Slugger McBatt wrote:
As I read this, fans are panicking because we are in a hole on the field once more.
There are two sides to Trinity: on the field and off the field.
Off the field is MC's arena. The club is in a better position than for years. We own the ground. We are financially stable (so everyone says). The ground is about to be redeveloped. MC and Mindards have done a sterling job and they should carry on.
On the field, not so good. The only criticism I can level at MC, if I really tried, was that he stuck with Chester for too long, but Chester's good couple of seasons probably gave him brownie points that bought him a season longer than perhaps should have been the case. As for Willie, we don't know if the club finances dictated his appointment, rather than advertising for someone with a greater pedigree. If it was finances, then that is just how it goes. It is hard to blame someone for on the field situations, however, when that is not his arena or forte.
As for attracting investors, there is no such thing in rugby league. Investors expect a return on the investment. Anyone who pumps money into a rugby league club does it as a hobby with money they don't mind losing. So, is it MC's fault no one is offering to waste millions of pounds? Unlikely to be a queue of people.
MC I've no issue with and I hope we don't lose him. I prefer stability over anything else. I just wish we hadn't made the same mistake as so previous years, appointing someone who is really just an assistant on the back of a sacking bounce.
I'm pretty much in agreement with every word of this... in my experience the club has never been better run as a functioning business... tight financial control, with the exception of the mortgage, which is being serviced... and there are no outstanding bills, and our supply chain can rely on the club to meet its contractual requirements without resorting to threatened or actual legal action... how are you guys doing with your household budgets these days???
perhaps there could have been greater progress in the area of attracting investment, but the current business climate in the UK currently is not great, and I think the mounting debts of some of our rugby league rivals will soon come home to roost. I don't support this club because I think we will, or even can, win every week, I know that, on paper we are easily in the bottom three clubs based on playing talent. I support them because they are part of my DNA, my family, my tribe... my mob!
there may be sustainable success in the future, there may not... players, fans even custodian owners come and go... but the way I see it the current custodian owners have added more stability, surety and governance than I have seen in over 50 years... and that means that the club will probably be around for my grandchildren and great grandchildren (and their generational family in and around Wakefield).
Sustainable change only happens incrementally even with huge investment..
I first came across "if you always do what you've always done" quote in the mid 80 as a part of the TQM revolution in industry... it encourages change and innovation, but must be treated as only a part of the long term solution, for if you don't underpin change and improvement with due diligence, system and governance, you are doomed to boom and bust.
we don't have access to massive investment in the short term, so the only alternative is to make incremental changes to the business in the short term whilst seeking opportunities to create investment... but investment must attract a dividend... otherwise its just a donation... and these days there are far more deserving charities seeking angels.
And no amount of whinging and bleating with change the economics of this minor professional sport.
