SA Footy • View topic - Cats members still upset and searching for answers

by **sydney-dog** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:59 pm

Cats members none the wiser

October 11, 2006 MORE than 600 disgruntled Geelong members turned out at the club's headquarters tonight to demand answers for the team's poor AFL season, but were left disappointed.

Members who questioned the club's business plan which predicted a premiership by 2006 were instead told `we will win eventually'.

GFC members turned out in force at the public function at Skilled Stadium to find out why the club suffered a dramatic slide in 2006.

Long-time supporter and former GFC board candidate Rennis Witham, who organised a petition signed by 130 adult members on September 18 orchestrating the meeting, was not satisfied with tonight's outcome.

"I thought it was a good turnout but I think the answers were very poor and to some extent, patronising," she said.

"The business plan for 2003-2006 had we (Geelong Football Club) would win a premiership by 2006.

"We are now being told `Trust us, we will win eventually' so I think that's not a good enough answer."

Witham said they would not be seeking another special meeting before the start of the 2007 season.

"They (GFC) didn't give an answer about a reassurance if something went wrong and would they identify it and what would they do," she said.

"And they (the board) didn't answer the question about KPIs (key performance indicators) and if they didn't work, what would they do.

"I think that question remains unanswered."

She said she was upset because no-one had taken responsibility for the poor campaign despite many tipping Geelong to be premiership contenders in 2006.

"No-one puts their hand up and says 'Sorry, we got it wrong and this is what we're going to do to make it better' and that didn't come across tonight."

GFC chief executive Brian Cook, who was pleased with tonight's turnout, said he was confident the club could move forward.

Cook has been with the Cats since 1999 and will enter his eighth season as CEO of the club in 2007.

"I expected less people to come tonight," Cook said.

"I thought the questions from the members were to be expected but (because of the large turnout) shows the passion of the place.

"I think we're looking at 2007 now and we've learnt from 2006, we've put a review in place and recommendations.

"We're going to implement that over the next year."

by **GWW** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:10 am

Thought they'd be used to it after 43 years

by **Wedgie** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:20 am

GWW wrote:Thought they'd be used to it after 43 years

Agreed, stupid Cats fans, should just be resigned to a life of misery, I know I am.
The sooner they start facing up to the fact that we'll never win another flag the easier it'll be to face.

by **Rik E Boy** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:46 am

You can't win a premiership using a fargen business plan. All 16 clubs would have a business plan and they could all say..we are going to win the flag by 2009 but the reality is that most won't.

Rennis Whitman is a former board member who got voted out on her ar5e and is a serial pest to the current board of the Geelong football club and isn't taken seriously by the majority of Cat fans. Everyone at Catland is pissed off about 2006 but this dip5hit has suggested on K-Rock that the board should be out...and guess who voted in??

This is the very same board that guided our club to a position of financial strength after the disaster of 1999 when the club had a seven million dollar debt and with the loyal Captain and Coach walking out to join stronger clubs. On the field we haven't got it right just yet but there are plenty of positives to come out of what was admittedly a dismal year.

Gary Ablett jnr: Showing promising signs as a midfielder of the future.
Jarrod Rooke: Coming on as a hard tackling run with player.
An improved interstate record: Wins in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth last season will serve us well once we regain our spot in the top eight. What stuffed us in earlier campaigns was the sheer inability to win a game outside of Victoria.
Matty Egan: Another key position player in defence has emerged and will serve the Cats well into the future.
Dead wood clean out: Kingsley gone, hopefully Gardinner and McCarthy will follow suit. The problem the Cats had is that they had an overabundance of mediocre forwards that could 'almost' play. This meant that the selectors were tempted to rotate many 5hite forwards into the league team when in reality, none of them were up to scratch. With the continuing development of Nathan Ablett, and the arrival of the Tomahawk..I would expect these worries to ease.

The Geelong football club and it's supporters should never be resigned to not winning another flag..or this is exactly what will happen. Whitman says that no one put their hand up but the Review, while not going as far as it should have done, has at least identified two major problems....a lack of leadership (King jumped before he was pushed) and the NFI midfield coaching of Andrew Lovell, who took our midfield backwards at a rate of knots.

Go the Catters!! Loyal....NOT divided. Rennis...BITE THE BIG ONE BITCH.

regards,

REB

by **smac** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:50 am

Members who questioned the club's business plan which predicted a premiership by 2006 were instead told `we will win eventually'.

LMAO. Way to keep people interested!

by **mal** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:58 am

Geelong will be the big improvers in 2007, MARK my words.
West Coast/Geelong grand final.

by **RustyCage** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:02 am

The Cats post season review of what went wrong is an example of what went wrong. It went from trying to find answers to patting each other on the back saying "It was someone elses fault, not ours. We did good"

by **mighty_tiger_79** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:45 am

pafc1870 wrote:The Cats post season review of what went wrong is an example of what went wrong. It went from trying to find answers to patting each other on the back saying "It was someone elses fault, not ours. We did good"

we did good considering it was the other 15 clubs that made our lives a misery this season, they were supposed to make it easy for us...........

by **Rik E Boy** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:27 pm

pafc1870 wrote:The Cats post season review of what went wrong is an example of what went wrong. It went from trying to find answers to patting each other on the back saying "It was someone elses fault, not ours. We did good"

LMAO. Such in depth analysis!

regards,

REB

by **Zorro** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:02 pm

Rik E Boy wrote:You can't win a premiership using a fargen business plan. All 16 clubs would have a business plan and they could all say..we are going to win the flag by 2009 but the reality is that most won't.

Exactly!! That was the first thing that came to mind when I read this. At what point did they think footy was an exact science? But you promised, you promised.....what a joke.

by **Blue Boy** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:36 pm

Based on the title only - not news to anyone especially the pussy cats !!! :wink:

by **sydney-dog** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:35 pm

mal

don't think you can ever pick the cats confidently to make a GF

I am interested in why you have such confidence

by **mighty_tiger_79** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:29 am

last year everybody was raving about the cats as a genuine finals contender, they had their best draw in years, but i was somewhat hesitant to get carried away with it all, thank god i didnt get excited otherwise id be shattered now.

The same can be said for next year, dont get to excited follow cat fans as when you do it always leads to disappointment.

having said that i do think that the team will improve - well it cant get any worse can it???