Well you've changed your tune.
You used to be all about results, & judging a blokes worth on how many first grade games he'd played ...
Brand alignment ???
What toss.
Weasel word jibberish.
How does that impact anything - except make one of two OCD sufferers feel less anxious ?
While you’re arguing about whether the feeder team should be called “Magpies” or “Wests Tigers,” the actual problem is what feeds the decisions into the NRL team and that comes from a structure that
protects failure.
My argument has always been this.
The club is run by people insulated from accountability, whose professional credentials do not match the power they wield. Leo is the perfect symbol of this. His influence stems from heritage and a debenture-holder's position, not from a proven record of building successful football clubs or businesses.
You tried to reframe the argument to ask how a name change improves results. I never made that claim. I said the reason for a WT reserve grade is brand alignment, a coherent marketing strategy for a modern sports business. But I'll engage as a point of academic discussion.
By dismissing branding as "jibberish," you reveal your blind spot. You view the club as an amateur football team, when players still had jobs, not as a business that requires strong branding, revenue, and a clear identity to fund football success. That "jibberish" pays for the high-performance unit, the scouts, the assistants, the coaches etc.
And this amateur mindset is why our execution is a mess. We brand as Wests Tigers, then vandalise the jersey with little magpies on the sleeve, a confused and diluted identity. The two heritage logos on the neck already satisfied that objective. Any qualified marketer would see that.
It’s the same across the board. We have amateur, unqualified people in power, a protected circle of mates and debenture holders who would never get a shot running anything in the real world if they were held accountable. A bunch of Kevs, BZNs, and Terrigal bus drivers making emotional personal decisions that keep us down the bottom of the ladder.
Coaches are sacked. Assistants moved on. Players are moved on. Boards sacked. Debenture holders suspended and given lengthy bans. But the small group of people at the governance level remain and purge those that want to see some progress. They cannot be voted out by members. They are the constants in a decade of failure.
So yes, I judge by results. And when the results are historic failure, and the pathway to power has no basis in merit or expertise, the club is broken at its core.
Until that changes, arguing over the reserve grade name is not worth discussing.
