Dan Collins

[Judge]

Collins and Voss are both big proponents of structures and systems and if they had done a skills gap analysis on the coaching staff I am sure the deficiencies should have been obvious. Maybe there was a lot of wishful thinking going on.

Unfortunately, there is a big difference between knowing/mouthing the jargon and having the ability to implement the essential structures and systems required.

Accentuating the problem, as we all seem to agree, is that Voss can hardly go to Kelly or Bowers for advice or direction. One is there because he married into money and the other was a very average lawyer (bloke) who somehow fluked the job and susequently rode on Leigh's coat tails.

One also has to now wonder about Downie's effectiveness, given he's back on the board. Was he a great administrator, or was he he simply a beneficiary of good timing?

 

[Last of the Roys]

What will be interesting is what happens next year. If we don't make the finals, or just limp in, then Collins will be gone for sure and Voss will be hanging by a thread.

Hopefully Voss and the Club as a whole review the approach they are taking in a whole host of fields, and turn everything around. Even without a review (or any change) I think we can still achieve an OK result next year if we have a decent run with injuries. However, from the outside looking in, it doesn't look like things are on the right track, or that we have put in place the processes that will take us to another premiership.


One final thing in all this, in terms of our facilities / how many assistants we have - It all comes down to money and the Lions have been having financial problems in the last four or five years. There was one quote from Voss (in one of the Vossy's View emails) which has stuck in my head:

Voss on the team’s commitment
“Off the field, the guys have committed pretty strongly to a lot of things.”
“Are we doing everything possible? Perhaps not, based on where we’re at. We’re penny-pinching a little bit.” http://www.lions.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/5085/newsid/96713/default.aspx

 

[Quigley]

Ideally I would say throw a heap of money at Ireland and get him back at the Lions.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Yeah Andrew Ireland has always been the guy I wanted back.

He understands the perfect balance between running a business and running a footy club at the same time.

 

[Gibbo_88]

If Voss is learning on the job, who is he learning from? Football, and sport in general is a difficult place to learn on the run. You may learn from mistakes and experience but there are only so many mistakes you can make before the board / supporters / players / the media start to turn on you.

We have the lowest membership base in the league yet continue to alienate our Melbourne supporters leaning towards an exclusively one-town team. The absolute disregard for the members who are the lifeblood of this organisation is beyond belief. The stubbornness and arrogance of the men in senior positions at our club is disgusting.

A disturbing description of some aspects of the club and its completely accurate and I hope a lot of your points are raised at the AGM.

Membership hasn't hit 30,000 this year which was required for the lions to make a profit and a lot of these memberships will be 3-game so I doubt they are much better off than last year.

I won't be shocked at all if the people that made the decision to change the logo which looks like it already has financially hurt the club and could get much worse are still there next year.

Brisbane Lions = Great players, Captain, Coach, Development and Pathetic board of directors/CEO

 

[whatboutbob]

Membership hasn't hit 30,000 this year which was required for the lions to make a profit and a lot of these memberships will be 3-game so I doubt they are much better off than last year.

And according to Bowers, corporate sales "are still not at the level anticipated in 2010", so brace yourselves for a considerable loss this year.

 

[Hollow Knight]

In that case, I just can't see where our next profit is going to come from.

Membership is probably at its realistic peak this year, and the corporates aren't suddenly going to flood out of the woodwork, especially with the Gold Coast Suns (LOL) coming in.

If the board/admin can't find a way for us to be profitable with 29k members and rock solid attendances, what are they doing there?

Can see us receiving AFL welfare soon, sadly enough.

 

[whatboutbob]

In that case, I just can't see where our next profit is going to come from.

Increased guernsey sales.

 

[Cousin Jed]

 

[Hollow Knight]

Fair point.

 

[Last of the Roys]

In that case, I just can't see where our next profit is going to come from.

Membership is probably at its realistic peak this year, and the corporates aren't suddenly going to flood out of the woodwork, especially with the Gold Coast Suns (LOL) coming in.

If the board/admin can't find a way for us to be profitable with 29k members and rock solid attendances, what are they doing there?

Can see us receiving AFL welfare soon, sadly enough.

Exactly. Unless we find some magic way to turn things around or a big new revenue source (like very successful pokies venue/s), we will be at the mercy of the AFL.

 

[Warwick]

A barnstorming ride last year including a fantastic finals win against Carlton

+

Recruiting one of the biggest names and showman in football

+

Exciting youngsters such as Rich, Redden, Banfield, Clark

+

A once-in-a-decade power forward at the peak of his powers

+

A favourable draw with massive home games against big drawing / or gun teams Carlton and Collingwood and Richmond and St Kilda and Geelong and Western Bulldogs

+

The promise of finals football again this year

+

A "new and exciting" image

+

2 new major sponsors and the "Hyundai Centre"

= inexcusable we report a loss this year.



How do the blokes running our club sleep at night? How long until we have to further slash the football and recruiting departments and pay just 92.5% of the cap?

The fish rots from the head and our head must go.

 

[Hollow Knight]

A barnstorming ride last year including a fantastic finals win against Carlton

+

Recruiting one of the biggest names in football

+

Exciting youngsters such as Rich, Redden, Banfield, Clark

+

A once-in-a-decade power forward at the peak of his powers

+

A favourable draw with massive home games against big drawing / or gun teams Carlton and Collingwood and Richmond and St Kilda and Geelong and Western Bulldogs

+

The promise of finals football again this year

+

A "new and exciting" image

+

2 new major sponsors and the "Hyundai Centre"

= inexcusable we report a loss this year.

This is exactly what I will be asking at the AGM.

 

[Gibbo_88]

Found this in the article about Barlow which shows Vossy certainly has time on his hands and supports the rumours not being true

Too Early to think about 2011

Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss, who broke his leg at Subiaco Oval in 1998 but returned to his best form and led his club to three premierships, was among those to contact Barlow while he was in hospital.

"I had a good 15 to 20-minute chat with him about how he'd done it at the same ground at a similar time of the year and was able to get back up and running for the next year," Barlow said.

"But that wasn't the main message he was getting across. He was just saying, 'Take your time'. He gave me some things I maybe should be focusing on through the early stages of my rehab.

"To know a rival coach of our club [has me] in his thoughts is something that blew my mind."

 

[Rawhead]

Good bloke.

 

[Last of the Roys]

Greenland..............

The Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea.......

and now the Brisbane Lions' High Performance Manager...............

 

[CarloLion]

Does anyone else find it sad that in such a financially healthy industry, clubs rely on something as disgusting as pokies profits to run afloat?

In my opinion The Eagles and Freo are to be respected more than any clubs in the AFL, as they are extremely strong financially in a state where pokies
are banned, so obviously what these clubs stand for and how they are run is so much stronger than clubs like Hawthorn, Carlton and Collingwood, that survive by raking in the cash of pensioners from Werribee to stay afloat.

Sounds like a preachy rant i know but the minute we start increasing pokies ventures is the minute i never buy a membership again

 

[whatboutbob]

Does anyone else find it sad that in such a financially healthy industry, clubs rely on something as disgusting as pokies profits to run afloat?

Yep.

In my opinion The Eagles and Freo are to be respected more than any clubs in the AFL, as they are extremely strong financially in a state where pokies
are banned, so obviously what these clubs stand for and how they are run is so much stronger than clubs like Hawthorn, Carlton and Collingwood, that survive by raking in the cash of pensioners from Werribee to stay afloat.

Sounds like a preachy rant i know but the minute we start increasing pokies ventures is the minute i never buy a membership again

I hate to break it to you...

 

[CarloLion]

Yep.



I hate to break it to you...

Oh dear...

 

[Hollow Knight]

I'm pretty much a libertarian so I don't feel compelled to condemn the whole pokie thing. Not up to the government to stop people harming themselves.

At the very least I am baffled that pokie machines get tut-tutted at more than those who peddle cigarettes and booze.

My disappointment regarding the pokie palace is that the financial security of the club is almost completely in the one basket.

 

[whatboutbob]

I'm pretty much a libertarian so I don't feel compelled to condemn the whole pokie thing. Not up to the government to stop people harming themselves.

So heroin should be available from 7/11? There's a clear market for it.

 

[Hollow Knight]

So heroin should be available from 7/11? There's a clear market for it.

Actually you can make a very good economic case for the decriminalisation of narcotics.

All that money wasted on the "war on drugs" that does nothing but create a black market for drugs which = crime and innocent people caught in the crossfire and bunch of sick people in jail instead of hospital.

Treat drug addiction as a disease instead of a crime.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

Some people will always find ways to destroy themselves, and governments can do little about it.

 

[Football Pope]

So heroin should be available from 7/11? There's a clear market for it.

Isn't it already?...The demand hasn't allowed it to make it from the carpark to the front counter...

 

[whatboutbob]

Actually you can make a very good economic case for the decriminalisation of narcotics.

All that money wasted on the "war on drugs" that does nothing but create a black market for drugs which = crime and innocent people caught in the crossfire and bunch of sick people in jail instead of hospital.

Treat drug addiction as a disease instead of a crime.

I've seen attempts at making that economic case and off the top of my head while superficially it works, with further analysis even the most optimistic figures show a blow-out in medical costs more than covering any savings on "enforcement".

Some people will always find ways to destroy themselves, and governments can do little about it.

So you approve of profiting from their self-destruction then?

 

[Hollow Knight]

So you approve of profiting from their self-destruction then?

Yes. Yes I do.