The Annual Player & Coach Merry-Go-Round

[Norris Lurker]

And Fowler's gone to Victoria as well. Can't blame them for wanting to have a crack at a higher level; but it leaves a hole at Manly.

[Offal]

And Fowler's gone to Victoria as well. Can't blame them for wanting to have a crack at a higher level; but it leaves a hole at Manly.

Could not agree with you more Norris - you can never die wondering regardless of level.

Personally, I wondered whether I could cut it as a 35yo Premier League rookie after playing my career at lower levels - I won't die wondering.

On another note, don't meas with Pekay's brother: http://mobile.news.com.au/entertainm...-1227148046973

[Pekay]

Could not agree with you more Norris - you can never die wondering regardless of level.

Personally, I wondered whether I could cut it as a 35yo Premier League rookie after playing my career at lower levels - I won't die wondering.

On another note, don't meas with Pekay's brother: http://mobile.news.com.au/entertainm...-1227148046973

Has to be a carton.

[saviour01]

Makes it interesting.

[Mug Punter]

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 ....

Good luck Peter in re-building your club

I was bemused by your silence over the last few years but clearly you kept a dignified silence despite the havoc that move wreaked on your club so massive respect.

I have banged on about how bad the NEAFL is for local footy for years here and in Oscar you get it from the horse's mouth though to be honest his feelings were replicated by every member you spoke to at SFL matched the last few years.

So, given the damning judgement that the best run club in Sydney on many levels couldn't survive at the NEAFL what are the lessons learnt?

I'd say it is this, that the NEAFL is totally inappropriate for Sydney clubs that cannot compete on so many levels. That we are better off with a community based comp, one that will be much the richer for Baulko coming back in next year.

Leave Sydney Uni to their own devices, driven by an arrogant attitude across all their sports (e.g. their destruction of Sydney Club Rugby) to dominate any sport they compete in driven by pure ego despite their pitiful contribution at grass roots level.

Let them be the third path to the AFL, as delusional as it is. Let them finish fifth at best in the NEAFL. Let them exist in their littler bubble of superiority. Let them poach good players from other clubs with no loyalty but at least the NSWAFL have finally, FINALLY, stood up to them and given the SFL some respect by ring fencing their NEAFL squad.

I see it as a win-win. They can exist in a parallel universe to the rest of the comp and we can co-exist.

Sydney Footy has come home and we can all look forward to an exciting 2015

And my message in advance to The Student, Go and post on the NEAFL board where you belong

[justabaraker]

It seems that GMs are on the roundabout too. Craig Bolton moves on after 10 months in the job - anyone know where he's going ?
He replaced Tom Harley who was GM for a couple of years - who was before that because I can't remember ?

It seems that being CEO of footy in NSW/ACT is not a job that an up-and-comer wants to stay with. I remember Craig Davis sat on the throne for ages...perhaps he had nowhere else to go anyway. But no other past luminaries stick in my mind.

Who's next for the musical chair ? Surely someone with a bit of a profile - you'd think it would be someone for "inside" the AFL system rather than someone thrown up by an exhaustive international headhunt.
My tip is that it will be a retired Swan or someone from the GWS executive.

Anyone hazard a guess ?

[chatovadafloor]

Role may not pay too well, small wage people will look.

[The Student]

And my message in advance to The Student, Go and post on the NEAFL board where you belong

I'll stick around thanks, where else would I be able to get such scorching hot takes from a football maven such as yourself?

[Tom Wills]

Good luck Peter in re-building your club

I was bemused by your silence over the last few years but clearly you kept a dignified silence despite the havoc that move wreaked on your club so massive respect.

I have banged on about how bad the NEAFL is for local footy for years here and in Oscar you get it from the horse's mouth though to be honest his feelings were replicated by every member you spoke to at SFL matched the last few years.

So, given the damning judgement that the best run club in Sydney on many levels couldn't survive at the NEAFL what are the lessons learnt?

I'd say it is this, that the NEAFL is totally inappropriate for Sydney clubs that cannot compete on so many levels. That we are better off with a community based comp, one that will be much the richer for Baulko coming back in next year.

Leave Sydney Uni to their own devices, driven by an arrogant attitude across all their sports (e.g. their destruction of Sydney Club Rugby) to dominate any sport they compete in driven by pure ego despite their pitiful contribution at grass roots level.

Let them be the third path to the AFL, as delusional as it is. Let them finish fifth at best in the NEAFL. Let them exist in their littler bubble of superiority. Let them poach good players from other clubs with no loyalty but at least the NSWAFL have finally, FINALLY, stood up to them and given the SFL some respect by ring fencing their NEAFL squad.

I see it as a win-win. They can exist in a parallel universe to the rest of the comp and we can co-exist.

Sydney Footy has come home and we can all look forward to an exciting 2015

And my message in advance to The Student, Go and post on the NEAFL board where you belong

Mug Punter - I do not share your derision for the NEAFL or Sydney Uni. Rather than defend both what I am interested in is, what do you think the alternative model should be.

Where should Young players go if they want to play at a higher level - whether it be for the dream of being Rookie listed or simply to play at a higher level than the Sydney Comp. If you respond with an idea - please also think of how it could be financially viable. Sydney Uni must be underwriting the NEAFL team but at least $250k.

[Coastal Boy]

Mug Punter - I do not share your derision for the NEAFL or Sydney Uni. Rather than defend both what I am interested in is, what do you think the alternative model should be.

Where should Young players go if they want to play at a higher level - whether it be for the dream of being Rookie listed or simply to play at a higher level than the Sydney Comp. If you respond with an idea - please also think of how it could be financially viable. Sydney Uni must be underwriting the NEAFL team but at least $250k.

If players want to play at a higher level in another competition that's great. If the NSWAFL want to create a higher level competition that's also great.

But I do have a problem with the NSWAFL promising monetary incentives to entice the best 2 teams (at the time) to jump ship and thus rip the guts out of the SydneyAFL.

They follow this up by allowing these clubs to call on players signed for local teams to bolster their stocks.

On paper the whole thing is outrageous. The notion of playing in 2 different competitions has been forbidden in footy circles since year dot. (Try signing for both Terrigal and Penno and see how far you get). The only people happy with this would be those clubs and personnel directly involved with the NEAFL.

I vote to stop picking the eyes out of Sydney footy and leave it alone.

[The Student]

If players want to play at a higher level in another competition that's great. If the NSWAFL want to create a higher level competition that's also great.

But I do have a problem with the NSWAFL promising monetary incentives to entice the best 2 teams (at the time) to jump ship and thus rip the guts out of the SydneyAFL.

They follow this up by allowing these clubs to call on players signed for local teams to bolster their stocks.

On paper the whole thing is outrageous. The notion of playing in 2 different competitions has been forbidden in footy circles since year dot. (Try signing for both Terrigal and Penno and see how far you get). The only people happy with this would be those clubs and personnel directly involved with the NEAFL.

I vote to stop picking the eyes out of Sydney footy and leave it alone.

I'm not sure that the new arrangements are particularly helpful to Uni - any new recruit to the club can't play Premier Division, so if someone were to lob up at the club from interstate and was of a PD standard they would have to play elsewhere. Add to that the fact that all new NEAFL players have to be assigned to a Sydney club. So if these rules were in place last year for instance we could have had Nick Winmar and Ryan Brabazon potentially being loaned to a UTS or whoever if they were required to play a PD game for form or fitness reasons. It is not going to work the other way round, Uni aren't going to hoover up the best Sydney AFL players on a week to week basis according to need. It is not going to be a rep team that changes by the week. Players are currently in training with the club - if they make the 35 man squad and are a current Penno player or whatever, they will go back to Penno when they are not required. The rule changes were designed to encourage players to give the NEAFL a crack and not have to play against their former club mates at PD level. Which is neither here nor there as far as I can see. The idea that we would somehow pick up dozens of Sydney AFL players and stockpile them is ludicrous but that must have been what the AFL (or the clubs) assumed would happen.

[Steiger]

I'm not sure that the new arrangements are particularly helpful to Uni - any new recruit to the club can't play Premier Division, so if someone were to lob up at the club from interstate and was of a PD standard they would have to play elsewhere. Add to that the fact that all new NEAFL players have to be assigned to a Sydney club. So if these rules were in place last year for instance we could have had Nick Winmar and Ryan Brabazon potentially being loaned to a UTS or whoever if they were required to play a PD game for form or fitness reasons. It is not going to work the other way round, Uni aren't going to hoover up the best Sydney AFL players on a week to week basis according to need. It is not going to be a rep team that changes by the week. Players are currently in training with the club - if they make the 35 man squad and are a current Penno player or whatever, they will go back to Penno when they are not required. The rule changes were designed to encourage players to give the NEAFL a crack and not have to play against their former club mates at PD level. Which is neither here nor there as far as I can see. The idea that we would somehow pick up dozens of Sydney AFL players and stockpile them is ludicrous but that must have been what the AFL (or the clubs) assumed would happen.

Student, dow does the mechanism for the players that don't make the neafl squad each week function? Does each player nominate a team? Does this also include the rookie listed players?

[Norris Lurker]

The teams in each division have been announced. Overall we've got a net increase of three open-age teams - Illawarra are out of Div 1; but Blacktown, Camden & Balmain are fielding a thirds team and Penno a fourths.
Penno also have a second Under 19s team - to field two new teams, they must be having some seriously good numbers at pre-season training.
Blacktown fielding a womens team. Balmain's Under 19s are back, and a new South Coast Under 19s team.

Overall, more teams than ever before; and that's got to be a good thing.

[justabaraker]

Tell you what's NOT a good thing... poor old Campbelltown can't seem to take a trick. They are the epicentre for the AFL's grand push into Greater Western Sydney but they just seem to get worse and worse.
Last year they had PD and Div4 teams and that's a helluva gulf when you're trying to promote players and bring them back from injury and form slumps. Now we read that three of their PD players have jumped ship, preferring to play Div2 for Camden.

If only they could get Geoffrey Edelston to set up another local medical practice then they could rewind the clock and have it ALL happen again for them.

[muddybulldog]

St.George nominated a second under 19's side and it was rejected!