Sturt in Turmoil in 1961

Towards the end of 1961 Sturt Football Club was in turmoil. It had not won a premiership since 1940 - 21 years.
It only won one of its first 15 games of the season. It then won its next two but in round 18 on Saturday August 26 1961 at Norwood Oval it went down to Norwood by 77 points and the members wanted 'blood'.
The seventeen year period from 1945 to 1961 was one of unprecedented bleakness for the Sturt Football Club. The Blues contested the finals on only five occasions during that period, which coincidentally was the same number of times they ended up with the wooden spoon. All told, Sturt won just 34.75% of all matches played, a return which would have been even poorer were it not for the outstanding individual abilities of such as triple Magarey Medallist Len Fitzgerald, Wally May, John Halbert (who went on to win the 1961 Magarey Medal), Clayton 'Candles' Thompson, Tony Goodchild and Don Harris.
Anyway by Tuesday 29 August 1961 Sturt members had had enough and a Special General Meeting was called to put a vote of "no confidence" in the Committee of Management chaired by Ray Kutcher.
I am not a Sturt supporter but I thought it may be interesting to share some of the dialogue from that eventful meeting - the results of which eventually led to the replacement of Captain Coach Glynn Williams at season's end and the appointment of Jack Oatey for 1962 - the rest is history.
I hope this is of interest to many of you.
MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING HELD ON AUGUST 29, 1961, AT 8 P.M.
Mr. Colin Dunnage MP (President): Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all I declare the meeting open, welcome you all, and say how nice it is to see such a crowd. It augurs well for football in this district when, even under these conditions, we can get a crowd like this together. It is many years since we have had a Special Meeting called of this type. As you all know-I think it was in the Press the other day-it was in 1922 that the last Special Meeting was called. It is very nice to see you.
First of all, and this is important, this is a Special Meeting, and it is called for one purpose only, and that is to discuss this petition that has been lodged. I will read it to you in a moment. The mover and seconder will speak. Somebody in opposition, I hope, will get up and speak, and from then on I will try and get one from one side and one from the other. Now I hope that will meet with your approval. Whether it does or not, that is what I am going to do, gentlemen, and I want to read you the petition first of all. Here it is. You can see it. It has 80 signatures to it. It reads-and this is what we are going to discuss; we are not going to discuss any personalities, or any think like that at all; we are going to stick to this-
"We, the undersigned members of the Sturt Football Club Inc., hereby make written application for the holding of a Special General Meeting of the Club. We desire the calling of the meeting to give the opportunity to members to discuss the following motion that the Committee of Management of the Sturt Football Club no longer holds the confidence of the general membership."
Now that is what we are going to discuss, gentlemen-that last little bit-"that the Committee of Management of the Sturt Football Club no longer holds the confidence of the general membership."
All right; I presume somebody is ready to move it, and I will ask for the gentleman who is going to move it. Mr. Norm Sanders, gentlemen.
Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, before I do get down to tintacks on this matter, I would like to express my personal regrets to Mr. Ray Kutcher, and I am sure I am safe in saying that you all join with me in saying how sorry we are to have learned of the accident to his son, and we certainly hope that he will have a very speedy recovery.
Mr. Chairman, I have been asked by some of the members of the Sturt Football Club to formally move the motion, which is to be put to this meeting tonight, but before doing so, I would like to say-and I am sure that you, with your innate love of the true democratic way of life, will agree with me-that the ballot on this motion should be taken secretly. I, therefore, ask you for a direction.
Mr. Dunnage: Well, I will give my direction. It is my intention, ladies and gentlemen, to call for a show of hands first of all, and then, following the usual Parliamentary procedure, if I am not able to judge the numbers by that, I will call for a division, or I expect someone will call for a division, and the Ayes will go to the right, and the Noes to the left of the chair. That is what I intend to do, Mr. Sanders.
Order, please! That is what we are going to do. Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, I think that that procedure is highly irregular and undemocratic, and we certainly do not agree.
Mr. Murray: Mr. Chairman, I have risen on a point of order: The meeting was called to discuss a particular motion, and I ask the mover of the motion to move it, and make his points about voting later until such time as a motion is moved there should be no discussion on this, or any other matter.
Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, I disagree. I think we should clear about how a ballot should be taken first, before we discuss the motion.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
It only won one of its first 15 games of the season. It then won its next two but in round 18 on Saturday August 26 1961 at Norwood Oval it went down to Norwood by 77 points and the members wanted 'blood'.
The seventeen year period from 1945 to 1961 was one of unprecedented bleakness for the Sturt Football Club. The Blues contested the finals on only five occasions during that period, which coincidentally was the same number of times they ended up with the wooden spoon. All told, Sturt won just 34.75% of all matches played, a return which would have been even poorer were it not for the outstanding individual abilities of such as triple Magarey Medallist Len Fitzgerald, Wally May, John Halbert (who went on to win the 1961 Magarey Medal), Clayton 'Candles' Thompson, Tony Goodchild and Don Harris.
Anyway by Tuesday 29 August 1961 Sturt members had had enough and a Special General Meeting was called to put a vote of "no confidence" in the Committee of Management chaired by Ray Kutcher.
I am not a Sturt supporter but I thought it may be interesting to share some of the dialogue from that eventful meeting - the results of which eventually led to the replacement of Captain Coach Glynn Williams at season's end and the appointment of Jack Oatey for 1962 - the rest is history.
I hope this is of interest to many of you.
MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING HELD ON AUGUST 29, 1961, AT 8 P.M.
Mr. Colin Dunnage MP (President): Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all I declare the meeting open, welcome you all, and say how nice it is to see such a crowd. It augurs well for football in this district when, even under these conditions, we can get a crowd like this together. It is many years since we have had a Special Meeting called of this type. As you all know-I think it was in the Press the other day-it was in 1922 that the last Special Meeting was called. It is very nice to see you.
First of all, and this is important, this is a Special Meeting, and it is called for one purpose only, and that is to discuss this petition that has been lodged. I will read it to you in a moment. The mover and seconder will speak. Somebody in opposition, I hope, will get up and speak, and from then on I will try and get one from one side and one from the other. Now I hope that will meet with your approval. Whether it does or not, that is what I am going to do, gentlemen, and I want to read you the petition first of all. Here it is. You can see it. It has 80 signatures to it. It reads-and this is what we are going to discuss; we are not going to discuss any personalities, or any think like that at all; we are going to stick to this-
"We, the undersigned members of the Sturt Football Club Inc., hereby make written application for the holding of a Special General Meeting of the Club. We desire the calling of the meeting to give the opportunity to members to discuss the following motion that the Committee of Management of the Sturt Football Club no longer holds the confidence of the general membership."
Now that is what we are going to discuss, gentlemen-that last little bit-"that the Committee of Management of the Sturt Football Club no longer holds the confidence of the general membership."
All right; I presume somebody is ready to move it, and I will ask for the gentleman who is going to move it. Mr. Norm Sanders, gentlemen.
Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, before I do get down to tintacks on this matter, I would like to express my personal regrets to Mr. Ray Kutcher, and I am sure I am safe in saying that you all join with me in saying how sorry we are to have learned of the accident to his son, and we certainly hope that he will have a very speedy recovery.
Mr. Chairman, I have been asked by some of the members of the Sturt Football Club to formally move the motion, which is to be put to this meeting tonight, but before doing so, I would like to say-and I am sure that you, with your innate love of the true democratic way of life, will agree with me-that the ballot on this motion should be taken secretly. I, therefore, ask you for a direction.
Mr. Dunnage: Well, I will give my direction. It is my intention, ladies and gentlemen, to call for a show of hands first of all, and then, following the usual Parliamentary procedure, if I am not able to judge the numbers by that, I will call for a division, or I expect someone will call for a division, and the Ayes will go to the right, and the Noes to the left of the chair. That is what I intend to do, Mr. Sanders.
Order, please! That is what we are going to do. Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, I think that that procedure is highly irregular and undemocratic, and we certainly do not agree.
Mr. Murray: Mr. Chairman, I have risen on a point of order: The meeting was called to discuss a particular motion, and I ask the mover of the motion to move it, and make his points about voting later until such time as a motion is moved there should be no discussion on this, or any other matter.
Mr. Sanders: Mr. Chairman, I disagree. I think we should clear about how a ballot should be taken first, before we discuss the motion.
TO BE CONTINUED.....