Westaway speaks!

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Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304618Post kosifantutti »

St Kilda president Greg Westaway says the defection of Brendon Goddard has highlighted why the divide between the rich and poorer clubs needs to be eased
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/g ... z2N3BKWX9t

I'm not sure I agree with him on being a poorer club affecting our ability to keep Goddard. Surely it's all about the salary cap.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304619Post defacto »

can he just shut up and leave the talking to netters.

i am not sure going public on the goddard thing is good. just leave it FFS. we've moved on, so why bring it back up???

why go public with the details as well saying that the price tag on goddard meant it was a board decision.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304620Post Con Gorozidis »

I dont mind this at all.
Why shouldnt he be an advocate. Why is it only Eddie that advocates and speaks out and then just gets everything his way. About time some diversity of views are put up. The AFL shouldnt be the effing Eddie show.

The fact is the saints are one of the poorer clubs and if we sit back and take it - we will be totally sideswiped by the likes of the pies/eagles/hawks/crows.

and to top it off the afl also gives special help to sydney/gws.
so if we dont fight for our rights clubs like us and the dogs etc etc will seriously never win a flag.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304624Post oh when the »

Why are we poor, after probably the era of most wins ever
In our 140 yrs.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304629Post saintspremiers »

oh when the wrote:Why are we poor, after probably the era of most wins ever
In our 140 yrs.
You've answered your own question.

We are historically useless.

It takes several flags over a few decades to become a power club. Look at the Hawks. They were a basket case for their first 50 odd years in the AFL and only came good in the 90's after several flags.

Perhaps had we delivered the expected 4 flags in the past decade that we should've, we'd now be a power club also.

Well done by Ghostaway for making a rare public speech.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304634Post samuraisaint »

Nettlefold told SEN last week that all the negative publicity we received over the past decade cost the club 7 million dollars or thereabouts. That is why we aren't doing so well.
Although I wish we had won two Flags in the last decade, and another in 97, I remember that Collingwood and Geelong had similar bad luck and have been able to turn it around to a degree. I think getting up and challenging for a premiership is a lot better than being a non contender. We were broke in the late 70's, nearly folded, until Lindsay Fox bought us. Unfortunately not before Melbourne took Ditterich and the Elliots.
But there were some absolutely unfathomable decisions made around this time, sacking Mike Patterson, trading Russell Greene, wasting a lot of time and energy on Doug Cox and Foschini and Morwood, which sapped the energy out of the club and in the end we nearly folded in 84.
The club didn't move out of this until Baldock brought renewed optimism in 1987 , and we added to our young talent with top ups from other clubs. And just like we have gone from being a basket case who would win two games a year, to perennial finalists, and now Grand Final contenders, the Flag will come too. I have seen enough good signs over the pre-season which indicate to me that rumours of our demise have been grossly exaggerated.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304649Post fingers »

I get the concept but all clubs have the same amount to spend in the salary cap - so it's not like anyone can create an extra $750k.

It is the role of the president to speak on club equalisation as a concept but I don't get the corrrelation.

Anyone explain it?


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304655Post spert »

samuraisaint wrote:Nettlefold told SEN last week that all the negative publicity we received over the past decade cost the club 7 million dollars or thereabouts. That is why we aren't doing so well.
Although I wish we had won two Flags in the last decade, and another in 97, I remember that Collingwood and Geelong had similar bad luck and have been able to turn it around to a degree. I think getting up and challenging for a premiership is a lot better than being a non contender. We were broke in the late 70's, nearly folded, until Lindsay Fox bought us. Unfortunately not before Melbourne took Ditterich and the Elliots.
But there were some absolutely unfathomable decisions made around this time, sacking Mike Patterson, trading Russell Greene, wasting a lot of time and energy on Doug Cox and Foschini and Morwood, which sapped the energy out of the club and in the end we nearly folded in 84.
The club didn't move out of this until Baldock brought renewed optimism in 1987 , and we added to our young talent with top ups from other clubs. And just like we have gone from being a basket case who would win two games a year, to perennial finalists, and now Grand Final contenders, the Flag will come too. I have seen enough good signs over the pre-season which indicate to me that rumours of our demise have been grossly exaggerated.
Collingwood and Geelong were driven very hard from the top to get success in recent years, Costa and Eddie were passionate about it and didn't take a back seat, they were out there drumming up support publicly, pushing the AFL for better deals and pushing to get more sponsors on board. While our Prez, CEO and board appear stable- which is good, their marketing of the club has been very lack-lustre IMHO..


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304658Post samuraisaint »

Given the shocking publicity we have had as a club it has probably been difficult to attract lucrative sponsorships in a time of relative poor economics. Let's be honest if you didn't have an affliation with us as a club would you have sponsored us after all this stuff since 2004?
Our reputation has a club has taken some shocking knocks this past decade, some of it completely out of the club's control, and I wouldn't mind betting that the STKFC is one of several clubs who go the route of interviewing potential players' parents to gain greater insight into the player they are thinking of drafting. I think that given what a football club has to lose it is just
professional practice anyway.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304663Post Pureoctain »

He actually calls our club weak. Collingwood and Hawthorn and the like didn't become the powerful clubs they are by whinging and complaining about unfair deals and wanting more money from the AFL for nothing. This pre-season has been very positive from the club, we'd moved on from Goddard and seemed on the right track. To come out and say that we really wanted him to stay but because we are a poor club we just couldn't afford him paints us in a really pathetic light. Essendon don't have a bigger salary cap then us, why is the board making a football decision?


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304666Post 3rd generation saint »

Can you imagine what Eddie, or Jeff would have done after the whole KD affair was proved to be a complete fabrication.
Think they would have come down hard on a few so called journos in this town and demand a public apology to not only the club, but to a few players whose names we're dragged thru the mud.
I still believe that whole torrid affair probably cost this club 100's of 1,000's of dollars in legal fees, lost revenue and sponsorship.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304669Post QuestionOfAccuracy »

fingers wrote:I get the concept but all clubs have the same amount to spend in the salary cap - so it's not like anyone can create an extra $750k.

It is the role of the president to speak on club equalisation as a concept but I don't get the corrrelation.

Anyone explain it?
It's not neccessarily about having an "extra $750K" in the salary cap, it's that the richer clubs can take calculate gambles with that type of money because they are so financially strong. Paying that amount of money to a player in his 30s is a risk, and the poorer clubs can't just take $750K risks.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304671Post plugger66 »

QuestionOfAccuracy wrote:
fingers wrote:I get the concept but all clubs have the same amount to spend in the salary cap - so it's not like anyone can create an extra $750k.

It is the role of the president to speak on club equalisation as a concept but I don't get the corrrelation.

Anyone explain it?
It's not neccessarily about having an "extra $750K" in the salary cap, it's that the richer clubs can take calculate gambles with that type of money because they are so financially strong. Paying that amount of money to a player in his 30s is a risk, and the poorer clubs can't just take $750K risks.

But basically everyone pays very close to the salary cap anyway. The minimum you can pay is 95%. If a rich clubs stuffs up their salary cap by paying players more than they are worth it is still stuffed. i dont the correlation either.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304674Post BigMart »

Yes everyone does have the same cap...

What he's saying is rich clubs can afford to take risks, and he had to take a conservative approach...

What I'm interested in, is why the board is making list decisions, why doe we have a list manager and team..... To make recommendations....

What is Greg Westaways experience in footy matters in the last 10 years... That's what you employ and empower people for?!

They overruled incorrectly in 2009 and probably again last year......

At what age exactly does a player lose worth Greg?? When your predicting 4. Years out??
We had two prime examples in 2012
the 2 x 32 year olds in 2012..... One won the B&F and one was all Australian
Dean Cox will be 32 this year, Brent Harvey 35, Dustin Fletcher 38, Barry Hall 34, A
Alastair Lynch 36, Peckett 33, Thompson 34, Adam Goodes 33... Loads of players have played good footy well into their 30's.... What a stupid comment.... Why could we predict he would be worth it at 31.... But not at 32???

If the sticking point was money, fair enough... You can't afford it.... Bit if we decided it on length of contract 3/4 years.... Seriously.... Loyalty runs two ways, players inside an organisation understand this....
He deserved a 4 year commitment IMO as he had given us ten year of service and had never entertained leaving although 3 clubs have had a crack at him

Some players are finished at 27? Depends ion factors... Cooney, Hamill......


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304699Post plugger66 »

BigMart wrote:Yes everyone does have the same cap...

What he's saying is rich clubs can afford to take risks, and he had to take a conservative approach...

What I'm interested in, is why the board is making list decisions, why doe we have a list manager and team..... To make recommendations....

What is Greg Westaways experience in footy matters in the last 10 years... That's what you employ and empower people for?!

They overruled incorrectly in 2009 and probably again last year......

At what age exactly does a player lose worth Greg?? When your predicting 4. Years out??
We had two prime examples in 2012
the 2 x 32 year olds in 2012..... One won the B&F and one was all Australian
Dean Cox will be 32 this year, Brent Harvey 35, Dustin Fletcher 38, Barry Hall 34, A
Alastair Lynch 36, Peckett 33, Thompson 34, Adam Goodes 33... Loads of players have played good footy well into their 30's.... What a stupid comment.... Why could we predict he would be worth it at 31.... But not at 32???

If the sticking point was money, fair enough... You can't afford it.... Bit if we decided it on length of contract 3/4 years.... Seriously.... Loyalty runs two ways, players inside an organisation understand this....
He deserved a 4 year commitment IMO as he had given us ten year of service and had never entertained leaving although 3 clubs have had a crack at him

Some players are finished at 27? Depends ion factors... Cooney, Hamill......

I know he is saying that. I dont get it. The maximum difference between those paying 100% and those paying 95% is 400k. I gather we have paid 100% for about 10 years. i also gather they have decided to pay less now so they maybe able to front end contract so we have space when we can challenge again. Still dont see why rich or poor clubs matter in that instance.

Have no idea what the board should get involved in. Maybe they also got involved when we recruited brilliantly when we got Gehrig, Hamill, Powell and so on. maybe they didnt. Maybe the board gets involved at every club on huge decisions. maybe they dont. Who knows.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304721Post BigMart »

Brilliantly when we got Hamill, Gehrig, Voss, Powell????

Hamill was disgruntled and we traded Pick 4 for him... Paid him a huge contract?? Do you reckon on output he was worth the money he got paid from 2001-2008 considering he did not play in the last two season?? And was a HFF who average 1.2 goals per game, getting as much as power fwds of the comp....I loved Aaron but he wasn't a star, but we paid him as one?? Because we had underpaid kids as stars

Gehrig?? We traded Pick 18 for him... He was the frustrating underacheiving whipping boy at WCE.... The fans hated him... He had a great career at StK... But no better (not as good probably) as Hall... A player we already had

Voss and Powell were as a result of finishing last... Both #1 picks in the pre season draft, and the were obvious picks ATT

IMO

Our great recruiting in 2000/2001 was a net result of about zero, perhaps even we lost out

Hall..... Gehrig
Everitt....... Hamill
Penny........ Wakelin

Then there was Lawrence, Capuano, Delaney, Gale, Powell, Knobel, McGough, Ackland...... And others at that time

Brilliant....... Was a result of being last and benefitting from it


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304723Post plugger66 »

BigMart wrote:Brilliantly when we got Hamill, Gehrig, Voss, Powell????

Hamill was disgruntled and we traded Pick 4 for him... Paid him a huge contract?? Do you reckon on output he was worth the money he got paid from 2001-2008 considering he did not play in the last two season?? And was a HFF who average 1.2 goals per game, getting as much as power fwds of the comp....I loved Aaron but he wasn't a star, but we paid him as one?? Because we had underpaid kids as stars

Gehrig?? We traded Pick 18 for him... He was the frustrating underacheiving whipping boy at WCE.... The fans hated him... He had a great career at StK... But no better (not as good probably) as Hall... A player we already had

Voss and Powell were as a result of finishing last... Both #1 picks in the pre season draft, and the were obvious picks ATT

IMO

Our great recruiting in 2000/2001 was a net result of about zero, perhaps even we lost out

Hall..... Gehrig
Everitt....... Hamill
Penny........ Wakelin

Then there was Lawrence, Capuano, Delaney, Gale, Powell, Knobel, McGough, Ackland...... And others at that time

Brilliant....... Was a result of being last and benefitting from it

At least you always look at the glass half full. Looking for the negatives on those picks. Amazing. Anyway that wasnt my point. We have no idea when boards get involved in recruiting or losing players at our club or other clubs. I will have a guess and say the board got involved at Geelong when it looked like Ablett was leaving.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304795Post BigMart »

You make decisions on the best interests of the club, but understand those decisions have ramifications. Footy clubs are a business in many ways, but the culture is such that the important stakeholders (fans and players) have a much more of an emotional connect. So when a decision is made, more factors than just the bottom line must be considered.

Boards should steer clear of footy matters and worry about appointing the right People to do so..

They have made enough off field blunders to worry about footy matter.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304797Post plugger66 »

BigMart wrote:You make decisions on the best interests of the club, but understand those decisions have ramifications. Footy clubs are a business in many ways, but the culture is such that the important stakeholders (fans and players) have a much more of an emotional connect. So when a decision is made, more factors than just the bottom line must be considered.

Boards should steer clear of footy matters and worry about appointing the right People to do so..

They have made enough off field blunders to worry about footy matter.

I agree but sometimes they have to be involved. I would suggest the board was involved when we got MG and Lovett and i would expect Richmonds board was involved when they got Cousins. We have no idea if Essendons board got involved in the BJ deal. If it the type of recruit that may split your supporters or upset sponsors then they probably need to be involved.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304809Post BigMart »

Why, do they have more expertise than the footy dept when knowing what the fans want??

If they don't like the decisions made by the footy dept they can terminate their contract... But really once they have employed a footy dept... The should let them do their job. Not Vito decisions they make. What sort of structure is that??? At what point do they intervene??

Never, should be the answer there... There a board, acting on behalf of members to employ people to run a club..

The footy dept should run the club??

Perhaps Greg should sit in the coaches. Box and make decisions???!!


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304813Post plugger66 »

BigMart wrote:Why, do they have more expertise than the footy dept when knowing what the fans want??

If they don't like the decisions made by the footy dept they can terminate their contract... But really once they have employed a footy dept... The should let them do their job. Not Vito decisions they make. What sort of structure is that??? At what point do they intervene??

Never, should be the answer there... There a board, acting on behalf of members to employ people to run a club..

The footy dept should run the club??

Perhaps Greg should sit in the coaches. Box and make decisions???!!

They are voted in by the fans and if we were to recruit someone that will make us lose members and sponsors then of course they get involved. thats why they were voted in. Why when you discuss something do use examples that are totally silly?

Are you saying the board shouldnt have got involved when we got MG and Lovett? Well we differ because those 2 could have had huge implications for the club that the recruiters and footy department wouldnt care about. Obviously the board shouldnt get involved in 95% of footy decisions but some are just to big not to be involved. And to knock our board for that would suggest you know other boards dont get involved in certain recruiting. I would love to know how you know that. We know the Richmond board got involved in recruiting Cousins.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304816Post BigMart »

So at what point does the board start making football related decisions... What's the process?? Is there a defined point, or are we that amateur that it just on a case by case???

Recipe for disaster having a structure where a person employed to do a certain role is then given restrictions or is overseen?!

I would suggest Westaway do what he does best. Be silent.

On issues where he has needed to stand up and defend the club he done zero, and now he has a whine??


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304818Post plugger66 »

Well we agree to disagree.


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304821Post Bernard Shakey »

BigMart wrote:Yes everyone does have the same cap...

What he's saying is rich clubs can afford to take risks, and he had to take a conservative approach...

What I'm interested in, is why the board is making list decisions, why doe we have a list manager and team..... To make recommendations....

What is Greg Westaways experience in footy matters in the last 10 years... That's what you employ and empower people for?!

They overruled incorrectly in 2009 and probably again last year......

At what age exactly does a player lose worth Greg?? When your predicting 4. Years out??
We had two prime examples in 2012
the 2 x 32 year olds in 2012..... One won the B&F and one was all Australian
Dean Cox will be 32 this year, Brent Harvey 35, Dustin Fletcher 38, Barry Hall 34, A
Alastair Lynch 36, Peckett 33, Thompson 34, Adam Goodes 33... Loads of players have played good footy well into their 30's.... What a stupid comment.... Why could we predict he would be worth it at 31.... But not at 32???

If the sticking point was money, fair enough... You can't afford it.... Bit if we decided it on length of contract 3/4 years.... Seriously.... Loyalty runs two ways, players inside an organisation understand this....
He deserved a 4 year commitment IMO as he had given us ten year of service and had never entertained leaving although 3 clubs have had a crack at him

Some players are finished at 27? Depends ion factors... Cooney, Hamill......
Your last word hit the nail right on the head. Hamill.....


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Re: Westaway speaks!

Post: # 1304828Post Moods »

saintspremiers wrote:
oh when the wrote:Why are we poor, after probably the era of most wins ever
In our 140 yrs.
You've answered your own question.

We are historically useless.

It takes several flags over a few decades to become a power club. Look at the Hawks. They were a basket case for their first 50 odd years in the AFL and only came good in the 90's after several flags.

Perhaps had we delivered the expected 4 flags in the past decade that we should've, we'd now be a power club also.

Well done by Ghostaway for making a rare public speech.
Hawks came good in the 90's :shock:

The Hawks nearly went under in the late 90's turn of the century. A few smart decisions were crucial - Like basing themselves at Waverley and managing to secure an MCG deal. I would argue that we were in roughly the same boat as the hawks, but instead went to Etihad, and continued to be based at Moorabbin. Neither decision in hindsight, was very good. In fairness the hawks supporter base is mainly in the east, so they are probably better suited to the G, but I wonder whether our fans would have grizzled so much about the G if we were based there from the outset, rather than Colonial Stadium, or whatever it was called back then. Hard to know if the club could/should have forseen the problems with the Council in Kingston. But without proper development we were never going to have first class facilities.

Not sure winning flags suddenly makes you a superpower either. North never became one despite winning a couple of flags in the 90's. The cats are securing their future, but their membership is hardly through the roof as a result of winning flags - their future is tied to their stadium. Another smart decision. If we'd won 2-3 flags in the last 10 years, we would be a much more respected club, but I don't know if we'd be a 'power' club.

I for one, have no problem with Westaway talking to the media highlighting some of our issues. None of us should kid ourselves about not being a poorer club. We are, so what? We need to fight for a better deal with the AFL. The power clubs always seem to get heard, we need to make sure our voice and our concerns are well known at Commission level as well.


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