@galahs said:
Agree Vicious. there is nothing wrong with the ways things were run in 2005\. If we return to that 60% of the Magpies issues go away in an instant. Have 6 games a year at Campbelltown as was the promised back in 1999 and we will be 99% content!
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WE JUST WANT A FAIR GO FOR OUR REGION. BETTER ADMINISTRATION, BETTER OPPORTUNITIES, MORE THAN 4 NRL GAMES A YEAR!
I think that doing everything that has been outlined in these 'demands' at the expense of the Wests Tigers joint venture simply to appease the 'Magpie issues' that you have referenced would be a stupid decision.
I'm not going to say anything about the junior league situation, as I have no knowledge of those issues.
As seems to be the sentiment, 6 games a piece simply isn't viable for the club, while more games at one stadium of the joint venture partners than the other would be going against the 'fairness' that the Magpies supporters on this forum seem to be campaigning for. The current set-up, in my opinion, is the perfect one for the joint venture as we are placed right now. That doesn't mean it can't and won't change in the future, it just means that now is not the right time. It should be remembered that a couple of years ago it was only three games a piece at the suburban grounds, and our strong position meant that we were able to change that. If we stay the way we are now, slowly we will be in a position to move more games towards the suburban grounds, but as I said before we shouldn't do it now at the expense of the joint venture, simply to appease the very small minority who have a problem with it.
In regard to the moving of the HQ, I think whether it was in the early plans or not, moving to Campbelltown would be another silly decision. In their current position, they have a great training and administration facility, in a position close enough to the city but also in suburbia. The players are able to find affordable housing which is near or close to the water and close to the city for the younger players. This makes recruitment a lot easier as well. While I have nothing against the Macarthur region, it is a bit stubborn to say that a young footballer would rather live there than in a place near the water and the city. If we were to be attempting to attract a Johnathan Thurston level player (case study only) to the club, the lure of living in Sydney's inner west, near the water and still close to training would be much larger that living in the greater west, an hour and a half in good traffic from the city. For the actual admin facilities, they have a great set up at the moment, and being close to the city and all the corporate support significantly helps the work of the sales and marketing team. If we were to move out west, not only would it make it harder for the actual employees who don't live near there, it would make securing significant corporate support much harder.
Finally, in regard to the State Cup set-up, it has been discussed to no end on this forum, and I think that if Wests Tigers have decided to make a decision in what they see as their best interests, but at the expense of Wests Magpies (who did themselves have the opportunity to support the measure but decided against it), it is again a naive and stubborn decision to demand support from the joint venture and its partners who voted in favour of it. People may reference the 2005 premiership where we had two second tier teams as it working, but what isn't understood with that, is that we had very few, if any, major injuries in that season, and as a result, the second tier players were hardly called upon. Last year, we had a large number of major injuries, and in my opinion, the one second-tier squad meant that players were able to slot in and out of the first grade team and still contribute to a successful team. In that way, it was a major success that we were able to make the semi finals with so many injuries, and that in itself is a big tick to the single squad.
I know that this post itself will be picked apart as much as possible by everyone that supports this 'protest rally', but I call on them to actually read this, and think in an objective manner about the situation (particularly in relation to demands of Wests Tigers) before going ahead with this action which I believe to be unnecessary and more likely to cause more problems than it will solve.
