strategy.
He called Westaway "an ordinary performer" and Fraser "a goose" who "would pick a fight with a blowfly".
"There's nobody on the board that's ever achieved anything in business," said Butterss, claiming only one of this year's board had their own business.
Westaway said the members had wanted change and "voted with their feet".
"We've made significant progress but we still have a long way to go," he said.
Westaway said the attacks on his board's credibility were laughable.
"There are actually five board members who have owned their own incredibly successful businesses. The fact that Rod said only one, only further hits at his credibility. Not that there is much more of that left.
"If I could say one thing to Rod it would be, 'You've had your go, now move on and do it with grace, please'. You said you would do it with grace . . . and I have to say its been anything but graceful."
Butterss claimed the club's finances would reveal incompetence, the decision to make Frankston its base was "terrible", and it had no idea of how to handle the potential recruiting of Ben Cousins.
Fraser said moving to Frankston was a long-term deal to "cement an ownership of the Bayside region".
"Staying at Moorabbin was not an option," Fraser said.
"We were left with a legacy of bad relationships and economically it couldn't work. Our deal at Frankston is the best financial deal in the competition and our players and members are looking forward to us finally having the elite facilities they deserve.
He (Butterss) is obviously still bitter and twisted but for the sake of the football club he really needs to get over it. If I'm being called a goose by a turkey I'll take it as a compliment."
Fraser said the bickering was not good for the club.
"The more aligned a football club is with past administration, I think the better it is for everyone," he said.
wouldn't put it past them.
