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Southerner wrote: Sooner or later the membership will have to dump Porky the Pig & his cronies - otherwise forget any return to tradition it'll be too late if it isn't already

While we as EP members were never consulted, it didn't mean we had to accept it, at least certainly not as placidly as we have.

There's been virtually no contrary view argued at an AGM, or even on the info night when this was all revealed. Therefore what else can the board go away with other than the belief they have the members support?

A question for the EP supporters/members that I’ve had on my mind for years. It’s plainly obvious that you guys are totally anti alignment. I have some in laws that support your club and they were absolutely thrilled at the announcement of the alignment. As one said to me, we’ve got more flags, flags and flags ahead. Question is, do you have many people that are for the alignment? What’s the general feeling of all the members? Will you have a majority of support in trying to get rid of this disease that is eating at your club?

58shark, my impression from the Royals supporters that I associate with is that very few are in favour of the alignment (if they are, they certainly don't say so).
However, I sit with the rank and file (with all due respect to these learned gentleman) during games and don't know what the prevailing mood is among those who hobnob it with the powerbrokers.
As it stands, the pain that I used to experience when the team lost hasn't been there during the alignment.
My interest in the team's fortunes has been flagging - but not in the same sense as your "flag win" in-laws.
I'd happily see the end of the alignment even if it meant a couple of years in the wilderness for the team as the club regains its soul.
I reckon many of those supporters who've left the club because of the alignment would come back to see the rebuild, even if the team initially struggled.

There is a positive from the alignment and that is we have been forced to focus more on the development of our colts etc. When you look at the past two seasons we have debuted more players from within the club than for some previous seasons. In previous years we went to Victoria believing that was the best option,and in some cases it worked but more often than not is was a waste, this was compounded by having perfectly good players in the lower level.

As for the general opinion I am exposed to, there is not much desire to retain the alignment but but by the same token no one wants to back to the willy nilly recruitment or become another $ubiaco.

The trick for us will be to maintain the business culture developed by Dean Turner and Bronte Howson but not waste the efforts to put that culture in place. DT and BH et al may have made the alignment decisions but no one at EP can deny that we are a much better club financially than we were previously. That position may well be as a result of the alignment but I can honestly say that most of the position is due to the business model.

A quick question Grump and please understand I'm not trying to be an idiot here but to me, there's a contradiction in your previous statement around development of the colts...how can that be when their pathway to playing league footy is pretty well blocked by aligned WCE guys making up the majority of the one's each week? I also note your colts finished 5th with 11 wins in 2017 and your ressies last...so how does that work?

I know one Person who wants the alignment BH and he hand picked the board members. Seems from what I can gather a backflip has occurred and the alignment will continue.

BC our colts lost the Prelim in 2017 and underachieved in my opinion. I'm not so optimistic about the new Colts structure in place, but in reality EP doesn't require home grown players at this point.

As I mentioned earlier, I think that we have debuted more players in the past 2 or three years than we would have if we had followed the Vic is better route. Now they may not get the run of games some would want but the better ones are and will continue to get! The ones that have left and sought greener pastures (more league games) have if I am not mistaken not found the grass greener but a little on the prickly side. I believe this year we will see at least 2 early debuts and more later in the season. I am not one for trawling the stats but those better at it than me might be able to do a comparison between EP and the rest of the comp!

BC wrote: A quick question Grump and please understand I'm not trying to be an idiot here but to me, there's a contradiction in your previous statement around development of the colts...how can that be when their pathway to playing league footy is pretty well blocked by aligned WCE guys making up the majority of the one's each week? I also note your colts finished 5th with 11 wins in 2017 and your ressies last...so how does that work?

The ressies finished last year because they lost 4 games by a goal or less and because when the eagles have injuries it has a domino effect in that the better ressies then get a league game.It is not rocket science but the G7 sides have a more settled league and ressies structure which didn't happen to the royals due to the eagles long list of injuries.Not having Samalko and Lewis Wilson who were injured for most of last year was a huge loss.

Probably could start another thread somewhere else but this is alignment connected. I’ve noticed Damon Cramer and Lachlan Mitchell,both from Peel and both in the 18’s squad from last year,have moved over to Vic to play with Coburg. Surely this is because,in part,they want to play senior football and the pathway at Peel has obvious roadblocks?!