jboyar
31 May 2003, 19:07
Smorgon's unerring devotion to Dogs' cause
By Caroline Wilson
May 31 2003
Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon has had a good week. His club has a new six-figure sponsor with two more on the way. Luke Darcy has indicated he will stay with the club and promises of AFL support and salary-cap leniency have increased with each passing day.
Best of all, perhaps, is the fact that Smorgon's beloved wife Roslyn will today deliver the presidential address at the Bulldogs-Kangaroos pre-match lunch on her husband's behalf.
It is Ladies Day at Telstra Dome and, quipped Smorgon, "the women are taking over". But it has not been an easy year for this committed football couple, and Smorgon is more serious when he stresses that he never had any intention of quitting and would do so only if his family circumstances required it.
Roslyn Smorgon has been ill since February but the couple remain confident that her condition will continue to improve. Smorgon, who spent six weeks with his family and largely away from the football club over February and March, did not want to elaborate, except to say what a wonderful support his wife had been to him.
"Never once has she questioned my commitment to the football club," he said. "Of course she is committed to it also. She is the only reason I would ever walk away."
Smorgon said he never felt defeated regarding the Bulldogs' future, even at the start of the season when - despite cutting $3.5 million from the club's budget - the corporate supporters failed to sign up.
Then, in round one, Chris Grant's season ended. The Bulldogs have lost eight consecutive games since, but it was only after the round-seven capitulation to Fremantle that the president truly looked as if he'd had enough.
"There have been four or five occasions during my time here where I would have said it was all too hard," Smorgon said.
"If I looked distraught, it was because I was absolutely livid because our guys did not have a go. Sometimes, instinctively, you know what you have to do and a huge part of me was affected by that performance. I told Peter (Rohde) it was his call, but that on behalf of all the people who had put their money into this club, I wanted to explain a few things to the players.
"I explained that the club sank to a level that day that we've never been to and I never want to go back there again. In my view, we haven't and I know I've said this before but I truly believe that as a club, as a whole, we have turned the corner."
Smorgon makes no apologies for insisting that his players take better care of the club's assets, whether they be footballs or themselves. "Every player took a 15 per cent paycut, so why waste footballs when they cost $40,000 or $50,000 a year.
"The only truth of what (commentator) Dwayne Russell said was that we no longer put in a blanket order of footballs. We receive them in three or four instalments so we don't waste them. Players were taking them home, which was fine, but not returning them or giving them to a neighbour."
Rohde met the Bulldogs board on Wednesday night and assured his directors that the football department required no extra staff or facilities before the end of the year. The clear priority for the club is players.
"The attitude of Peter Rohde is that he has a different view to the one that Terry (Wallace) did, particularly in regard to our on-field needs, and having worked our way down to 93 or 94 per cent of the salary cap, we will now be working our way back up towards 100 per cent," Smorgon said.
"The AFL have told us they support us in this, at least in principle, and we have a lot of players out of contract. I'm not going to criticise Terry, he's written some supportive articles about us, but I don't believe he did Nathan Brown any favours.
"He described Nathan as the next Gary Ablett and I think we all saw Leigh Matthews' response. Nathan's got a lot to prove to the football world yet."
Meantime, Smorgon and his club await the release of the AFL's new equalisation report, which will reveal details of a competitive balance fund to help bridge the financial gap between clubs. The paper is being finalised by AFL commissioner Colin Carter and has been influenced by a submission by St Kilda, the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs and was largely driven by Bulldogs director George Pappas.
"We had a revolution at this club in 1996, and this year we've seen another one under (chief executive) Campbell Rose. Thirty-seven people have left the club. Two or three years back, we thought we should aim for a CEO that was appropriately priced.
"That was a mistake and now we have someone who is qualified and more than up to the task.
"I said back in '96 at the start of all this that all I could hope for is that when I do finally go, they will say to me, 'David, you gave it 100 per cent. You gave it your best shot and whatever happened, happened'."
This story was found at: http://realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/30/1054177727973.html
By Caroline Wilson
May 31 2003
Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon has had a good week. His club has a new six-figure sponsor with two more on the way. Luke Darcy has indicated he will stay with the club and promises of AFL support and salary-cap leniency have increased with each passing day.
Best of all, perhaps, is the fact that Smorgon's beloved wife Roslyn will today deliver the presidential address at the Bulldogs-Kangaroos pre-match lunch on her husband's behalf.
It is Ladies Day at Telstra Dome and, quipped Smorgon, "the women are taking over". But it has not been an easy year for this committed football couple, and Smorgon is more serious when he stresses that he never had any intention of quitting and would do so only if his family circumstances required it.
Roslyn Smorgon has been ill since February but the couple remain confident that her condition will continue to improve. Smorgon, who spent six weeks with his family and largely away from the football club over February and March, did not want to elaborate, except to say what a wonderful support his wife had been to him.
"Never once has she questioned my commitment to the football club," he said. "Of course she is committed to it also. She is the only reason I would ever walk away."
Smorgon said he never felt defeated regarding the Bulldogs' future, even at the start of the season when - despite cutting $3.5 million from the club's budget - the corporate supporters failed to sign up.
Then, in round one, Chris Grant's season ended. The Bulldogs have lost eight consecutive games since, but it was only after the round-seven capitulation to Fremantle that the president truly looked as if he'd had enough.
"There have been four or five occasions during my time here where I would have said it was all too hard," Smorgon said.
"If I looked distraught, it was because I was absolutely livid because our guys did not have a go. Sometimes, instinctively, you know what you have to do and a huge part of me was affected by that performance. I told Peter (Rohde) it was his call, but that on behalf of all the people who had put their money into this club, I wanted to explain a few things to the players.
"I explained that the club sank to a level that day that we've never been to and I never want to go back there again. In my view, we haven't and I know I've said this before but I truly believe that as a club, as a whole, we have turned the corner."
Smorgon makes no apologies for insisting that his players take better care of the club's assets, whether they be footballs or themselves. "Every player took a 15 per cent paycut, so why waste footballs when they cost $40,000 or $50,000 a year.
"The only truth of what (commentator) Dwayne Russell said was that we no longer put in a blanket order of footballs. We receive them in three or four instalments so we don't waste them. Players were taking them home, which was fine, but not returning them or giving them to a neighbour."
Rohde met the Bulldogs board on Wednesday night and assured his directors that the football department required no extra staff or facilities before the end of the year. The clear priority for the club is players.
"The attitude of Peter Rohde is that he has a different view to the one that Terry (Wallace) did, particularly in regard to our on-field needs, and having worked our way down to 93 or 94 per cent of the salary cap, we will now be working our way back up towards 100 per cent," Smorgon said.
"The AFL have told us they support us in this, at least in principle, and we have a lot of players out of contract. I'm not going to criticise Terry, he's written some supportive articles about us, but I don't believe he did Nathan Brown any favours.
"He described Nathan as the next Gary Ablett and I think we all saw Leigh Matthews' response. Nathan's got a lot to prove to the football world yet."
Meantime, Smorgon and his club await the release of the AFL's new equalisation report, which will reveal details of a competitive balance fund to help bridge the financial gap between clubs. The paper is being finalised by AFL commissioner Colin Carter and has been influenced by a submission by St Kilda, the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs and was largely driven by Bulldogs director George Pappas.
"We had a revolution at this club in 1996, and this year we've seen another one under (chief executive) Campbell Rose. Thirty-seven people have left the club. Two or three years back, we thought we should aim for a CEO that was appropriately priced.
"That was a mistake and now we have someone who is qualified and more than up to the task.
"I said back in '96 at the start of all this that all I could hope for is that when I do finally go, they will say to me, 'David, you gave it 100 per cent. You gave it your best shot and whatever happened, happened'."
This story was found at: http://realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/30/1054177727973.html