NMFC Board Elections

[Del191229]

Of course that would be better, but we’d still be relying on handouts.

Sometimes you need to prove to the market that you can do it without help of anyone but a bank.

I’d rather buy it, then lease it back to the pool or huddle or whatever and get them to pay off our mortgage.

Or better yet, turn it into a 15,000 seat + 7000 standing room stadium to take back the Tassie games against low drawing clubs and rent it out to festivals, concerts and WBBL during the off-season.

Ie: think big, can always scale it back if required.

Oh man you need to really educate yourself on how all this shit works.

 

[Del191229]

I’m more than comfortable that you have an opinion different to mine R. Please don’t vote for me if you are happy.

You actually want me to believe that this sentence construction combined with the first letter of my name is the result of some freak two handed typo where you accidentally managed to hold down shift and R at the same time?

Righto.

 

[GreatBradScott]

Of course that would be better, but we’d still be relying on handouts.

Sometimes you need to prove to the market that you can do it without help of anyone but a bank.

I’d rather buy it, then lease it back to the pool or huddle or whatever and get them to pay off our mortgage.

Or better yet, turn it into a 15,000 seat + 7000 standing room stadium to take back the Tassie games against low drawing clubs and rent it out to festivals, concerts and WBBL during the off-season.

Ie: think big, can always scale it back if required.

It is amazing how easy this stuff is to dream up when you don't consider transport needs, parking approvals, safety and emergency pre-requisites. Not mention having three tiers of Government in your backpocket like the Dogs do.

Also is the econony going to turn? Retail figures suggest going to the bank as a private institution and not a govt backed entity is probably not really smart right now.

The late 80s, early 90s recession wiped out Fitzroy, nearly Sydney, Footscray and Richmond, while nearly merging half the competition too. If you want to roll that dice, good on you.

I don't love Tassie, but it's money in the bank while we consider the next move. Rapid expansion would be insane - we need to work on investing in different revenue streams first to get out of there.

 

[Del191229]

There's a hell of a lot of land down that way that's council owned and they could be convinced to part with to us, a la what the Dogs got.

But you best believe "We're gunna chuck the feminists and reffos out for a start!" is NOT going to wash with the City of Melbourne.

People don't like that? Fine, but grow the **** up and accept the reality. That's how it is.

 

[Del191229]

There's also going to be massive sponsorship opportunities from the big construction firms who are buying up the land around Arden metro to build apartments.

And we have those ****ers over a barrel too, this is where we can be properly ruthless - oh hey Grollo or Lend/Lease, building a 50 story apartment across the road from our grand, that'll be a million bucks in sponsorship thanks.

Oh, don't want to pay, we've just put a whole raft of objections about your project, and the dust, and the trucks, and the ****en music your tradies play into council.

Oh, costing you tens of thousands a day the delays are? Here's the dotted line ****o.

THIS is the kind of stuff I wanted to hear from Crappers, not a bunch of motherhood statements I can get from any mid level bureaucrat in local government.

 

[Caracas]

Don't let empty seats in North allocated members area be on-sold to opposition supporters [emoji106]

Members can on-sell them if they are not attending. Can't make it ? Bad luck.

I must admit I support this every time I attend Etihad and we’re losing, H. However, it’s fundamentally against everything I’d like to think I stand for in my gradually decreasing rational moments. So, I’m torn. Lol. Nothing worse than a Bomber supporter behind you when Daniher is kicking from the centre square and you just know he’s going to kick nearly his first goal of the season - and/because we’re being flogged!


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[King Corey]

Firstly, kudos to Paul Crapper for throwing his hat in the ring and having the gravitas to be put up on the hoist in this thread.

Some thoughts from the thread thus far..

People seem to take license to scrutinise any candidate who wanders online over and above their normal level of interest in such matters.

I recall Caroline Carnegie was subject to some equally patronising rhetoric. Are these same posters contacting the club and testing out the incumbents in the same way? Do they attend AGMs and question the board with the same vigour? Or are they just big men (or women) in the safety of the online format?

Any candidate’s gloss would break down under such cross-examination online.

People seem to issue a level of expectation and competence for candidates who sign up on Bigfooty as somewhere in the Barrack Obama meets Winston Churchill territory. Ditto the candidate’s diplomacy skills, with the aforementioned skillset also requiring the demeanour of the Dalai Lama.

Wonder how a 40yo Allen Aylett would’ve come across? What about a current day Eddie McGuire?

It’s unrealistic to ask someone not even on the board to compose and articulate extensive strategies on club direction.

They’re not privy to the inner workings of the club. And there’s the small matter of keeping their powder dry.

If Paul Crapper came out and said “I vehemently oppose playing in Tasmania and will agitate from the get-go to terminate this arrangement ASAP if I’m elected” .. how might this affect his platform and odds of getting elected?

Unfortunately I regard NMFC club elections as lame duck affairs.

Tally up most interested parties – match attending members, online forum members, coterie members. Then ponder how many of those take any interest in board elections. Then whittle it down to those who’d take the time to understand the candidates. Whittle down further to those then motivated enough to manage the effort to vote.

I’d guess you’d be left with a tiny sliver of the total membership base.

Assuming the chairman can direct huge swathes of proxies at the drop of a hat I can’t see anyone no matter how benevolent or malevolent penetrating that power structure.

Should an outsider manage to generate enough PR to rock the boat the incumbent board can just respond with their own PR (with interest) anyway.

I’ll wager right now less than 50% of the regular posters on here will even bother to vote and this group represents some of the most interested observers in the club’s supporter base.

Go to an AGM if you think independent voices are really supported.

Nobody got up and clapped Ron Joseph when he exposed the club’s rubbery numbers. Arceri’s dad actually made a valid request about the merits of a club café and found himself as a Bigfooty meme as a result. A supporter who tried to cross-examine the board about the Tasmania arrangements in their infancy actually got booed by his fellow supporters.

 

[Del191229]

There's also going to be massive sponsorship opportunities from the big construction firms who are buying up the land around Arden metro to build apartments.

And we have those f***ers over a barrel too, this is where we can be properly ruthless - oh hey Grollo or Lend/Lease, building a 50 story apartment across the road from our grand, that'll be a million bucks in sponsorship thanks.

Oh, don't want to pay, we've just put a whole raft of objections about your project, and the dust, and the trucks, and the fu**en music your tradies play into council.

Oh, costing you tens of thousands a day the delays are? Here's the dotted line fu**o.

THIS is the kind of stuff I wanted to hear from Crappers, not a bunch of motherhood statements I can get from any mid level bureaucrat in local government.

Come on Asifhe Givashe don't just LOL, give us your wisdom.

 

[Caracas]

Most, if not all of us, know SFA as to what really goes on at the NMFC Board level. All candidates have put forward the "I love and want what is best for the Club" but none have detailed what that is and how it is to be achieved. Paul is at a disadvantage at this point in that he also doesn't know the Board members thinking.

The Club has one major failing that hasn't been successfully addressed - Our Image.
We have for years of being referred to as “cash strapped”, “struggling”, “small”, “poor facilities” etc and this is killing us. The AFL's marketing of this together with Caro and co has had us on the back foot for 2-3 decades.

I have a friend who barracked for Fitzroy. When they went under, he stopped following AFL for 5 years. When he decided to come back even though North was his “2nd team”, he couldn’t bring himself to join us for fear that he would incur a 2nd Fitzroy experience. He went for Geelong.

If a person says to his friends that he/she is considering becoming a North member they are likely to hear – don’t join them they will either be shipped off to Tasmania or disappear like Fitzroy or South Melbourne within X years.

When the Club went with its modern logo years back, the President stated that this would enable us to grow or words to that effect. A logo alone won’t help us, the Club has to aggressively and innovatively market itself as a long-term Melbourne based Club. Our increases in games in Tasmania over the years plus, JB’s push for 7 games there is still killing us.

Effectively establish us as Melbourne based and we will grow

Hey, Limerick. Based purely on the individual “likes” you received for this post, you should toss your hat into the ring for Secretary General of the UN! Talk about speaking to everyone...


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[Asifhe Givashe]

Oh man you need to really educate yourself on how all this shit works.

Come on Asifhe Givashe don't just LOL, give us your wisdom.

I’m not laughing at you, I agree with your premise here. It was a good post.

I have been rorting government subsidies and schemes for near on 12 years, I’ve dealt with councils repeatedly on a number of utility scale energy projects and have come to the conclusion that we need to rid ourselves (however difficult it may be) of life on the teet. It’s counter productive to the financial independence we must seek.

I don’t have the requisite skills (happy to admit that I bow down to some of you in amazement at your knowledge, others not so much) to pull something like this together, however as others have pointed out, including myself, let’s welcome people on to this board until they prove themselves to be anti-north. Let’s not just assume the worst of every single poster who rocks up and barrel them into submission. I hate the pack mindset. It’s beneath all of us.

On a side note, I’d assume the ‘white knights’ would be more interested in investing into building an asset base, not just an overdraft facility. I know that’s how my brain works which explains my good meaning but ultimately flawed concept.

 

[big_e]

Kudos to Paul Crapper for running. I voted for him because he has a resume which suggests he will be a good director and because, on principle, I want to support more “outsiders” running. (As long as they are suitably qualified, unlike Mr Wangmann.) For the record, I heartily endorse and voted for Sonja Hood and Ben Buckley. Arch misses out in the knowledge that there are many other good ex-players or footy people who can fill the football director portfolio and be appointed in the months to come.

I think Crapper is learning the hard way about the difference between how most boards get appointed, and a public election. It’s not about being the most qualified, you need to have a strong and targeted campaign. He’s not done that, and will miss out as a result. He’d have had a better chance if he spoke about his expertise in risk management and referred to the ultimately appalling extension of Brad Scott’s contract. People around this forum knew it was risky, and it would have cost us a lot of coin if not for a very large favour from the AFL.

Someone with a view to the potential risks and contingent liabilities of an early dismissal may have been able to either stand in the way or at least make a contribution in slowing things down and saved a lot of heartache last year. I also think Archer may not be totally independent in judging Rhyce Shaw given he was on the panel that appointed him – if it all goes horribly wrong, will he be willing to change his view? Very few people do.

 

[SMaturin]

I have no issue with any of the runners. And that's the issue for mine. At a point in time that will (in my opinion) decide the long term future of the club once and for all, I ultimately have no idea what (if any) the mid to long term strategies for cementing the club's Melbourne footprint are on behalf of any board members.

Literally no idea.

 

[Limerick]

1. Firstly, kudos to Paul Crapper for throwing his hat in the ring and having the gravitas to be put up on the hoist in this thread.

2. Go to an AGM if you think independent voices are really supported.

3. Nobody got up and clapped Ron Joseph when he exposed the club’s rubbery numbers. Arceri’s dad actually made a valid request about the merits of a club café and found himself as a Bigfooty meme as a result. A supporter who tried to cross-examine the board about the Tasmania arrangements in their infancy actually got booed by his fellow supporters.

1. Totally agree.

2. I did when I challenged JB's brother's eligibility to stand. Got talked down to by some legal expert who basically said while he may not be eligible we must move forward i.e. don't rock the boat we know what's best.

3. I got up and walked out with Ron and congratulated him on standing up.

 

[Gasometer]

Someone needs to learn how to reply

Just sayin

 

[King Corey]

2. I did when I challenged JB's brother's eligibility to stand. Got talked down to by some legal expert who basically said while he may not be eligible we must move forward i.e. don't rock the boat we know what's best.

Was that membership-gate?

3. I got up and walked out with Ron and congratulated him on standing up.

Fwiw did the same with the guy dissenting against Tassie, he needed at least one person to say "good on you".

Iirc, you posed a question at that AGM?

 

[Hello Mr Thompson]

Someone needs to learn how to reply

Just sayin[/QUOTE yeah agreed.



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[Limerick]

Can we organise facts here though - the football department has been a disgrace, that's the only failure. Administratively and from a business POV, the club is in the best position it's ever been. A very small debt, money in the bank and investing continually in our assets.

Like nostalgia for the old days is great, but not sure what's so macho about tin rattling.

I can't agree with the bolded statement. Yes, we have knocked off the debt. However;

a) our membership hasn't improved relative to the Victorian Clubs i.e. we are going backward even with Tasmania. We need to get above Melbourne (52,421), Western Bulldogs (44,373) and St Kilda (43,038) i.e. we need to achieve 60k+ by 2022. Can this be achieved with our poor image, I doubt it.

b) how long will the "money in the bank" last if we have a lean period.

b) Without our poor image being addressed we will be the vulnerable Victorian club and the AFL WILL get rid of us either by relocation (the death of one Club to start a new club), merger (if this happens we will be the very poor component) or have our license revoked due to financial pressure.

 

[D23D]

Firstly, kudos to Paul Crapper for throwing his hat in the ring and having the gravitas to be put up on the hoist in this thread.

Some thoughts from the thread thus far..

People seem to take license to scrutinise any candidate who wanders online over and above their normal level of interest in such matters.

I recall Caroline Carnegie was subject to some equally patronising rhetoric. Are these same posters contacting the club and testing out the incumbents in the same way? Do they attend AGMs and question the board with the same vigour? Or are they just big men (or women) in the safety of the online format?

Any candidate’s gloss would break down under such cross-examination online.

People seem to issue a level of expectation and competence for candidates who sign up on Bigfooty as somewhere in the Barrack Obama meets Winston Churchill territory. Ditto the candidate’s diplomacy skills, with the aforementioned skillset also requiring the demeanour of the Dalai Lama.

Wonder how a 40yo Allen Aylett would’ve come across? What about a current day Eddie McGuire?

It’s unrealistic to ask someone not even on the board to compose and articulate extensive strategies on club direction.

They’re not privy to the inner workings of the club. And there’s the small matter of keeping their powder dry.

If Paul Crapper came out and said “I vehemently oppose playing in Tasmania and will agitate from the get-go to terminate this arrangement ASAP if I’m elected” .. how might this affect his platform and odds of getting elected?

Unfortunately I regard NMFC club elections as lame duck affairs.

Tally up most interested parties – match attending members, online forum members, coterie members. Then ponder how many of those take any interest in board elections. Then whittle it down to those who’d take the time to understand the candidates. Whittle down further to those then motivated enough to manage the effort to vote.

I’d guess you’d be left with a tiny sliver of the total membership base.

Assuming the chairman can direct huge swathes of proxies at the drop of a hat I can’t see anyone no matter how benevolent or malevolent penetrating that power structure.

Should an outsider manage to generate enough PR to rock the boat the incumbent board can just respond with their own PR (with interest) anyway.

I’ll wager right now less than 50% of the regular posters on here will even bother to vote and this group represents some of the most interested observers in the club’s supporter base.

Go to an AGM if you think independent voices are really supported.

Nobody got up and clapped Ron Joseph when he exposed the club’s rubbery numbers. Arceri’s dad actually made a valid request about the merits of a club café and found himself as a Bigfooty meme as a result. A supporter who tried to cross-examine the board about the Tasmania arrangements in their infancy actually got booed by his fellow supporters.

Thank you KC. Extremely well said as per usual. You are at the very pointy end of online posters when it comes to sanity, reason and courtesy.
Also, thank you Mr Crapper for sticking your neck out and offering up your time to provide input and direction to the future of our NMFC. Good luck

 

[GreatBradScott]

I can't agree with the bolded statement. Yes, we have knocked off the debt. However;

a) our membership hasn't improved relative to the Victorian Clubs i.e. we are going backward even with Tasmania. We need to get above Melbourne (52,421), Western Bulldogs (44,373) and St Kilda (43,038) i.e. we need to achieve 60k+ by 2022. Can this be achieved with our poor image, I doubt it.

b) how long will the "money in the bank" last if we have a lean period.

b) Without our poor image being addressed we will be the vulnerable Victorian club and the AFL WILL get rid of us either by relocation (the death of one Club to start a new club), merger (if this happens we will be the very poor component) or have our license revoked due to financial pressure.

Which is a job for the CEO, who the board appointed. Southern Cross Austereo is a massive company and while he was there, the joint boomed. Negotiated a billion dollar TV rights deal for a global sport too.

I wasn't convinced initially, but the more I learn about the bloke and see/hear around the traps he is the exact sort of canny operator we need.

We will not be relocated and we will not be merged.

What you are indulging in hypotheticals - the fact is we are objectively in the best position we've ever been off-field.

We were a shitshow up until the 1970s, had a brief window of cash injection, and then from the mid-1980s onwards were scragging until Brayshaws, Euge, Funky et el rocked up to right the joint and run it with a careful hand.

The mistake they made was letting the footy department go as long as they did. In my view, those in that area failed and have sullied a fine job being done.

The fact the Chairman and co. put down their foot in the middle of the year and recognised many positions needed a spill is healthy.

That is why have done a complete 180 and have my support.

Upsetting the apple cart with a bunch of vague promises and statements with absolutely no roadmap to do that is not what we need now.

 

[big_e]

Someone needs to learn how to reply

Just sayin

I was going to ask if he'd posted here before but it quickly became apparent the answer was no.

 

[sbdan]

I expect the board members to have a clear set of goals and standards.

On field and off field.

On field a premiership is the goal and so failure to win premierships, which happens a lot, needs to met with a proper analysis of what's happening in the footy department. Then appropriate action.

Right now given the wholesale changes and what appears to be a plan - so many people who've coached teams to flags at lower levels, so they get what is needed to bring success to a footy club. The buck has stopped with them in the past and they've brought it all together. Brady Rawlings who has seen success in WA.

They have that as a strategy and have voiced a two or three year timeline to be successful - ie to win the flag.

Off field things seem to be as well organised as they have been this last decade.

The club has three teams, reasonable finances, a ground at the centre of what could be a gentrified nightmare unique local precinct with its own train stop.

Issues are really membership numbers, Tassie and eventually increased member control over the board.

Specifically...


What happens with Tassie - 2 games? 7? None?

By when? We need certainty in the form of a plan. Uncertainty is worrying cos it could hide increased numbers of Hobart games.

How many games in the future and what's the timeline associated with those games.

What are youse doing about membership numbers?

We haven't been close to the numbers we had 4 seasons ago. How many if those numbers are pissed about what happened to Boomer? How do we re engage them?

Obviously we need to target migrant groups to expand membership numbers. What are we doing about that?

Why don't the board buy 25 simple memberships and the encourage the senior players to come with another 100 and the coaching staff sat another 20 or 30. Then we donate them to The Huddle to promote the club.

Maybe they could give deserving individuals memberships or they could pool the tickets and use them to reward kids who seem to be doing well. Maybe some combination of both. Or something along those lines.

The membership numbers has to be one of the big concerns for the admin.

My secret shame is that i dropped off buying a membership last year. I live too far away to ever see a game. I was essentially paying $100 or $120 for the cap and the magazine, and i couldn't justify that last year (with 4 kids i always have some other bill to pay). I saw this year they have a $50 interstate package, so they are making changes and i am back in. Little things like that make a difference.

Donated memberships via the huddle has been tried before i think, but is something that needs to be persisted with to help new aussies get that footy addiction and then commit.

And maybe they could ask boomer to make some calls to the lapsed members. Nobody could resist!

 

[gokangas]

The membership numbers has to be one of the big concerns for the admin.

My secret shame is that i dropped off buying a membership last year. I live too far away to ever see a game. I was essentially paying $100 or $120 for the cap and the magazine, and i couldn't justify that last year (with 4 kids i always have some other bill to pay). I saw this year they have a $50 interstate package, so they are making changes and i am back in. Little things like that make a difference.

Donated memberships via the huddle has been tried before i think, but is something that needs to be persisted with to help new aussies get that footy addiction and then commit.

And maybe they could ask boomer to make some calls to the lapsed members. Nobody could resist!

Shut up and buy a membership.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Can we organise facts here though - the football department has been a disgrace, that's the only failure.

It's the only fact that matters. The remainder is irrelevant.

 

[GreatBradScott]

It's the only fact that matters. The remainder is irrelevant.

Since the turn of millennium, outside of the Western Bulldogs miracle, every club that has won a flag has had their house together at the time.

This isn't an accident.

 

[Clarke is King]

I wanted to vote for Paul Crapper because I like what he stands for but he doesn't know how to use the quote/reply functions on bigfooty and apparently he hates fully magnetized fixtures :stern look