James is at Taste festival selling his chocolate. The temptation to ask who to vote for was soooo strong. But I figure he gets asked about EFC all the time so didn’t even disclose I knew who he is.
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At least he’s consistent 
Thread has come full circle.
Absolutely ■■■■ all reason to change.
The end.
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Appreciate it Bacchus.
They must have been a bit hard. Can someone come up with some easier ones?
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I ended with an easy question, though it does require some thought.
Heath Hocking news was reported/announced in the online world around 2 days ago - Think Darli’s twitter is from November 28 - Would be more prudent if Hughes remained silent, but it’s not a hanging offence.
Towards the end of 2015, Jake Carlisle was right, the club was ■■■■■■.
The playing group was obviously at breaking point, we were continually getting flogged, we had the WADA appeal hanging over the players heads, the media was still gunning for Hird, from the sounds of sections of the Board we gunning for Hird.
We had lost Crameri, Ryder, and were about to lose Carlisle. The only players we could attract to the club we those past their best, or were fringe players at other clubs. We had mass debt that was only going to get worse with the compensation payouts & further court costs to come.x
At the end of 2015, Hird had copped 3 years of daily intrusion, savage public denunciation and a mass smear campaign the majority of the Footy world was only too willing to run with.
Whether James jumped or was pushed I don’t know, in the end I don’t really think it matters, it was the right thing that he went at that time. It gave immediate relief to the pressure on not only the playing group and the club, but James himself. It was a final act of integrity that is far beyond most of the dickheads in the AFL world.
I love Jimmy and it breaks my heart that his time as coach of the club ended the way did. If it was a purely a question of whether Hird could coach he would have survived, but of course it was much more than that.
I’m not going to hold Paul and Catherine or anyone else on the Board responsible for that. We were at the end of 2015 compared to where we are now only 2 years later is remarkable. Record membership, record profit, have somehow managed to turn ourselves into a destination club only 12 month after our worse season in multiple generations,young, exciting, talented list. The leadership in Xav, Lindsay, the Board, Woosha, Disco, Leadership Group have done a tremendous job turning the ship around so quickly, not sure why anyone is keen to rush to change things.
Yes we all wanted to see James Hird and Jobe Watson on that dias on the last Saturday in September holding aloft Number 17 and it hurts that we will never get to see it. Maybe it was naive for 2 Board Candidates to run with a heavy focus on supporting James Hird. However, I feel it is also ridiculous not to realise that from when they ran for the Board, to when Hird left things had changed dramatically.
In the end vote for who you want to, if you think their are candidates with better skill sets, or more experience or who will simply do a better job then sure vote for them. I just don’t think that ignoring the good work Paul and Catherine have done over the last three years because you are ■■■■■■ they “knifed Hirdy” makes any sense or will make you feel any better about what happened to James.
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How did Hughes know…? He is not on the Board, so who told him?
That’s hardly the point. Literally hundreds of people in and around footy clubs are privy to all kinds of information before it becomes public. Just like any other organisation.
Sometimes, like Buddha committing to the VFL side, its great news. Other times, not so great. The point is, it’s entirely up to those responsible for communication at the club to decide the timing of release of any communication.
In this case, for example, the strategy may have been to time the announcement to coincide with release of the vfl fixture, thus gaining maximum traction for both. It may have been something entirely different.
Either way it wasn’t Pete’s announcement to make.
Yacco is correct. On this occasion it’s not earthshattering.
Next time, or the time after that, or that other time…it just might be.
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There were people in EFL ranks that knew this a week or more ago after trying to recruit Hocking. How do you think they knew? It wasn’t Peter Hughes. Very long bow IMO.
Just on Hocking. He was telling fans days ago at training on the news so it was out there by Heath’s own words
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Of course there are obviously people at the club who knew too, did you see them letting it out? Including the VFL President, who politely made it clear the club didn’t want it confirmed, only to be given the “everyone else was doing it” excuse my kids would use.
No one is suggesting others didn’t know. As Scoots points out, Heath was telling fans at training. That’s not the point. Pete saw an opportunity to further his own credibility on the campaign trail at the expense of what the club wanted and took it.
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Wow. The cheerleading knows no bounds. Plenty of people knew about Hocking quite a while before Peter made his comment on that supporter page. Others were also making similar comments on similar forums. I really don’t think it’s that big a deal. Many people frequent these forums to follow certain posters & hear what they might know. Does someone sharing info with like minded supporters like Blitz warrant a similar accusation? I’d like to think not otherwise we may as well fold the blitz tent & move on.
Whoever wins the board seats will have done so on their own merits not with a smear campaign questioning ones character. Just let the chips fall where they may.
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If they’re running for the board, absolutely they do.
Disagree. Hocking news wasn’t a secret. That information wasn’t sensitive & whether he’s a candidate is irrelevant IMO unless you’re wanting to simply discredit someone for obvious personal reasons. Would it have been different if Fogdog, John Carpenter or Willie D had broken it? Of course it is, they’re not running for the board… right.
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What has happened to John Carpenter?
I think you just proved Darli’s point there MrS. I agree Hughes spilling the news on twitter isn’t a huge deal in the scheme of things. However it kinda shows his lack of restraint as a potential board member and foresight of what comes with such a role. If you want to be in a particular role, no matter what it is, a policeman, a nurse…whatever. You have project an appropriate model for yourself for those that will judge you for that role.
If Mr Hughes for example what applying to become a police officer, you would expect he wouldn’t publicly binge drink the Saturday night before his selection panel review. Whilst its not illegal, nor morally wrong, you can’t expect a selection panel not to make a note of this.
We’ve come out of a very nasty five years with a notorious history of leaking from within the club at our detriment. Hughes spilling some nice news on Heath Hocking certainly isn’t a massive deal, but when you’re asking for votes of members at this great club, you need to project the correct behaviour expected from a board member and not settle for what we expect from an anonymous forum user.
Put it this way, if there are two candidates I thought were equally equiped to take a board role, and Mr Hughes was one of them, that post would have pushed me to the other candidate. The truth is as Darli said, “Pete saw an opportunity to further his own credibility on the campaign trail at the expense of what the club wanted and took it.” It doesn’t matter what Heath told fans, it’s what the club wants thats important. If you are gunning to be a board member, you need to know how to be a team player.
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