TOPIC:

.... returns to South Fremantle in a mentor/advisory role which assists League coach Paul Hasleby in the upcoming season

Interesting addition ............ the 2014 seed is growing

Who says we have no money Anchordude ...... yes he will

.... on the last bit .... who knows , the AFL mobs do what they want when they think they want - AND to anybody they want to do it to

Just got this from the Club.

SOUTH Fremantle has pulled off a significant recruiting victory signing former Melbourne and Adelaide AFL big man James Sellar for the 2014 season ahead of rival WAFL clubs.

The 24-year-old Sellar will now arrive at Fremantle Oval to play with the

Bulldogs in the 2014 WAFL season along with former Swan Districts centre half-forward Josh Pullman while Ashton Hams, Steven Verrier and Haiden Schloithe have all signed on post their time in the AFL system.
Sellar was initially drafted into the AFL by the Adelaide Crows going on to play one game in 2008, 11 in 2009, four in 2010 and then another five in 2011 before moving to Melbourne for the last two seasons.

Im getting very concerned at the leadership of the club and its financial direction.

SFFC have obviously outbid every other WAFL club with this signing , throwing a lot of cash at him.

This is at a time when the club is making massive financial losses and there appears no real plan to turn it around.

The current leadership of the club have overseen the complete collapse of the clubs finances and membership base.

anchorman wrote: S&S ,maybe they see the future as being bright if they can win a premiership next season.
Maybe they think that winning it will bring back members and supporters.
But Cicco must have left the brown paper bag there somewhere.

Premierships mean nothing on the books; we won one in 2009 and lost money that year and every year since, they are actually expensive to win via player payments and recruitment costs, they dont necessarily translate into off field success.

The football department is harmorging money, and memberships will be near on impossible to recover with the cotenants geunine premiership contenders, there are just not enough people interested in south to get the numbers up to stop the current decline.

In the Annual report - the President and CEO says they will launch a major memebrship campaign in December, of well its Decemeber now.. Where is it??

Also I cannot beleive the Presidents annual report - he presides over the loss of $300,000.00 and does not mentuon it once in his entire report or what he plans to do about it,

Claremont made a profit this year. For a club with a tiny supporter base and and embarking on a ground redevelopment.

Raponi and WP do a great job in marketing the club and being outspoken.

No club would have dropped $40,000.00 woth of membership in one year. Thats unprecedendeted.

anchorman wrote: Really!! what about way back in around 87/88 when the State Government had to form a commission to run football.ALL clubs were in debt.The WAFL was basically broke.
Souths had to rely on Hughes and Bond more than once to get them out of the mire.
Unprecedented!!!!!!I think not.

Whats the collapse of WAFL in 87 got to do with it?, that was tied in with the Indian Pacific collapse,,your on different page with that one!

Yes the Save Our Souths situation that was in 91 was build up of debt over several decades , it ended up something like $700K in debt, that was attributed to several bad deals including the purchase of the Phoenix Hotel, massive payments of players in the pre eagles days that were financed through borrowing.

however that was not as a result of a sudden drop in memberships, memberships did not decline in a dramamtic,,sense, If you read my post - that was what what I was referring to as being unprecdedented, memberships not financial problems. I have been reading annual reports for in excess of 30yrs and have never seen anything like this year in those terms.


Yes the late Bill Hughes stepped in as new president and orchestarted a recovery - after the tenure of Wayne Ryder went off track...It seems to me the same needs to happen now - as I said the current board is going off track.

There is not enough flowing back into local club coffers from the Vicco comp .... every draftee regardless of status main list or rookie - should have compensation
WA gate takings should be distributed among the clubs in measure
VFL games over here should have local fixture curtain raisers equally shared
Where's all the revenue return money from the blue & gold + purple mobs going ? around 10 mil last year ????

Southerner wrote: There is not enough flowing back into local club coffers from the Vicco comp .... every draftee regardless of status main list or rookie - should have compensation
WA gate takings should be distributed among the clubs in measure
VFL games over here should have local fixture curtain raisers equally shared
Where's all the revenue return money from the blue & gold + purple mobs going ? around 10 mil last year ????

The WAFL comp and clubs will not and cant survive long term in its current format, clubs simply cant survive and are now reliant on hand outs.

The only way forward I see is a radical and dramatic change and rationilastion of the comp, club mergers, ground rationalisation, much reduced over heads and admin.

anchorman wrote: S&S,all WAFL clubs were in financial trouble before the Indian Pacific situation.It took the IP situation to bring the Government into the issue.
The WAFL was working on a shoe string, as were all football clubs.
I can not see any way out of the troubles of the WAFL and the clubs unless the clubs began a positive advertising campaign to get people back to the footy.Maybe half price entrance for a few weeks.
I don't know but I just see all clubs being in deep strife and no way out.

No idividual clubs were ever bailed out when the WAFC was formed it was the Actual WAFL and West Coast Eagles themselves. It was the WAFL that was going under.

The WAFL was weighed down by a massive loan on the 2 teir stand they could not service and then Indian Paicific and the WCE went bust which WAFL was a major shareholder.

I agree though, there needs to be major change.

Regardless of any clubs fiances at that time, being good or bad the fact remains that no individual clubs were bailed out by the State Govt. But I do agree the WAFL/Eagles were broke.

Anyway we are talking ancient history and going off track.

What I want to know is, is the SFFC making to right decisions now, and where the hell is the money coming from??