With the club now announcing that they’re proceeding with the formal Fan Representative Group, what do we think this should look like? As has been raised many times, fans should be consulted on what the group should look like and as the club seemingly isn’t interested in doing that I think it’s worthwhile having the discussion here which could then be put to the club.
In my opinion, there’s no point having a such a group if all it consists of some manager picking 5-10 fans they like the look of to ‘represent’ the 17k members. I think the best possible solution is a supporters union with a handful of elected representatives. Significant proposals should be voted on by the union body. Membership should be open to all but to vote you should have to be a season ticket holder.
Does the fan group get a say in community engagement activities? Like, never again host a school “elite” competition for “private schools only”. I assume it was a money-making endeavour and you can’t ask public schools to pay $2000 a team.
Taking into consideration the absolutely open, honest, transparent & effective communication that the APL, the FA & the FFA have demonstrated with the fans over the past 10 years or so does anyone really think that genuine stakeholder engagement is a thing in Australian football ?
Reading between the lines this little ditty is effectively saying that The Cove is now persona non grata and they wish for “fan representative” groups not to question anything & be little more than tokens in the wider narrative. If the desire for genuine fan representation ( lol ) existed this would have been done ages ago. This is a perfect opportunity to remove any actual questioning of things like the Grand Final without seeming like you are.
Welcome to the corporate mindset of franchise football, you no put in real money? We no give a flying fuck what you think.
The club has already agreed a format with the APL which will be presented to actives next week, once again bypassing a critical stakeholder in their process.
I despise highly structured fan orgs, they attract self-promoting dickheads, rules lawyers pseudo-politicians, unfortunately for the broader support, there’s no real alternative.
The Cove has been an informal meritocracy for its entire existence, where authority is derived from a combination of contribution and general consensus. The leadership is a small group of people who have stepped up, and the current core is constantly identifying and mentoring the next generation, because after 5 years most people burn out and want to step back, I lasted 14 years by not taking on gameday responsibilities and limiting my activities to relationship building and financial management.
General support doesn’t have the contributory measuring stick so when things like this are discussed, it always concerns me.
My personal opinion is that I should be put in charge and be allowed to pick my own team of sycophants and token representatives who shut up and do exactly what I tell them, because that’s how shit gets done around here.
