SEQAFL Division 1 2013

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I think the lesson learnt with Ben Matthews at Maroochydore was that if the goal was
to snag a big name and
  • attract some media attention and hopefully sponsors
  • use the big name to recruit good players to play for less (or nothing) than they normally would due to playing with big name
  • turning a team around that won less than 4 games into coming second
  • use big name to recruit favours from AFL friends for fundraising lunches and dinners etc
then you can mark it down as a huge success.


SMY is correct in that the decision was made by a committee that left at the end of the year, however I don't think it's fair to be critical about volunteers who honestly thought they were doing the right thing at the time.

With the benefit of hindsight, a better strategy would be to bring in the big name with a view to it being a 5 or 10 year strategy.

I am sure that if Ben hadn't taken the role with the Suns this year, he would be back assisting at Maroochydore in some capacity as he had expressed a desire to get into coaching. His kids played for Maroochydore juniors, and if it wasn't for his businesses requiring his attention, he wouldn't have stepped away from the club at all.

The problem is that all of the experience that came from Ben playing and coaching was lost, as there was no under 18s at the time, and 4/5s of the team left at the same time.

As far as I am concerned, Ben as an investment was worth every cent and Maroochydore is certainly a better place for him being involved. I am sure if you asked some of the other blokes that played with him, you would get a very similar response.


fair enough S36.. to my mind there is ALWAYS a cost/benefit attached to recruiting footballers and even more so at this level. Very, very few players bring ppl thru the gate (and in fact no spectator pays so not a massive bonus anyway) and in turn maximise revenue. I am sure Ben would be around the footy club if on the coast - great fella, loves the coaching aspect of footy and does it very well but I must admit I can't see the legacy you speak of right now and the reason isn't any fault of Ben's but the nature of local footy on the coast and that more often than not is a transient population. The experience certain blokes received playing with him, as you said yourself, is lost to the club bc they aren't there anymore. I was fortunate enough to play with a number of ex-AFL footballers at a VFA club in the late 80's - it was a great experience but in the end these guys left when $$ dried up leaving the football club in a perilous situation. Have never seen this formula work unless there is a significant financial backer who doesn't mind throwing money in bc they have too much of it...:)
 

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Round 5 Winner is Tiger G (Congrats, you weren't punished by the tipping Gods by tipping against Mayne a couple of rounds back!)

RD 5
Tips Margin
Tiger G 5 6
stuyd 5 6
paddlepop33 5 9
Dezario 5 25
Smy1305 5 42
Pinky951 4 35
BigfootyQLD 4 45
Lovesthefp 3 32
2010premier 2 46
 
Overall leaderboard

Tips Margin
stuyd 22 181
Dezario 22 186
BigfootyQLD 21 234
Tiger G 20 206
Pinky951 19 189
paddlepop33 19 195
Lovesthefp 19 213
Smy1305 17 231
2010premier 13 339
 

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Proud got yellow carded, didn't like it, dropped his forehead into the umpire's face (was just a young fella btw, in fact the entire umpire crew had an average age of about 19...). Negligible contact from what I saw but nonetheless - you cannot touch the umpires, everyone knows this. Was handed a red, walked off in a huff. He'd be lucky to just get the week but I'm not privy to how the powers at be handled it all.
 
Proud got yellow carded, didn't like it, dropped his forehead into the umpire's face (was just a young fella btw, in fact the entire umpire crew had an average age of about 19...). Negligible contact from what I saw but nonetheless - you cannot touch the umpires, everyone knows this. Was handed a red, walked off in a huff. He'd be lucky to just get the week but I'm not privy to how the powers at be handled it all.
if he "dropped his forehead into the umpire's face" he'd have gotten a hell of a lot more than one week and deservedly so
 
Stiff shit Lenny - if he made any movement in the direction of the umpire with his head and as a threat, he should be getting 10 weeks - thats pathetic and no wonder we are short on umps. He's come from an elite club - do you reckon thats a great look for all the juniors watching the game at the time? Hopefully he got hauled over the coals by the powers at Springwood land.
 
he got done for umpire abuse and that's all. he didn't touch him nor threaten to touch him. again, had he done so he'd have gotten more than a week and deservedly so.
good result for your boys on the weekend Lenny, the Pumas just keep winning and collecting the points, big month of games to come but confidence must be high at Lowe Oval
 

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SEQAFL Division 1 2013

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