Well, I'm done.

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Sausages said:
No mate, I haven't. And that's a great suggestion.

I'm changing tack regarding dealing with my club - was going to the Gabba today, but after talking with some friends have decided on an alternate proposal in which I will liaise with you/us/the club/everyone.

First off, I don't know anything about high performance sports management. I have no idea what the goals are when new recruits come to the club. That being said, here's the bones of it.

First off, I'm contacting Gympie Football Club to see what I need to do the volunteer on a junior level. This is a good idea put forward by others to me and, tbh, needs to be something I should do. Its about 160-180km round trip though and will cost me a bucket in fuel lol. But hey, money where ya mouth is, right? :p

Secondly, this is is bigger picture:

I live in a place called Poona. I am seven minutes by boat from Fraser Island - I can see it from my deck. I am going to work on a proposal for the club to use my property as a training base/recruit/team building environment during off season. This will be free and I am not interested in any financial recompense here - community, ya know? Boating, fishing, crabbing, camping, 4WD, bushwalks for a zillion miles. Ceebee knows where I am. I have a 3 bedroom highset Queenslander on a quarter acre. There are similar size vacant allotments on either side of me and behind me.

The community up here is about 380 people, about half of which don't actually reside here. Most folks are retirees; at 44, I am one of the younger folk. We have some young families though - and a massive influx of southerners, especially during winter months, many from Victoria. At Easter the town explodes with the annual Poona Fishing Comp and Christmas is likewise full of holiday goers. Every friday night we have community dinner and the people here are all pretty tight knit. It is the first time I have experienced anything like community in a real sense - helping others, borrowing what you need, offering what you can to the community. As an example, we had 314 people to our dawn service this year, a number which has been steady for years. Not many places in Australia would have almost an 80% turnout for ANZAC day dawn service.

The idea would be for the club to bring new recruits up here to assist in integration, along with all the relevant support staff. It can be used whenever the club would need and is something I can pursue with our local committee, who I'm confident would have zero issue.

Bring new blokes up, take them over to 75 mile beach on Fraser for example. Nowhere else in the world compares with Fraser, for those you who have been I think you'd agree. You might think beaches are all the same - they are, until you've been to Rainbow and 75 mile. Then you realise why we have something no other bastard in the world can touch :) Us > them :p

I have a facebook page run by my girl about my property here as it represents many things I believe in - self sufficiency, sustainability, environmental awareness and community. I own my house and thus need no permission from anyone else to do something like this.

I'd very much like to hear your thoughts - I'm sure it's pie in the sky, but Lennon wrote a pretty good song about dreamers. I'm happy to be a dreamer, but being a keyboard warrior here (which I have perhaps taken a LITTLE far :p) isn't working for me anymore. I need to do SOMETHING REAL.

If you think it's a rubbish idea that's ok - I'd just like to have some constructive thoughts first off. For those interested in more information, I can provide you with the facebook name of my property to view more stuff.

But, like I said - I am going to work on a proposal and present it in an inclusive and hopefully positive light to the club.

Still going to Melbourne though and will make plans to have....a sausage sizzle outside AFL House :D
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Some of your ideas are a bit far fetched, but gee you're a passionate supporter, this club needs a few thousand more like yourself.
 

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Thanks chaps, I appreciate the sentiment - I just now read the story on the AFL website where Leppa asks if the wider football community (ie, outside us) actually cares about the club.

I'm not suggesting anything we have posted has impacted this kind of public statement, but it seems we do have a basis upon which to work.

I'm drafting the letter today/tonight to the club and I will post it here for commentary before sending. As opposed to my earlier, aggressive and inflammatory letter, this one will be a little more reasoned and hopefully receive a better reception lol.

I'm an "in the trenches" kinda guy - when you go over the top, you do so because your mates are relying on you. Well, I know the club isn't relying on ME (god we are all up the creek if so rofl), but....well, I'm just not gonna sit here and bitch anymore. If it's a rubbish idea, so be it - but at least I can hang my hat on having a go.
 
Mr Greg Swann

Chief Executive Officer

Brisbane Lions


Dear Mr Swann,


My name is Cameron Scott. I am a long time member of the club and supporter since 1987. I am concerned at our ongoing issues as a club and would like to offer what little help I can, aside from my membership.


I have made a great deal of noise lately over the plight of our club and our viability moving forward. This concern is predicated across two main issues:


  1. We struggle to represent, passionately, the city and people of Brisbane and

  2. without the engagement from the wider community, I fear we will always be a footy club lost somwehere in Siberia.

The treatment of the club by the League suggests we are being left to fend for ourselves. I am not a business identity, nor am I a public figure. I am just a bloke who wants to see our club represented by people with passion and pride. Whilst I have an opinion on this stance by the League, I am confident that wading through the myriad of self interested parties within the system is something you and your executive committee can deal with – that's why you are who you are, after all.


I have made public posts through BigFooty, taken these to the AFL facebook community, to the FoxSports facebook community, to 3AW Sports with Gerard and Dwayne, emailed copies to the editors of the Courier Mail, the Herald Sun and also to the Brisbane Lions. I am concerned we are losing ground as a public, community enterprise. Whilst the nature of these communications has been aggressive, I hope that something akin to passion is prevalent.


I plan to be in Melbourne outside AFL house in late September to have a sausage sizzle to bring some “Brissie” to Melbourne. The sausage sizzle is a reference to my BigFooty profile, Sausages. Plus, everyone loves a sausage sizzle. The platform here is purely personal – we matter, we care and just because we live on the frontier doesn't make us any less relevant than any other team.


So that is some background on me. Now to the crux of this letter.


I live in a place called Poona, about 2.5 hours drive north of Brisbane on the Fraser Coast. I wake up in the morning and stare at Fraser Island, some 10 minutes by boat (tinnie!!) from my house across the Great Sandy Strait. The community up here numbers 383 residents, many of whom are not permanent. It is a tight knit community – we have community dinner every friday night at our town hall, there is an annual Poona Fishing Competition every Easter. There is one shop, servicing the caravan park, which fills to the brim every holidays. Especially in the cooler months, we have many Victorians coming up to escape the southern winter. Likewise Christmas holidays, the town is filled with families up from wherever for a holiday. As reference, out of 380 residents, we had 310 for this years' ANZAC day dawn service.


I would like to offer my house and my town to the club to be utilised as a new recruit integration environment. Rainbow Beach, 75 Mile Beach, fishing, boating, crabbing, 4WD, bushwalking in the native environment called wallum heath (a type of native bushland, very familiar to many people, although not many know the name), camping....you get the idea.


It is a fishing village in a part of the world surrounded by national parks and part of the RAMSAR Convention, one of the few habitats in the world identified as “critical to humanity” (I could provide links, but I am sure you can access all this yourself).


The idea would be for the club to be able to bring players and all relevant support staff, at whatever time it was suitable, to come experience something nowhere in Australia has to offer – to infuse in our team the idea that this place matters. And this place is what you are representing when you pull on a Lions jumper.


I am happy to liaise with our local committee who I am sure would have no issue with this – regardless, as a private homeowner, my quarter acre block could house a few blokes, I'm sure. But ideally, I would like to ensure the club would have options to bring a cast of thousands if need be.


This is a genuine offer – I am no longer working and spend my time pursuing ideas of sustainability , environmental awareness and community. These things are important to me and I believe bringing a young chap from the other side of the country to expose him to this could only be beneficial. Furthermore, there are obvious marketing angles and a wealth of personal development opportunities here for you and your organisation to tap into.


I am not seeking any recompense here, of any kind. This isn't about money or publicity – this is about putting my passion for our footy club first and showing our team of players that we stand for something outside of the day to day grind of being a professional footballer in a city where many of our guys feel lost and isolated. Well, they aren't. And sometimes it takes lessons learnt in a small place to give you the capacity to deal with the big city.


I invite you and your executives to come and do a 'famil', at your leisure. I don't need to know nor do I need to be included. It would be enough for me to just read about it in the newsletter :)


Many thanks for your time,



Cameron Scott
 
Sausages said:
No mate, I haven't. And that's a great suggestion.

I'm changing tack regarding dealing with my club - was going to the Gabba today, but after talking with some friends have decided on an alternate proposal in which I will liaise with you/us/the club/everyone.

First off, I don't know anything about high performance sports management. I have no idea what the goals are when new recruits come to the club. That being said, here's the bones of it.

First off, I'm contacting Gympie Football Club to see what I need to do the volunteer on a junior level. This is a good idea put forward by others to me and, tbh, needs to be something I should do. Its about 160-180km round trip though and will cost me a bucket in fuel lol. But hey, money where ya mouth is, right? :p

Secondly, this is is bigger picture:

I live in a place called Poona. I am seven minutes by boat from Fraser Island - I can see it from my deck. I am going to work on a proposal for the club to use my property as a training base/recruit/team building environment during off season. This will be free and I am not interested in any financial recompense here - community, ya know? Boating, fishing, crabbing, camping, 4WD, bushwalks for a zillion miles. Ceebee knows where I am. I have a 3 bedroom highset Queenslander on a quarter acre. There are similar size vacant allotments on either side of me and behind me.

The community up here is about 380 people, about half of which don't actually reside here. Most folks are retirees; at 44, I am one of the younger folk. We have some young families though - and a massive influx of southerners, especially during winter months, many from Victoria. At Easter the town explodes with the annual Poona Fishing Comp and Christmas is likewise full of holiday goers. Every friday night we have community dinner and the people here are all pretty tight knit. It is the first time I have experienced anything like community in a real sense - helping others, borrowing what you need, offering what you can to the community. As an example, we had 314 people to our dawn service this year, a number which has been steady for years. Not many places in Australia would have almost an 80% turnout for ANZAC day dawn service.

The idea would be for the club to bring new recruits up here to assist in integration, along with all the relevant support staff. It can be used whenever the club would need and is something I can pursue with our local committee, who I'm confident would have zero issue.

Bring new blokes up, take them over to 75 mile beach on Fraser for example. Nowhere else in the world compares with Fraser, for those you who have been I think you'd agree. You might think beaches are all the same - they are, until you've been to Rainbow and 75 mile. Then you realise why we have something no other bastard in the world can touch :) Us > them :p

I have a facebook page run by my girl about my property here as it represents many things I believe in - self sufficiency, sustainability, environmental awareness and community. I own my house and thus need no permission from anyone else to do something like this.

I'd very much like to hear your thoughts - I'm sure it's pie in the sky, but Lennon wrote a pretty good song about dreamers. I'm happy to be a dreamer, but being a keyboard warrior here (which I have perhaps taken a LITTLE far :p) isn't working for me anymore. I need to do SOMETHING REAL.

If you think it's a rubbish idea that's ok - I'd just like to have some constructive thoughts first off. For those interested in more information, I can provide you with the facebook name of my property to view more stuff.

But, like I said - I am going to work on a proposal and present it in an inclusive and hopefully positive light to the club.

Still going to Melbourne though and will make plans to have....a sausage sizzle outside AFL House :D
Click to expand...

Hey Sausages,just don't mention the midgies :)

Good on you ,its a bit out there but if we get noticed it can help.:thumbsu:
 
The letter has been emailed to the club's media department as written above.

I will print it out and follow with a hard copy as per polite communication.
 

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Mate the place sounds awesome. Thinking of coming up with the fan and a few of my bro's . More than happy to bring the bread beer and sauce!

Love your passion mate. Let us know when the sept date is I may just be there!
 
You guys are all welcome, seriously, be fun :)

Let's change the dynamic of this footy club - as Davemonkey will attest, I can talk the talk and walk the walk.

Be good to get some Melbourne Lions up too - free accommodation on the Fraser Coast, I can pick you up from Hervey Bay airport.

Anyway, we'll see - but arguing with muppets on the interwebs has gotten old.

"There's a time when you have to stand up for what you believe is right - and that's what I'm doing."
 
Sausages said:
You guys are all welcome, seriously, be fun :)

Let's change the dynamic of this footy club - as Davemonkey will attest, I can talk the talk and walk the walk.

Be good to get some Melbourne Lions up too - free accommodation on the Fraser Coast, I can pick you up from Hervey Bay airport.

Anyway, we'll see - but arguing with muppets on the interwebs has gotten old.

"There's a time when you have to stand up for what you believe is right - and that's what I'm doing."
Click to expand...

As much as I love Poona Mud, Pumping for Yabbies, Fishing down Poona creek and letting my kids and the dog chase soldier crabs...

I don't think I will be up there this year.. :(
 
Well I'm sitting in Maccas having a coffee while my car gets serviced. Next to me is a family of 5 who are talking about watching the crows live. A little girl no older then 8 asks her Dad why they aren't going to watch the Crows v Lions in a couple of weeks... "At least we know the Crows will win"
 
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