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TheBrownDog
- Dec 23, 2002
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- 60,118
- AFL Club
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- There can be only one...
The merger had been in the media since early May, the supporters had a lot of time to consider it and it was the desired outcome from the supporters and they voiced their opinions clearly both at the grounds and in the media, you would have to be out of touch with the supporters and reality to believe anything else. There was no formal vote, but there didn't need to be one as we were the only club willing to offer anything other than a takeover deal.
I'm not omitting anything, both our clubs agreed to those modifications and it was still significantly better than anything anyone else had offered.
Them... Ours... Yours... Mine... It was about putting the best board together for the future.
Fitzroy board and administration were primarily at fault for the demise of the club, anyone retained was purely symbolic, board members change, none of our board members at the time are still with us now so how critical is it really? We were in a similar boat but we had a substantially better relationship with our creditors and a significant part in that is leadership.
When our social club went bankrupt, as a separate legal entity our legal advice was to let it fold and to leave creditors unpaid, yet we underwrote the social club and all creditors were paid out. Despite our issues, we still had good relations with our lenders and creditors. It would have been diabolical to give equal representation and authority to people who had just offered Nauru 42 cents in the dollar for their loan, which was the catalyst for them appointing Ernst and Young to recover their debt in full.
The only thing that mattered was getting the supporter bases united, it would have been roughly a 50/50 split and at the end of the day, future board positions would be representative of the united supporter base.
Absolutely, but what was critical was combining the supporter bases, when the dust settles, it is these people who have the power to choose board members or make any other changes to the club.
Fitzroy opened Pandora's box by entertaining the Brisbane Bears, and once that had become a considered option, AFL made it a reality by hook or by crook.
Again, largely pointless because you didn't get a better offer and in the grand scheme of things wouldn't matter as it would be the collective members voting for positions in the future.
Ultimately, approaching Brisbane and attempting to play them off was the death knell.
Supporters didn't have to accept that outcome, obviously, not all of them did and there was a backlash post mortem but none of that mattered in the end.
He was the one who brought Brisbane into the picture and nothing they offered was remotely comparable to what we offered, which is why North was still his preferred option, but he had already let the wolves in the door. I can't believe that he was simply that naive.
Administrator was appointed before the 28th. You know why the administrator was appointed, right? Fitzroy had offered Naru 42 cents in the dollar on their debt, Nauru Insurance Corp rejected it and appointed Ernst & Young administrator to collect the full debt. AFL had underwritten any additional debt Fitzroy would accumulate between then and the 28th. Any deal that didn't have Nauru being paid in full was going to be vetoed by the administrators.
AFL threw petrol on the fire by raising the possibility of stripping Fitzroy of it's licence due to being insolvent, and granting a temporary licence to a shelf-company that would acquire the Fitzroy players until the end of the season, but wouldn't be burdened by having to deal with Fitzroy's existing creditors. This news was seen by the administrator and creditors as the AFL move to undermine their position, while it may have been legal was not ethical.
The Age reported on July 2nd that the AFL had given Fitzroy until 5 July to consummate a merger with North and satisfy its creditors or the league would withdraw all funding and leave the club to die.
AFL scheduled a meeting of the clubs on July 4, 11 of the then 16 clubs had to support the merger for it to proceed. All the media had been reporting that the North-Fitzroy merger was inevitable.
Despite our list and salary cap being in line with the package the AFL had offered to clubs willing to merge, all of a sudden the day before the meeting there was a lot of noise at club level, that club presidents were worried about a super team being created, despite Fitzroy being almost picked clean of talent over the years.
The AFL had been undermining the deal ever since DHL brought Brisbane to the table, the usual suspects at the Age and the Sun were putting out AFL propaganda.
Ernst and Young said they would approve the North-Fitzroy merger, as the creditors would be paid in full, all that was required was for the clubs to vote for the merger to proceed. Come the 5th of July and 14 of the 15 clubs voted against the merger, this was with the same list package that the same clubs voted yes for between Hawthorn and Melbourne.
There was no talk of any other merger being voted on, but all these presidents voted no, in anticipation that the Brisbane-Fitzroy option would then be tabled. Brisbane's offer had a reduced Fitzroy playing complement, only taking 8 players. We offered to match the same number of players, as Fitzroy had a forgettable list of players at that point anyway, we just wanted there to be more than a token number of Fitzroy players but if that was an obstacle (despite the first offer being in accordance with the AFL package) we were prepared to reduce the numbers. The Age reported that after several meetings between the AFL commission and officials from North and Brisbane, North Melbourne was informed that the commission believed that a merger with Brisbane was in the best interests of the national competition... even though the mergers were intended to merge smaller Melbourne clubs to make stronger Melbourne clubs. Another vote was held and the presidents approved of it only because Brisbane was a lot weaker than we were that year, even though the nuts and bolts of our offer was identical to Brisbane on paper, we were giving Fitzroy greater representation. The AFL basically decided who you were going to merge with and had orchestrated it and like self-interested patsies, the other clubs allowed their own insecurities to be stoked by the AFL to induce a short-term decision from what was to be a lifetime commitment.
This all transpired because DHL let the wolves in the door.
Oh, lets not forget in another show of lack of class, Footscray was prepared to take legal action against a North-Fitzroy merger because Fitzroy had an agreement with Footscray to play from their shithole oval for 20 years. Way to go putting the foot down on the dying club, really thought long and hard about what was best for the Fitzroy supporters.
I don't think he intended it to pan out the way he did, but bringing Brisbane to the table for minor petty issues ultimately is what resulted in the AFL undermining them.
Fitzroy supporters were basically told to go support Brisbane and it was basically for the good of the game that you prop up the Bears. The fact anyone did so was surprising and it reiterates my view of gullibility.
Well, we were the only club to vote yes, ever other club voted to * over Fitzroy supporters because North was the flag favourite that year, what a bunch of short-sighted morons.
Next time Fat Eddie bemoans the fate of Fitzroy, ask him why his club opposed the merger. I wouldn't support any club that voted to screw me over.
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