Postecoglou's legacy likely to be enduring

PeterK----thank you for the offer but I don't see any point now we have lost our clubs and we won't ever be part of the HAL in the foreseeable future---for at least 10 years or if ever, although I do appreciate your thoughts.. I am slowly getting over the pain of it all, of not having GCU football club to watch on the Gold Coast... I am an ex pat Sydney boy so that is my team now---when they come to play I shall be out there to see them defeat the Roar comprehensively.. ;) Cheers Peter

Would you like to read a copy of my submission? How best can I get it to you I wonder? I do have an eMail address "in the cloud" which I rarely use, except for occasional things like this (where I don't want my normal address publicly displayed)?

PeterK----I bombarded the FFA with emails protesting what they did to us.. There was a save the GCU committee formed (I was not on it) and we had 200 people who attended a meeting at the Gold Coast University. Tom Tate the GC mayor got involved to form a new owner ship comprising local businessmen and Asian investors. Apparently there were pledges of $1.5m raised in a few weeks. But it was all in vain, because Frank Lowy had all along been organising a business plan to introduce a West Sydney team and led us on believing there was a possibility that GCU would still be included in next years comp... Just like the Fury we were lied to and I shall never forget Frank Lowy's deception in this whole affair..

QANTAS, did you, like me, make a submission to the FA's "inquiry"?

PeterK---I see it as a right because after all it was the FFA who wanted teams in our regions to compete with the other codes. We (our owners) came a long in good faith and formed the clubs without any promotional assistance from the FFA promoting HAL Football in these new territories to make the HAL truly a national competition. We have earned the right to stay in the league with our investment, even tho our numbers may have been very low. Developing a football culture where there has not been any before takes a lot of time, effort and promotion, which Frank Lowy has been so short sighted to understand. Instead of fostering football in our cities he neglected his duty, his responsibility of promoting HAL. A ten team league is far too small and we should have a 14 team competition. However, for now 12 team comp should have been the target to take to FOX. Tinkler and Palmer would be still in the league if it was not for Frank Lowy's incompetence, for not embracing the owners as partners, instead he treated them as clients he thought he could bleed.. More help was needed to help foster the HAL in the new territories by taking some lower profile international fixtures to the new regions, the u17s, u23s, Olyroos, Matildas, a whole variety of international football fixtures for promotional reasons, all would have helped the game in our cities. To help foster the game where it was needed the most. This would have gone a long way with the expansion of football across Australia... Frank Lowy is a dinosaur who needs to be replaced immediately with an independent Football Commission. He has had his time in the sun and now needs to take a step back---maybe be as the new owner of the West Sydney Franchise and see how difficult it is to be an owner of a football club without proper HAL promotion of the league..

QsAF, there's some truth in what you say, despite my comments to The Bear just above, but I can't say I see it as a right. Yes I do agree that, having admitted a club, the FFA should move heaven and earth to retain it, but not for the reason of "right". It should be kept (at all costs) because of two consequences of not keeping it -- the very poor effect on the public image of the A-League, and the devastating effect on new converts in the region, and on possible future converts. At the time Fury was admitted I wondered (in writing) whether we were "ready".

Sorry, The Bear, I don't quite see the relevance between my post and yours about priveleges and rights. Mine was about keeping just a little bit of perspective. Perhaps your initial post was far more sarcastic than I'd read into it? As for B Roar, which was my no.1 team before Fury was born, I call to mind that it went broke (or announced its "brokeness") AFTER FFA had promised Fury full financial support for TWO seasons. Now I don't actually agree with getting such support, but it was promised nevertheless. When B Roar also needed help, FFA didn't have enough cash left for us both, and since it had compulsion to keep the capital city club rather than the regional one, we were cut loose a season earlier than promised. I could be very bitter at B Roar under these circs, but can tell you that I am not. I appreciate the fact that FFA wanted B Roar ahead of Fury, and I appreciated that FFA simply didn't have sufficient cash for us both (and I think Adelaide was getting FFA support at the same time too?) I even continue still to follow B Roar quite avidly, though I'm working hard at SOME day having NQ re-enter the A-League. If there was a weak link in the chain of events it was that FFA had not foreseen the other demands on its coffers at the time of making that promise to us at Fury. I hope you can see from the above that I don't have a feeling of "right". In fact I'm very much one who supports the idea of "paying our own way" -- to the point that it saddens me that we are forced to have so many clubs so dependent on largesse from rich people.

Bear----once the FFA committed to the new regions Nth Qld and GC it was no longer a privilege but it became their right to stay in the HAL.. So you are saying if the FFA were to have axed the Roar when they had no owner and their crowd numbers were at an all time low you would not have been bitter or twisted? Give me a break... I would like to know where you live now..?

Having a football team to support in your area is a privilege, not a right. And I do feel lucky and honoured to have one (tho I no longer live in Brisbane). There are many areas in this country that are either unrepresented or have had a failed chance to stay represented. It's only human to try and find someone or something to blame, I understand that. But again, it's not a right...it's a privilege, and at least I can identify with a team in a meaningful way, I hope you can one day find one too!!

Thanks, Fussball, I value your opinions (even the few I don't agree with), and thanks for the encouragement I got from this post. I agree with your figures, and mention that my calculations tell me that the most difficult part is the "every year" bit. So, I'm trying to fashion a scheme where by the rules of the club a percentage each year is put aside for ensuing years, and in addition a percentage is put aside for stadium expansion. Oh yes, I'm trying to organise that we own our own stadium! So you'll see that I want a good bit more than $3.5M in the first year. I'd say we ended up with about 1500 "rusted-on" fans, and about that again of "fairly interested" fans, so I'm working on a range of levels of membership, with increasing benefits per level, the top levels actually being "owners" with decent voting rights. However, most of the fans feel very anti-FFA (especially the rusted-on ones), much more so than I, and it will be a long and hard slog for me, and the transition from nothing (now) to full HAL status might need a few steps along the way. Personally. I'd like to see a cheaper version of HAL set up, not exactly as a second division (as I think that's a long way off) but more as a training ground for clubs aspiring to HAL status. Do you happen to know what the requirements by the (English) FA are for admission of clubs to their bottom tier (the fourth tier I believe)? The cheaper version could be made cheaper by not having stadia which are of TV standard, by having a salary-cap lower than HAL (maybe two-thirds?), and by cutting travelling costs by playing the first half of the season in regions -- maybe N and E (NT, Qld, NNSW, NSW, and NZ) and S and W (ACT, Vic, Tas, SA, and WA) -- if enough teams are interested. Any further ideas of your own (especially on cutting costs)?

PeterK I've never found you to be negative just for the sake of being anti-FFA. I, too, would be extremely upset if my HAL team ceased to exist but, if the club wasn't sustainable, then it would have come as no surprise. I would love to see GCU & NQF back in the HAL. It takes about $6m to run an HAL club. It is forecast the FFA will be providing $2.5m under the new TV deal. So, if you could gather 3.5k football fans in the NQ region, willing to put in $1k every year ($3m) ... then anything is possible in the future. $1k p.a. sounds a lot, but it's less than what I currently pay for HD Foxtel subscription!

And the NQ fans, and the Canberra fans, who probably feel a bit like they're on a rubbish tip? Just trying to keep perspective here and be a bit more inclusive. My hope really is that the A-League (and the FFA) will prosper. I believe that those who think all is well have their heads as much in the sand as those who think all is crook.

Be careful RF, your finger may poke through that ever so thin toilet paper you use..

Futbanous, QsAF's heart has been ripped out, and this is the best you can do? Very flippant, and I suppose there are some somewhere who find it funny. "Pull the ladder up Jack, I'm aboard and OK!"

Sorry, Fussball, I'm afraid there's still a lot of bitterness in NQ. I'm one who'd like us all to get over it quickly, but I constantly strike extremely strong feelings against FFA. The theme which seems to run right through all those who complain, including GCU, Newcastle, and Canberra, and even WSydney before the recent events (though their own fb page still has many very sceptical) is a feeling of "being strung along" or at least of having been misled. Those who've not (yet) experienced it find it hard to understand, and my fervent hope is that you never do get to experience it. I work very hard here in NQ trying to swing sentiment around, with an eventual aim to help re-introduce NQ at the top level but with a stronger and more sustainable financial basis. I've been pleased at some of the very few changes in attitude and policy at FFA, but feel there's more needed yet before I can start to really enthuse the NQ locals. You and others might find me negative, and you might even hope that NQ will never re-enter, but I assure you that I'm passionate about our game, passionate about my region, and really really want the A-League (and FFA) to succeed.

Agree, QASF. You are exactly the sort of person who ossifies on the Gold Coast.

As predictable as Julia Gillard's need to keep "moving forward". And about as interesting.

It's important that we know what we are talking about. And it's refreshing that a Blog writer can acknowledge an improvement ; ) Enjoy the off season EVERYBODY...yes, even the bitter Perth fans, the twisted GCU fans, and the anxious Jets fans...

Yes I'm coming home if it's only in a spiritual sense.. ;) Looking forward to the SFC away game up at Suncorp...