Official Club Stuff 2024 AGM - to be held on Friday 6th December 2024, 1 director to be elected by members. Nominations called for.

[Cheesey Mac]

By offline do you mean privately?
If so then that is pathetic.

Yep, pulled him aside afterwards and spoke to him privately.

The argument that the club appeared to be making was that we’d misunderstood what the Crows constitution change means and the change doesn’t actually give their members total control (I think because of some legalese notion of what a member actually is in this context, I.e. the AFL are the members, not the actual paying/ticketed members). Other more learned posters may be able to correct me or elaborate on that, but that’s what I took from Richardson and Koch’s response.

I can’t speak to what was said offline because I wasn’t a party to it.

The public answer was a bit of a greatest hits of obfuscation, from “if we gave members control of the board you’d just vote in ex-players” (the self fulfilling prophecy as above), to “the Crows getting control doesn’t mean they get control, it’s different to us”, and when confronted with the fact that 1 of the last 19 premiers were AFL controlled clubs Koch went to feigning ignorance and then pushing that Brisbane weren’t member controlled and that they’d just won the flag (ignoring the larger point that even if it was 2 of 19, it’s still a huge majority of premiers who are member controlled clubs).

 

[Chewy316]

A largely underwhelming night. February's AGM was more thought out. Disappointing for Ken to conveniently be absent, along with no interviews of the new players which was done in Feb.

I didn't really listen to Janelle's interview but there's something about Connor that makes me hard to see him as the true leader of the playing group. He might be a completely different character with the players, but there's a timidness in his public demeanour - almost an insecurity.

Q&A was a shitshow but it always is. You get one or two angry people who feel they need to get their two cents in - they do so in a demonstrative manner, then it becomes a shouting match and no one is left the wiser. I actually think next year's Q&A would be better if they had someone from the footy committee (most likely CD) answer the footy related questions. Richo is on the committee but he knows bugger all about on field footy stuff, which leads to a disconnect between him and some of the supporters. Koch did well not having any gaffe which he is prone to do - particularly when he was asked about an August timeline for Ken's future next year as has been publicly stated for his previous extension in 2023.

Was good to have a drink with Richo afterwards - he's a far better operator in small (2-3 people) settings speaking off the cuff than in front of a larger audience.

The biggest takeaway anyone should have gotten from the night is the strength this club has in terms of its financial sustainability going forward. They've done a ton right in that space irrespective of what we think about their footy department shortcomings.

Now, if they can move on from Hinkley, the optimism surrounding the future of the club will be far more grand.

 

[Visenfest]

The biggest takeaway anyone should have gotten from the night is the strength this club has in terms of its financial sustainability going forward. They've done a ton right in that space irrespective of what we think about their footy department shortcomings.

Now, if they can move on from Hinkley, the optimism surrounding the future of the club will be far more grand.

No doubt they’re doing some great work financially. That at least gives us the ability to set up a strong football program (which at the end of the day is the whole point of a football club, a fact which seems lost on Koch, Richo and Davies).

In regards to football, I feel like if we’re successful post Hinkley, it’ll be because we stumbled on a good coach by accident. Koch, Richo and Davies don’t understand what a good coach looks like, so I don’t have confidence in their ability to know they’re hiring the best credentialed person. Post Hinkley, those three are still a major barrier to us having a successful football program.

 

[TeeKray]

Connor Rozee is 24 years old. There are some 24 year olds that are confident, secure, assertive leaders but it wouldn't be many and it's certainly not him. The club have done him a disservice by pushing him into a role he's not ready for.

Janelle Cuthbertson is 30 and with a significant amount more experience in both sport and life than Connor.

 

[PowerLil]

Richo and I had a robust conversation about the appointment of coaching staff and the lack of transparency and their in-house "anointments". Wouldn't answer when I ask what Hamish Hartlett and Cam Sutcliffe's coaching credentials were. Said they showed great leadership when they were playing Nor Matthew Lobbe's qualifications. Said he's studying but he's very smart. Crikey.

 

[PowerLil]

Connor Rozee is 24 years old. There are some 24 year olds that are confident, secure, assertive leaders but it wouldn't be many and it's certainly not him. The club have done him a disservice by pushing him into a role he's not ready for.

Janelle Cuthbertson is 30 and with a significant amount more experience in both sport and life than Connor.

That was patently obvious last night.

 

[manureid]

Richo and I had a robust conversation about the appointment of coaching staff and the lack of transparency and their in-house "anointments". Wouldn't answer when I ask what Hamish Hartlett and Cam Sutcliffe's coaching credentials were. Said they showed great leadership when they were playing Nor Matthew Lobbe's qualifications. Said he's studying but he's very smart. Crikey.

We really are just a boys club. Little wonder we won't ever win anything

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Yep, pulled him aside afterwards and spoke to him privately.

The argument that the club appeared to be making was that we’d misunderstood what the Crows constitution change means and the change doesn’t actually give their members total control (I think because of some legalese notion of what a member actually is in this context, I.e. the AFL are the members, not the actual paying/ticketed members). Other more learned posters may be able to correct me or elaborate on that, but that’s what I took from Richardson and Koch’s response.

I can’t speak to what was said offline because I wasn’t a party to it.

The public answer was a bit of a greatest hits of obfuscation, from “if we gave members control of the board you’d just vote in ex-players” (the self fulfilling prophecy as above), to “the Crows getting control doesn’t mean they get control, it’s different to us”, and when confronted with the fact that 1 of the last 19 premiers were AFL controlled clubs Koch went to feigning ignorance and then pushing that Brisbane weren’t member controlled and that they’d just won the flag (ignoring the larger point that even if it was 2 of 19, it’s still a huge majority of premiers who are member controlled clubs).

The Crows absolutely can give control to their members but they don't have to.

What I took from past night is that the Crows have no intention of giving control back to their members so we don't either.

As always we benchmark ourselves against fellow mediocre teams rather than the teams winning premierships.

Koch didn't even know that premiership winning Brisbane is member controlled and tried to use them as an example of a team with our model.

I had the screenshotsof the constitutions and Institute Of Governance website to show them they were wrong.

Kicking the governance football – How does your AFL club compare? - Governance Institute of Australia

www.governanceinstitute.com.au

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Doctor Feel]

The helplessness to oust these losers is the pits, man.

 

[Papa G]

The Crows absolutely can give control to their members but they don't have to.

What I took from past night is that the Crows have no intention of giving control back to their members so we don't either.

As always we benchmark ourselves against fellow mediocre teams rather than the teams winning premierships.

Koch didn't even know that premiership winning Brisbane is member controlled and tried to use them as an example of a team with our model.

I had the screenshotsof the constitutions and Institute Of Governance website to show them they were wrong.

Kicking the governance football – How does your AFL club compare? - Governance Institute of Australia

www.governanceinstitute.com.au

View attachment 2183157

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

The Crows are very important on this issue. You know their current board will not be pushing for it, it needs genuine agitation from their fan base to generate change. I have been very vocal with my Crows supporting mates on this, a few of which could create waves if they so desired. My fear though is, it's still 3-4 years away and if the Crows get their shit together on field, this issue maybe swept to the side.

 

[TeeKray]

The helplessness to oust these losers is the pits, man.

The worst part is they know we're onto them but they also know there's nothing we can do about it. We're a vocal minority and are no threat to them. They have successfully cultivated a new breed of fans who don't know what it looks like to win a premiership and totally buy into the club narrative that it's too hard to win them and you might as well just enjoy winning a few games instead.

 

[Papa G]

Cos Cardone and Greg Columbus extended for a further 3 years

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

By the end of this new term, Cardone would have been on the board for 15 ****ing years! A Collingwood Plant in plain sight. Just disgraceful.

 

[DaTBird187]

View attachment 2183087
Was a beautiful ceremony but the catering was dog shit

On their honeymoon......they died.

 

[JimmyBC]

There's no way the Crows will go member controlled if the brethren are asleep on the issue which I suspect they are.

 

[Chewy316]

Connor Rozee is 24 years old. There are some 24 year olds that are confident, secure, assertive leaders but it wouldn't be many and it's certainly not him. The club have done him a disservice by pushing him into a role he's not ready for.

Janelle Cuthbertson is 30 and with a significant amount more experience in both sport and life than Connor.

I'll add that this issue goes beyond Connor imo. It stems from the fact the footy department has fostered a culture in which the players are the boys and Ken is daddy, whereas Ken should be a figurehead developing the players to become young men.

It's no surprise that when the going gets tough in finals that it literally looks like men against boys out there time and time again.

 

[PowerLil]

No surprise, but it was confirmed to me that "all the players love Kenny father figure" is bs.

 

[JimmyBC]

No surprise, but it was confirmed to me that "all the players love Kenny father figure" is bs.

That shit is never true at any club, fringe players etc always think the coach is a dickhead for starters.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I thought Koch was wrong about Brisbane but he was right, their board has non member elected directors,. They used to be all member elected but the constitution changed in 2013. I reckon that's when Brisbane started to become financially dependent on the AFL. They were very dependent on the AFL for survival by the time they sacked Leppitsch a few years later.

From their Constitution

9.2 The number of Directors shall be as determined by the Board from time to time but shall not:

(a) be less than five (5) or greater than twelve (12) in number; and
(b) be less than the number in office at the time of such determination.

......
9.14 Notwithstanding anything else contained in this Constitution, the Board shall have the right to appoint up to four (4) additional Directors, each of whom the Board, in its absolute discretion considers, possesses the expertise, experience or other special attributes to make a meaningful contribution to the Corporation. Subject to this Constitution, a person appointed as a Director under this clause shall hold office:

(a) for an initial period of two (2) years from the date of appointment, and after the expiration of the initial two (2) year period:

(b) is deemed to hold office as a Director appointed under clause 9.10;
(c) shall hold office at least until the next occurring annual general meeting of the Corporation;

(d) and must retire at the next occurring annual general meeting and is eligible for election at that meeting.

 

[Jonts]

First port AGM for me in quite a while
Reckon I was the youngest person in the room outside of the bar staff and rozee

The didn't say no pictures so I presume uploading these are fine, the club normally puts the AGM online anyway.

The chairs to people ratio being 2-1 and the lack of applause for Chris Davies after he gave the footy club a self fellatio about many wins we get in the home and away you could feel the discontent. I agree with the poster that said David Koch wouldn't do the AGM if he didn't have to. (Someone should tell him to make sure you have a wedding that day)

They said there were going to interview Lauren Arnell, she heard that and went from sitting 30m away from the stage to the front row and then she just got ignored/cut due to time, felt for her.
Credit to the club out of interest I timed the 20 minute question time and it went for 23.5 minutes


It's clear as day that both kochie and Richardson think
Member elect board means footballers only on the board. What's ****ing insulting and ignorant. If you look at the current member elect boards

There is a maximum of 3 people with football backgrounds (one club) on the member elect board. So is every other clubs members smarter than ports members to elect a diverse board? Or so do you just want to keep jobs for the boys/accountability where you want it?
Also how haven't you given it the 5 minutes of googling to work that out for yourself?

I wanted to touch on that question but I went with asking about why the changes of the term success (/ successful) on the mens side (now you have connected the dots on who I am come say hi next time haha)

My question re success wasn't really answered. I touched on how Arnell mentioned that the club wasn't successful this year post prelim and she gave me a small smile, compared to half the board that didn't even turn to face the person asking the question.( At one stage I saw holly texting and I thought I don't think journos would give a **** holly calm it down)

I could see David didn't like question, when I mentioned that this current adminstration isn't adding to the esteem of the museum downstairs thinking finals are a pass mark his face changed, he definitely cares about his legacy more than he admits

They answered it with a long version of " yeah we know we haven't won a flag, but they appear to be really hard to win, but we are right there and were changing and improving the program all the time" had to bite my lip at that last line

Interesting to hear that Richo said privately the players can't hear they failed. That's a huge culture red flag imo


Re the captain interviews, neither moved the needle much for me, Norts gives the easiest softball questions they get all year, what's disappointing.

" How do you feel about x? My guess is you felt Y"

"Why yes I do feel Y how did you know!"


You have a room of under 100 members it could be a lot more intimate, it's probably one of the best settings for some vulnerability (what rozee did moreso and that made me respect him more,the aflw captain was very much the everything is awesome song from Lego movie)

The financials the club has done a good job, it was weird though they didn't acknowledge a lot of the asset gains are due to the taxpayer. Especially when you brag about it so much. I'm also curious as to what's happening re the Fos William stand change rooms. They went under a renovation not that long ago and soon with the next stage of upgrades don't seem like they will be used much by either program.

They also bragged about membership revenue being up without touching on how they control the prices what increased. If membership revenue didn't go up after you raised the price of membership it would be a huge problem.

Kudos to the questions asked by people. I reckon there was only one or two what I would call nuffy questions , Richo himself even joked at the end about there normally being some questions re busses and where is it this year.

Said g'day to a few friendly faces on the way out but wanted to get back AO for the cricket.

I thought they said the club is 4th for member engagement, what they praised themself on, I swear at one stage we were 1/2.

In summation. Club financially are doing really well and aren't going anywhere. On field, guys look how good we are. We have even singled out these stats that tell us! Flags are hard but it's just a matter of time, look at club X. If we admit nothing is wrong by these specific goalposts that we set then we all get to keep our jobs

Photos below

 

[rogerjames]

The ultimate self fulfilling prophecy.

Koch stacks the board and executive with non-footballers. What else are we as members meant to do?

That's exactly right. Last night & at the previous AGM Koch has emphasised the need for a board with a broad range of skills inorder for the club to be successful. Surely all members agree with this, seems like common sense to me. Basically he is implying that members are simpletons who will only vote for footballers.

So despite this club (Koch) philosophy, prior to Tredders election, they had no-one on the board & football committee, the committee that makes critical football decisions, who had played at an elite football level. This clearly is at odds with Koch's stated philosophy.

So Davies, whose first priority is to keep his well paid job, gets to recommend basically whatever he wants. What does Davies know about elite level football?

So of course the members are going to address the obvious inbalance in board composition. It's commonsense. In Tredders we have a premiership captain (acting for Primus of course) who had high standards & a media performer who does not bow to the Vic media bullies who continually run their agendas. Of course we vote him in.

Imo members voting George in was a clear message to the club that we are unhappy with Snowdens role in recommending Kens coaching extensions. It was also a message that only one board member with strong football knowledge is not enough. The members know George has the clubs interests at heart from his previous work. Lets hope that this extra football knowledge at board level can help address the players continual failure in finals. Being totally uncompetitive in 2 out of 3 finals after finishing 2nd on the ladder is completely unacceptable.

 

[rogerjames]

By offline do you mean privately?
If so then that is pathetic.

They did the same thing last Agm. They approach the person privately after the Agm formal procedures are completed to discuss their question. Sure is pathetic.

 

[TeeKray]

Lol, do they realise those tables are actually damning rather than indicative of what a great job they're doing? We've won all of these games and all the other teams that have won that many games have won all the flags and played in all the grand finals except us. Totally ridiculous.

 

[Jonts]

Spoke to Rob Snowden too, can blame the guy for backing in Hinkley but he came at the role with a volunteers heart and looking to put in more than he got back, what at the end of the day is more than some of the others imo.


He was a footy ops boss at two premiership clubs, to say he doesn't have strong football knowledge is rough rogerjames
You can have knowledge without physically kicking the thing

 

[Jonts]

Lol, do they realise those tables are actually damning rather than indicative of what a great job they're doing? We've won all of these games and all the other teams that have won that many games have won all the flags and played in all the grand finals except us. Totally ridiculous.

I thought the same thing what made me quickly grab my phone

Reminds me of this bit from a big short

 

[JimmyBC]

Lol, do they realise those tables are actually damning rather than indicative of what a great job they're doing? We've won all of these games and all the other teams that have won that many games have won all the flags and played in all the grand finals except us. Totally ridiculous.

It highlights the problem and they use it as an example of success.. it's hilarious and sad at the same time.