He is an Optus guy. Director for their Southern region. tee hee

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|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

Of course he is being taken seriously. The AFL and the current board would know that Carlton supporters go weak at the knees whenever they see past players names.

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"Davies could eventually become a player of Judd's ability" - Paganite03 Click here to see for yourself!

Does anyone know what type of coaching this will be? Development / Skills?

I was talking to a sports manager over the weekend who seems to have some ties to the hawks - he said, although he acknowledged their coaching panel all seemed 'like each other' (all back flankers /pockets and similar age) that they didnt have backs / mids / fwd coaches...they had a clearance coach, a skills acquisition coach... and the other one I think made the lattes. But I wonder if the 'other' output (if any) of the Coaching Review wants to change the specific roles a little?

M

You can listen to Churchill speeches till the cows come home but if you see nothing.. then it doesnt matter does it???

Cos right now.. you tell me what you SEE!!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Yeah but he doesnt have to get to the nbitty gritty right now though right???

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

There are a lot of people including yourself who go on ad nauseum about selling the club and the importance of being positive in the press. Now we are and we burn them for it.

The board at the moment is competent but not much more. The biggest issue for me is the sneaky leaker and lack of unity in the board. I don't think Smorgon is anywhere near as bad as people make out and I respect him for putting his hand up in our darkest times and trying. It is a lot more than any other ticket. This is what irks me about the so called silent backers. Where were they before?

Brown at the moment has not offered anything viable in alternative and until I see from him (a plan), what you demand of the board, I will ignore him and his destabilising efforts. If, however, he puts up a good plan and a viable alternative, then all power to him.

There are also people like who wouldnt have the foggiest about whats going on.. and are very happy to get led to wherever... when they get there their pants will be around your ankles.
Thats just the way the world is...

But the cold hard facts are we are last.. we dont have sponsors.. Watts has put our a damning report about the CEO and the board.. and we cant make up our minds about whether the coach is staying or leaving..

But its all going according to plan right???

dont trip and chip a tooth...

You give yourself away when you say.. "The board is competent but im more concerned about the squeaky sneakers and the disunity of the board"

Like looking at the hall of mirrors at Luna Park... that was..

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The big question is will we renew Malouf's contract.

I have absolutely no idea what half your post is about.

Yes things are bad, but there are those who do something about it and those that complain and do nothing. Smorgon is doing something, Brown is doing nothing. I know, let's choose option b, that must be better.

Do you cream yourself everytime you hear something negative about the club?

SA Blue, have you ever thought Brown is doing things in the background and keeping the cards close to his chest, something our current board could learn from?

What exactly is Smorgon doing besides making us even more a laughing stock thatn we were during the past month.

As i;ve said before, Smorgon can talk as much as he wants, by the time he actions his "plan" he will no longer be around.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

SA Blue? What is there to be positive about in that article.

Paragraph by paragraph analysis:

1) Welcome to the luncheon
2) Thanks to the sponsors of the event
3 & 4) Welcome to the special guests

Pretty standard opening.

5, 6 & 7) West Coast and Sydney are good, Carlton are not.

Wouldn't have included these paragraphs myself, didn't add anything to his message.

8 & 9) He's going to be honest in his remarks.

As a director of the club he has a fiduciary duty to be open and honest.

10) Last few years are difficult

No shit!

11) He wishes he could fix it now

So do we. These last two statements go nowhere toward either making a new statement or clarify an issue

12) Board working hard to resolve the problems

The majority of the board has been in power 4 years, and we have very little to show for it.

13) Clusb is challenged.

No shit

14 & 15) Media giving us a flogging, we deserve it.

Wrong. Yes we do have to cop it. We ONLY deserve it because we are not communicating a consistent, coherent and positive plan.

16) That's how those outside the club see it.

See above point

17, 18 and 19) Draw a line in the sand. Move forward and develop plans for the future.

Excellent. Should have opened with this, but it's still not outlining where we are going.

20 & 21) Wrong in the past about the time to turn it around.

WRONG! He's just moved from saying we won't look back and then talked about events in the past. Should have moved to the future.

22) Going to be hard.

Repetitive and redundant. We know this, if it was easy we'd have done it already

23, 24 & 25) Good people needed, etc

Good tone, but again doesn't say anything

26) Pagan is great.

Sould not have gone here. We tried to get rid of him a few weeks back. It sounds insincere and quick frankly pathetic here. Increasing coaching panel is ok, but not outstanding, basically throwing more money at the footy dept.

27) "We have a plan"

Excellent! best bit so far. Now follow through and outline it.

28) Draft picks are good and we'll invest in youth.

This is ok, but basically all it is saying is that we are going to do the same as the other 15 clubs. Top 3 in 20 section is okay, but could have been more positive.

29) It's hard work.

So! We know it, you've already said it. This isn't part of "The plan" so DON'T say it.

30) We will make mistakes.

Off message, don't say it.

31) We have the club in our best interests.

Yup, fiduciary duty again. Don't doubt it either, he's obviously a blues supporter, but still doesn't gell with "the plan" which should be the only message.

32) We might make mistakes + footy analogy

CRAP! repetive and unnecessary.

33) I want to make this work.

I sure hope you do!

34) It's hard work

Broken record

35) Keep the faith.

I can live with this

36) Some re-signs

ok. good stuff, but part of regular operation, hardly a plan for the future

37) Bret Thornton is loyal and we will keep him.

Just responding to media speculation. A better way to deal with it would have been to ignore it, or tackle it in a different way.

38) A quote from Big Nick

Ok. Not sure what this achieves in the plan.

39) Have a nice day.

Thanks, you too.

Smorgon promises us a plan in the middle of that statement and he doesn't deliver. The positives as I see them:

- Drawing a line in the sand
- Using draft picks - great, but this should be regular business now
- Have 3 Top 20 picks - great, but only because we were so shit that we got the PP handout
- Player re-signings - regular business.

My take on this talk is that it is some postive statements which result from our poor on field performance and regular operation, and which is no different to any other club. Dissecting this speech, there is NO hint of a plan.

And before anyone pot shots me as negative. I'll post something that I will knock up now, without any references, just using my knowledge based on Carlton announcements.

Competent?
What have this board actually done to be competent?

We currently have an AFL loan enabling us to pay our bills.
We also have the AFL holding our hands in board discussions.
We have the media and football public feasting on our stupidity and a reputation which is going down the toilet faster than OJ Simpson's.

I admire the incumbents for putting their hand up but that doesnt equate to competence.

Some of the stuff in Smorgons statement is admirable and heading in the right direction. But why have we waited for 4 years before getting a positive message?
What is the plan? The last plan they outlined was a 3 year financial plan presented to our sponsors where we would be cash neutral at the end of the 3 years.
2 years are gone and we're on AFL welfare!
The last year would want to be a doozy!

Competent pffft.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Can't argue with that Steve.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Great analysis Steve.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

I knocked this up in an hour, with no references and no support. The idea is to discuss what has gone right with the club, and to paint a picture of quiet achievement to inspire confidence to attract members, sponsors and players.

I've tried to incorporate the best parts of Smorgon's speech, but this version hopefully keeps to 'the plan' part of the speech.

It's also a first draft, so treat it as such.

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Alternative draft speech

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for attending the 23rd Carlton Grand Final Eve Luncheon.

Thanks are also due to Optus, the joint major sponsor of the Carlton Football Club and sponsor of this event. Both rob Parcell and Jann Kohlman are here today representing Optus and the club would like to express its gratitude to Optus, who have been supporting this great institution for the past 10 years [number for example purposes only, but the club could easily introduce this sort of stuff].

[the next two paragraphs are lifted straight from GS’s speech – I couldn’t see anything wrong with them, so couldn’t see the point of rewriting for writings sake]

Let me welcome my guests at the head table:
• Senator The Hon Rod Kemp – Federal Minister for the Arts and Sports;
• Sam Smorgon – Carlton’s Number One ticket holder;
• Richard Pratt – Special Patron of the Carlton Football Club;
• John Bertrand AM;
• Ahmed Fahour – CEO Australasia National Australia Bank
• Denis & Cheryl Pagan.

I also extend a warm welcome to the new Chairman of the Essendon* Football Club, Mr Ray Horsburgh.

Now that the formalities are over, I would like to address both the people attending this room, and the larger footballing community in general. Since 2002, the reputation, finances and on-field success of the Carlton Football Club have all suffered enormously. The Carlton Football Club has drawn a line in the sand, and is not interested in exploring the reasons for this. These reasons have been well documented and do not change the situation that the club is facing.

What I would like to discuss today is the progress that the Carlton Football Club has made towards improving this situation. I would like to discuss the milestones by which the current board, executive and staff of the club measure themselves as a team.

Firstly, we have improved the financial future of the club through new sponsorship arrangements. MC Labour have joined the Carlton family through their sponsorship of our famous home ground. Optus have continued their committed relationship with the club by moving to become joint major sponsor. [Include more details here and use as an excuse to thank all major sponsors]

Thanks are also due to club CEO, Michael Malouf. Through the efforts of he and his staff, we have arranged to redevelop MC Labour Park with funding of X million secured from the federal government, state government and local council for the redevelopment of MC Labour Park into a state of the art facility which we have every confidence in improving the on field performance of the club.

Over the course of the year, we have also raised x hundred thousand dollars in contributions towards the clubs $2 million commitment towards the ground redevelopment. Let me reiterate, the club is funding the redevelopment separately from its normal operations, there will be no negative cashflow considerations from the redevelopment. While we are on track with this project, further donations or corporate is welcome.

The Carlton Football Club has also been significantly involved in the lobbying of the AFL to provide ongoing commitments for helping those clubs that require it. Over the past 12 months, the club has received commitments from the AFL for various funding:

- $500,000 funding for MC Labour Park in recognition of the cost of maintaining the ground for various football requirements, including TAC games. This has previously been a unique commitment for the Carlton Football Club in comparison with other AFL teams, and the AFL has recognised the unique circumstances that the club finds itself in and has agreed to compensate the club accordingly.
- We have also received a $1.5 million interest free cash loan to assist with cash flow as we turn the club around and become profitable. The Carlton Football club has every confidence in restoring the club to profitability, and this interest free loan is simply a short term measure to tide the club over.
- Most significantly, we have received commitments from the AFL for the next 3 years as part of the new redistributions from the recently completed media rights deals.

On the field, the Carlton Football Club has had significant success in bringing through new youngsters. Some examples of this are:
- Mark Murphy winning the AFLPA’s [or whatever it was] best first year player.
- The continuing development of a number of youngsters including Kade Simpson, Jordan Russell and Setanta O’hAilpin
- The debuts of a number of players, including Mark Murphy, Luke Blackwell, Josh Kennedy, Jessie Smith and Ryan Jackson

While the results this year were on the surface disappointing, the club believes that 2006 did in fact display improvement over 2005. In 13 losing games, the club finished within x points of the opposition. The Carlton Football Club believes in the youngsters on its list. Our performance points to the blooding of a number of new players who are gaining experience and will be more able to run out games as they physically develop over the next few years.

In addition to this, the club has the fortunate position of receiving the first draft pick, three picks in the top 20 and 5 picks in almost the top 50. While we are not celebrating the performance of the club this year, we believe that the players added in this years draft, plus the development of the young players at the club, will significantly improve the on field success in the next few years. In addition, we are confident that the young talent at Carlton in perceived by some in the football community and that Carlton will attract the services of a younger, but experienced, player through the Pre Season Draft. I would particularly like to take this last opportunity of the season to thank the departing players. Thank you for your hard work and best wishes for the future.

While there is a lot of hard work to go, the milestones that we have outlined today show the progress that those involved with the club having been making on your behalf over the past year. There is a plan for making this great club successful again, and today I have demonstrated the achievements over the past year. This progress will lead towards the club having a brand new ground by 200x, just as the on field talent at the club is at its largest for some time.

This club, the Carlton Football Club, will be successful again, and that success is closer than most people think. While we ask you for patience, we also ask you to look at the core of players that the club has under 23 years of age who will make this club successful again.

Think of our young players, think of our new draft choices, and think of the state of the art home ground that we will soon have. Think of our many past successes and now imagine our glorious future. We at Carlton welcome those who have made this club great and I would personally like to thank those members who have supported the Carlton Football Club at its darkest hour. They deserve the most enjoyment from premiership 17.

Thank you.

FFS - that's better....it's not that hard is it...if steve can do it, then surely the CFC can (and that's no insult meant to steve at all)

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Really makes you wonder why someone at the club is not able to put together a similarly decent speech, no wonder sponsors et al don't like us

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Excellent work Steve, just goes to show what a bit of positive thinking and focus can do. Hopefully someone at the club will see that and make some noises in Smorgan or Coutts' direction.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

There may be a job going at the Club as a speech writer...it's yours Steve!

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

Perfect Steve. Great effort. You should be proud.

PS: add debut of Bower, and it gets even more exciting. I wonder what Big Kev would say?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue