Old_mate21 wrote:I can say for a FACT, the only reason I left a club was because I didn’t enjoy it except one time when the club was actually too far once I started a family. Just because you love a club and how things are off field it doesn’t mean everyone else will. Don’t let perception in get in the way of reality.
You have forty to fifty guys in a group and can’t expect them all to get along just because that’s what is ‘right’. Don’t sit there on your high horse commenting about what players are doing to ruin footy when your club is also actively recruiting and paying players. Payer playments have been around for over 20 years
I ask you, will you tell your son to do what makes him happy as he grows older or make him do something that he isn’t enjoying but what is ‘right’
You may well be the exception to the rule for how/why you arrive/leave clubs, but I can tell you it's becoming increasingly more common for players to dictate terms and pick and choose their battles - funny how they tend to "enjoy" the game more when they're in a side that's dominating.. how many of these guys train the house down regularly, attend club functions and invest back in the club? How many play because they genuinely love the game compared to receiving a pay packet or almost certain flag?
Yep Ingle Farm certainly is active in its recruiting and does try to offer very minimal incentives towards paying players - why? Because in this day and age, to bury your head in the sand and hope players come for the love, or stick through from juniors would be detrimental to your clubs development and would fall along way behind.
Loyalty is dead in footy, but doesn't mean we cant lament about it, and it doesn't make life any easier.
Player payments are far worse than ever before - everyone thinks they're entitled to something, even if they haven't earned it, and someone, somewhere will give them what they want.
Some conversations I've experienced over the summer to prove my point:
1) Ingle Farm Jnr, over 150 Jnr games, nearly 100 snr games, walks into meeting with a prepared letter of terms "I want $xx k or i'm leaving... xxx has offered me $xxx k " - He's gone.
2) U18 player at another club, played bit of B grade, contacts club, first comment "How much you gonna pay me?" - Didn't sign him.
3) A player from a club sits down, offer presented "Thanks for your offer, xx has offered me $xx a game and i'm waiting for xx to get back to me with their offer, I want $xx a game, but that's for making an offer." Didn't sign him.
4) Player trains, asked if he's interested in playing "I'll let ya know, waiting to see what offers I get from a couple other clubs first." - Didn't sign him.
It's hard for Ingle Farm also, because we are competing with Pooraka, Greenacres, Gepps Cross who have reasonable coin in very close proximity, then there is also Mawson Lakes and Para Hills within a stones throw, and Brahma Lodge, Modbury, TTG, Golden Grove not much further away.