The Annual Player & Coach Merry-Go-Round

[Tim Freedman]

Tim it would be a shame if the AFL didn't honor your staying neafl players contracts. It must be hard on the players but good on them for staying to build your culture for nothing. It also says a lot about your coaching Tim. Didn't understand how bad the situation is with your debts. P.S. it may be beneficial for you to communicate with Peter about the offerings you and your offsider are making to players. Don't you think? Makes your chairman look silly imo.

- I do get a laugh out of you every time Saviour. I will let you in on a secret. I've never offered and never will offer a player anything other than an opportunity to play footy. I leave all negotiations to the people who are authorised to negotiate. IMO coaches shouldn't get involved in anything other than coaching. I'm more than comfortable with my own credibility and integrity in this area. Unless of course you mean the pie and can of coke that I offered a young bloke close to your heart that lives around the corner from the ground. But we don't need to disclose that do we?

[Coastal Boy]

Oscar, I wasn't trying to be helpful but I wasn't being sarcastic either.

I'll have a crack at elaborating so I can be corrected.

Expenses incurred by a footy club would be: affiliation fees, insurance, umpire payments, coaching, medical, player payments, travel, equipment and ground hire. I have ignored things like the canteen as this should be a money earner.

I would assume that all of the above excluding travel and player payments should be about the same whether it's the NEAFL or the SydneyAFL. Maybe the medical and coaching commitments are greater but no deal breaker.

I assume the club received a grant of between $50k and $100k from the NEAFL which would at least cover travel expenses if these aren't covered elsewhere. Which leaves us with the biggest expense which is player payments that I guess amount to over $150k.

But reports are ECE are hoping to keep most of their current list for next year. So if you disregard player payments from the equation I see the overall difference of expenses as minimal. If you don't spend $100k on travel then you may be ahead.

But this is based on one premise. That you are also not forking out for a PD team as well. In this case the expenditure would be double. However, if ECE choose to drop out of PD instead of NEAFL the situation may be very different which is the point I made.

But hey I'm happy to be enlightened. I don't think any of the comments on this forum have been damaging to ECE. In fact, the prospect of ECE folding is disastrous and though most people "love to hate" them I don't think anyone would find any joy in this predicament for such a well run establishment which other clubs would previously look at with envy(Humphrey excluded).

[chatovadafloor]

Well said Oscar,

Lets hope one Saviour can concentrate on his coaching a bit more and deliver on what he preaches about being a great coach. Surely St George will grow tired of him soon.

Looks like it's time to return to this Message Board after a pleasant six year absence.

In the years before East Coast won their three Premierships in a row, I needed to defend the Eagles on here numerous times against outlandish, and slanderous allegations. None of which ever turned out to be true. Just search for threads under the name of Oscar to satisfy yourself.

To those who have questioned how we could return our senior team to the Sydney AFL with debts galore and still retain players and attract new ones, let me tell you how that happens.

Firstly I am not permitted to tell you the amount of debt run up by the previous Board of Directors. Nor can I reveal how it happened. But the incoming Board under my leadership as President have worked damn hard to get the Club back into a position where it can compete with pride back in a competition it perhaps should never have left.

The Club was 99% dead in the water but a group of dedicated people put their nose to the grindstone to ensure that AFL footy stayed alive in the Norwest. A further group of people, commonly known as NEAFL players, were all given every opportunity to play football elsewhere. Some have chosen to train at Sydney Uni in an attempt to continue their NEAFL careers. We have encouraged them to do that. Some have decided to play elsewhere in Sydney, whilst others have retired, or moved interstate / overseas.

The balance have chosen to remain with the Eagles to play AFL Sydney footy in 2015. And for the right reasons. It is definitely not money, let me reassure all readers. We couldn't possibly replicate the player cost of the NEAFL years and even if we could, we would not do so within the Sydney AFL. We do have some dignity.

To drag Karl Merson's name into this thread and suggest that he is receiving $350 a match is as disgraceful as it is dishonest. I see that Tim Freedman has correctly pointed out tonight that Karl is returning to his own club, but we hope for his sake that he makes the Sydney Uni NEAFL squad of 35. If he doesn't, he wants to play with East Coast as the new rules surrounding the Syd Uni NEAFL club now permit.

Karl, like those former NEAFL players who have chosen to stay an Eagle, simply like the joint and the people involved. Is it a crime to build a club culture that encourages people to stay? That culture nearly died during the three years in the NEAFL, but the moment it was announced that the East Coast Eagles were being resurrected, life instantly became fun again at Bruce Purser Reserve. Players contacted us to find out what it was all about.

Whilst the Sydney Hills Eagles have died and gone to heaven, it doesn't mean that we regret what happened in 2012, 2013 & 2014. "If we didnt have a go we would have never, never known" is a line that is very apt in our case. We learned heaps from it, but at the same time it crippled us financially.

One contributor on here helpfully suggested that it would be dearer to compete in the Sydney AFL than the NEAFL given the removal of AFL subsidies and transport funding. I'm not quite sure how your maths arrived at that figure but I sincerely promise you it is totally incorrect. We will be competing in 2015 responsibly and well within our means, but saddled with payment plans to creditors that will take years to fulfil.

There is still lots more to be done to restore East Coast back to what it was pre NEAFL and stories put around here on Red & White Online don't help at all. Particularly when there is not a shred of truth associated with any statement uttered so far.

We are really looking forward to a fun and enjoyable 2015 playing against all Clubs in all our allotted Divisions. We hope that we are always competitive and can provide quality entertainment for fans of AFL football in Sydney.

With best wishes,

Peter Physick
President
East Coast Eagles AFL Football Club

[Footy Barista]

Put it in your diaries people ST GEORGE VS EAST COAST

[Norris Lurker]

That'll be a grudge match.

One I'm looking forward to for on-field reasons rather than off-field talk is East Coast v Manly. With Manly coming into Premier Division & immediately dominating, and the East Coast Eagles being back as a force like they were pre-NEAFL; that one will be fascinating.

[Pekay]

Ty Armitage off to Northern Blues in the VFL next year.

[Oscar]

Oscar, I wasn't trying to be helpful but I wasn't being sarcastic either.

I'll have a crack at elaborating so I can be corrected.

Expenses incurred by a footy club would be: affiliation fees, insurance, umpire payments, coaching, medical, player payments, travel, equipment and ground hire. I have ignored things like the canteen as this should be a money earner.

I would assume that all of the above excluding travel and player payments should be about the same whether it's the NEAFL or the SydneyAFL. Maybe the medical and coaching commitments are greater but no deal breaker.

I assume the club received a grant of between $50k and $100k from the NEAFL which would at least cover travel expenses if these aren't covered elsewhere. Which leaves us with the biggest expense which is player payments that I guess amount to over $150k.

But reports are ECE are hoping to keep most of their current list for next year. So if you disregard player payments from the equation I see the overall difference of expenses as minimal. If you don't spend $100k on travel then you may be ahead.

But this is based on one premise. That you are also not forking out for a PD team as well. In this case the expenditure would be double. However, if ECE choose to drop out of PD instead of NEAFL the situation may be very different which is the point I made.

But hey I'm happy to be enlightened. I don't think any of the comments on this forum have been damaging to ECE. In fact, the prospect of ECE folding is disastrous and though most people "love to hate" them I don't think anyone would find any joy in this predicament for such a well run establishment which other clubs would previously look at with envy(Humphrey excluded).

Hi Coastal,

Your financial analysis is thorough and I really do appreciate your time spent in preparing it. We are bound by confidentiality agreements in some areas, hence I can't elaborate any more than the following:

At the level of footy we were playing (and remember it was for three years), considerable extra income is required to ensure a competitive squad of players can be assembled and subsequently looked after. The sum of everything you have mentioned, plus a significant increase in match payments, enhanced physio and medical services, marketing / publicity and permanently employed staff added up to a total expenditure that quite simply exceeded income generated within those same three years.

Like any prudent business, budgets had been prepared and the Club entered the NEAFL in 2012 in anticipation of a corresponding increase in corporate sponsorship. Yes we received a grant each year from the AFL via their NEAFL operations and the travel was also covered directly by the AFL. But when income from the Club's own resources falls short of what was required, the hole gets gradually deeper and deeper and at some stage you have to stop digging. We simply could not generate the additional sponsorship income required to sustain continuity in the NEAFL and a decision had to be made at some stage.

The Club reached that point midway through season 2014 and after a thorough analysis of the position it was decided that our only choice was to return its senior team to the AFL Sydney competition. That approval was granted and here we are. It will be some time before the Club is back in the black. However, as with any company which falls on hard financial times but can still legally trade, an operating budget for future years is constructed to ensure it can still do business and meet all obligations as they fall due.

When that business is a footy club it needs players to play and although some former Eagle NEAFL players have remained loyal, there will be many local kids who will step up to don the blue and gold of the East Coast Eagles in 2015 and beyond.

I?d like to think that our position is now understood and explained as simply as I can. The Club is in much better shape now than four months ago and will only get stronger as the players, members and supporters unite to restore the Eagles to what we all remember.

PS Hope you don?t mind paying an extra $1 for an Eagle burger at home games ....

[Pekay]

H

Hope you don?t mind paying an extra $1 for an Eagle burger at home games ....

Is it made of real eagle Pete, or is it just beef?

[chatovadafloor]

finest eagle and with a special salt added on too.

Is it made of real eagle Pete, or is it just beef?

[justabaraker]

I baggs the salmon when you turn it on, Oscar...to die for. Or are you just limited to wild bird burgers now that the reins are pulled in ?

Interesting comments about how hard it is to generate interest from sponsors (Hey, you didn't quite say that but I get the drift.)
Did the NEAFL concept open any doors otherwise not open when you were SFL ?
And can you see any ways that sponsorship might arc up ? Sad to say that our SFL is a mighty small fish in a huge pond and I really can't see what it's in it for a sponsor.
Oh well, perhaps we have to be content with generous mums and dads who make their little family business a sponsor so they can help out.

[Oscar]

I baggs the salmon when you turn it on, Oscar...to die for. Or are you just limited to wild bird burgers now that the reins are pulled in ?

Interesting comments about how hard it is to generate interest from sponsors (Hey, you didn't quite say that but I get the drift.)
Did the NEAFL concept open any doors otherwise not open when you were SFL ?
And can you see any ways that sponsorship might arc up ? Sad to say that our SFL is a mighty small fish in a huge pond and I really can't see what it's in it for a sponsor.
Oh well, perhaps we have to be content with generous mums and dads who make their little family business a sponsor so they can help out.

I'd forgotten about the day we cooked the salmon. Could certainly get another run.

We'll do a pig on the spit one weekend next season. And re-create the fried v steamed dimmie cook-off which was a hoot this year.

Sponsorship at that level was difficult ... leave it at that. Every other club we played was backed by an AFL Club or a Licenced Club in Qld and / or the ACT.

When seeking sponsors, little fish (and lots of them) are always the sweetest.

[Coastal Boy]

The whole idea of any NEAFL team in Sydney becoming self sufficient is a very tall order indeed. Raising sponsorship is almost impossible. Sydney has 9 league teams, 1 union, 3 soccer, 2 afl, 1 baseball, 1 netball, 3 cricket and 2 basketball teams playing in national competitions. That's 22 teams (and may be more) all vying for a limited dollar. For a population of 4.something million this must be unparalleled anywhere in the world.

I remember chatting to Burkinshaw years ago who conceded that ongoing input from the league for any NEAFL team must occur. It's obviously not enough.

There's really nothing to offer sponsors in exposure. It should be called donations and even the kind heartest afl supporter has a limit to helping their club. I can only imagine Sydney Uni have a finite number of years before they opt out as well.

IMO The only way forward for any individual club is by combining in a group effort to improve the SydneyAFL competition as a whole. The NSWAFL/AFL seems to keep thinking of new ways of "demoting" the SydneyAFL.

[justabaraker]

...Sponsorship at that level was difficult ... leave it at that. Every other club we played was backed by an AFL Club or a Licenced Club in Qld and / or the ACT....

I'm getting off the track but I'll keep going til Norris gazzumps me.....
If a NEAFL team is just like standing under the shower, ripping $50 notes (a sailing joke !!), then it's no surprise that SHE bailed because the rewards just don't seem to be there. You were just witches' hats for the AFL reserves squads.
But you have to wonder how the AFL clubs and Licenced clubs justify money going down the gurgler like that...they have governance principles to follow and business models that must stack up.
I admired your club sticking with it for as long as you did, but it always looked a bit of a pipe-dream to me.

Better that you're out I reckon.

[saviour01]

Well said Oscar,

Lets hope one Saviour can concentrate on his coaching a bit more and deliver on what he preaches about being a great coach. Surely St George will grow tired of him soon.

Haha I've only been watching AFL for 4 years, no chance you'd find me coaching. I'm the fat bloke running round in ressies who gets a couple of touches a game.

[Offal]

Ty Armitage off to Northern Blues in the VFL next year.

Kilpatrick has gone there as well.

Kilpatrick joins, as Blues secure Giant double