Mercenary
adjective
1.
primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.
How much longer does this have to go on for before players/members/supporters wake up and realise its all these mercenaries that are hurting our community clubs? Imagine the facilities we could all afford if we wernet so focused on A grade finals.
Most clubs barely have a weights shed, yet the majority of A graders I know have a $1k per year gym membership. Just one season of freezing 'petrol money' could easily cover the costs of building one.
Its time for everyone to stop attacking each other, and start openly discussing internally this insane situation of every dollar raised by the hard working volunteers of the community in sponsorships/gate/bar/canteen is just being poured down the drain for short term success.
Yes very valid point - any club with substandard facilities should play in Country div until they have spent on and brought their infrastructure up to the same standard as Echunga :lol:
Whilst there may be a few players out there that fit this bill, most of the blame lies solely with the clubs, and until they realise this, it will never change!
It is as simple as this, it doesnt matter what amount a player may ask for, he will only get that amount if the CLUB are WILLING to give it to him.
Players don't shop themsleves around like people suggest (apart from a few who realistically give everyone a bad name), more often than not, clubs just outbid each other without the player even asking for money.
"What did club A offer you? We will beat it by $100 a game" would happen 90% of the time in talks rather than the player saying "they offered me $700 so if you give me $800 Ill play with you"
And given its the clubs that do this can you balme players.... Throw the old addage of footy loyalty out the window (because if a player is on the move, they dont have a loyalty to the clubs they are talking to), if it was your job, doing the same thing for 2 differeing companies, company A offered you $50k a year and Company B offered you $60k a year, where would you go.
The reality is, clubs need to start creating an environment where blokes want to play with their mates, want to bring more mates into that environment and while they are being paid to play, it is not the $ figure that is luring them there. This is harder said than done I realise and the APPS soemtimes limits your recruiting, but it is still the best way to survive.