Poor form Mr Sierakowski

[sainter]

I am not sure if anyone caught the article yesterday but current West Coast Eagles director and 1966 St Kilda premiership player Brian Sierakowski said yesterday that St Kilda would be lucky to survive the next 2 or 3 years. While someone in the saints forum has suggested that these comments made to the ABC over the weekend were taken out of context, he went on to say that our membership level has to improve and that the best option for us is to amalgamate.

Andrew Plympton quite rightly reminded him that as a financial director of another club that he has no right to comment on our affairs. More specifically, the thing that Plympton mentioned that I feel most strongly about is that he is the father of current saints player David Sierakowski. He has no right casting dispersions on our club and when his own son is at the club, I think it is in very bad taste.

I suppose it could be interpreted that he is still very concerned about the well-being of the club but as Plympton said (and myself many times but the media always neglect to mention), the club has made profits for the past 3 years and there are a number of clubs in Victoria who are under financial duress.

Perhaps it is just a ploy of the West Coast Eagles. With their current losing streak, they just feel that they need to re-create the kind of attitude they have towards many other Victorian teams.

This is probably not of too much interest to anyone else but David is one of my favourite players because he doesn't have the skill of most of the team but has a bigger heart than most players in the team.

 

[Grave Danger]

And I suppose by now all the Saints players will have a copy of the article tucked into their footy socks...

 

[The Dutchman!]

Right on Sainter!

What a gutless, disloyal thing for a guy like that to come out with.

Dutchy

PS. Great win over the pussy cats dude BTW..

 

[Frank Brutally]

Sadly Sainter the name of the game is 'cash flow' & not 'profit margin'.

You can wiggle & jiggle figures & bring foward or back player payments & the like to balance the ledger. Ultimately it means nothing if their is no real cash flow.

Carlton are in quite big debt. New Grandstands don't come cheap - but they have cash flow.

I don't wish this upon the Saints but when Plympton resigns at the season's end I think only then will the true horror story emerge.

I wish you luck. Football needs the Saints.

 

[gocatsgo]

A surprise to many but Geelong has actually made a running profit 2 of the last 3 years yet at the start of the year were 7 million in debt.

Like Carlton, Grandstands at Geelong don't come cheap, that's why there is a debt.

Teams that have a debt and cashflow problem have been able to raise their membership this season, Geelong and North are examples, but sides likes the Bulldogs and StKilda who aren't officialy in debt but still struggle to break even are the one's who are suffering because of their low membership this year.

I agree with you Sainter that Sierakowski should worry about his own club that he deals with and not the one he used to play for. The Eagles aren't exactly setting the world on fire at the moment either.

But I have to admit that there may be some merit into what he is saying. Although I'd hate to see it happen.

There is no doubt that StKilda, Bulldogs, Kangaroos and Melbourne are the teams that are in the most vulnerable position at the moment. StKilda, Bulldogs and Melbourne HAVE to increase their membership to survive in the future. Maybe not so much Melbourne, not while Diamond Joe is there ayway.

The Kangaroos have to get people to their games and cashflow into the ground.

I don't think that 6-10,000 in Sydney is what they want and they are sure to lose out on those games.

 

[sainter]

Thanks Dutchy,

I don't care what others say, I was rapt with our performance. From the looks of tonights match, it looks like you are heading towards win 18 very easily.

gocatsgo, you are incredibly naive and are deluding yourself if you continue to overlook the fact that you are $3 million in debt. I fail to see how you can owe so much money and then not even acknowledge that your club is in a vulnerable position. You have managed to increase your membership this year and that is well and good. The challenge is to maintain that membership level consistently over a long period of time. This very challenge is very important for all teams in the competition but to point the finger at the teams with lower memberships at this time is a little silly. St Kilda are firmly entrenched on the bottom of the ladder. What is to say that Geelong won't have a poor year next year. The events of this week have shown how fickle some of your supporters can be. Are you telling me Geelong will continually sign up 25,000 members after a couple of bottom two finishes? I am not saying that I think it will happen but you can not rule it out.

No, we do not struggle to break even every single year. Please do not confuse the 80's or mid 90's with the last 3 or 4 years. Sorry to everyone for having to repeat statistics over and over again but we spent well over $1.5 million on upgrading our club rooms and purchasing audio visual equipment. Like a lot of the clubs you have labelled as vulnerable, we will continue to spend on the development of our club. We may struggle to make any money this year and that will depend on the level of compensation that tenant clubs receive due to the lies fed to us and the bulldogs. But are we going to have to fold in the next two or three years, I don't think so!

You both don't need to tell me the difference between cash flow and a profit. From what I have heard, we don't have a considerable number of liquid assets at the present time but I would think that a continual increase in revenue is what is needed for all clubs. (I'm sure Frank Brutality can help me out on that)

By the way, if what I saw on the Carlton, Collingwood and Geelong Show last night was right, Sam Newman stated that he only saw the last few minutes of the Geelong vs St Kilda clash up in Queensland but still felt compelled to call his clubs effort pissweak. However I suppose his points on their culture may be relevant. You were quick to judge my teams culture a few days ago gocatsgo, what do you think about Sam's comments?

 

[gocatsgo]

Agreed Sainter, that was the most disgraceful footy show in its history. (Even though my club was one who was talked about)

But, Sainter I think it is clear that the AFL want Geelong in the competition in the long term, and if they need to will bail out the club like they bailed out Sydney, Fremantle and Brisbane.

I don't know if it as clear at StKilda and the Bulldogs and North.

 

[Grendel]

gocatsgo, who are you trying to convince?
No way known would the AFL even consider bailing any vic club out like they would our northern neighbours.
In particualar while I agree that the Dogs/Saints/Roos all now look in the most strife, it wasnt to far back that the original football club was almost given up in the so-called merger with my Hawks. Before that they were quite happy for the tigers to nearly go to the wall, and yep even the mighty Maggies had to get out of debt under their own actions with no help from the league.
If you think they would be a knight in armour to rescue the Cats if push comes to shove, mate sorry to say it, but they would be coming to put the sword in.
LESS clubs in Victoria is what they want and they dont care who goes. Better still for them if its one of the 'lesser' clubs too.

 

[Grave Danger]

Brian Sierakowski's comments vindicated.

 

[sainter]

Vindicated Grave Danger?

I don't believe his comments had anything to do with the on-field performance of St Kilda.

Whether we win or lose from now on, we still have the wooden spoon. Frankly, the difference between winning 2 games and 5 games has little bearing apart from the fact that we will lose our concession pick. We have won MANY wooden spoons and you all know that. However, this is the first time that we will have been given a concession pick in our history and I think having the first two picks in the national draft will help a great deal.

And I agree Grendel. The only reason I can think of the AFL wanting Geelong to stay in the competition is because they are a provincial city. And like you have said, they were more than willing to allow the oldest (or one of the oldest) football clubs in the world to merge. If less Victorian teams is what the AFL want, do you really think they would bail out specific team and let others die?

I agree with your thoughts for some Victorian clubs needing to increase memberships gocatsgo. And in that instance, no club can afford to labour towards the bottom of the ladder for too many years. That is our challenge and one I think we have already started to work towards.