Re: EXCLUSIVE: THE State Government has saved the Western Bulldogs from imminent financial disaster(
Yes, I'm wondering too whether all this is 100% the bad old Council's fault?
This is really bad news for the club and a real stuff up
However, i have been concerned for sometime that while the club has had its eye on the ball on the field this year - it has not been managing things off the field all that well. And wonder whether it has bitten off more than it can chew
I wonder whether, for example, we have enough staff and the right staff internally in the club to manage two very big development projects which the club is now committed to, and/or the club had set in place the necessary project management to manage the roll out of all what is required.
Working with Councils etc. require consultation, lobbying and discussions with councillors and planning departments. I wonder whether this has occurred, or whether the planning applications etc have been dumped on Council at the last minute.
Maribyrnong is perhaps being unreasonable but given the pokies debacle, shouldn't the club have anticipated this might be a problem?
As it is, it now looks like the club will have to fight two cases at VCAT (Edgewater and the Whitten Development). It is a pity this could not have been avoided.
Councils are notorious at being nitpicky and ill willed but to play the Devil's Advocate ( albeit without all the facts so feel free to rebut):
The Footscray/Western Bulldogs Football Club is an historically understaffed organisation that has relied heavily on part time/volunteer workers to keep it running. I reflect back on the days when the 89 fightback was basically run out of the Tin shed next to the ground. When Rose took over, we were in a sorry financial state and many cuts were made to save money. I don't know all the facts but I am guessing we don't have quite the same numbers in our Admin offices as the Collingwood or Essendon Admins do.
As someone who has dealt with the Dogs on such seemingly simple things as organising a couple of players to come to a school or to an Auskick Clinic, the number of times this has been cancelled or delayed or stuffed up is difficult to calculate. There are some things we just still don't do well.
It is highly likely that an understaffed office at the club didn't quite get all the paperwork required in on time, considering the ridiculous amount of red tape councils typically make you fill in. If they can't give the correct school address to a couple of footballers who fail to turn up to a school clinic then it is highly probable this kind of administrative dealings with council over a big development was too much to handle.
I might be completely wrong over this and I'm not one who usually speculates on this forum, but I just have a feeling the Club is still a little off being a 100% professional organisation.
Hopefully the State Government intervention will get it all done and the Council doesn't crack the #@$$s over it.
It's amazing that up until the Darwin game, everything was a well oiled machine then bang! The Minson non story, the Handstand crap, the lacklustre Melbourne win and the Geelong embarrassment gets followed by this near disaster and all of a sudden it's all negative publicity for us. Maybe Cross and Williams need to go back to Asia and save a drowning person again!
Yes, I'm wondering too whether all this is 100% the bad old Council's fault?