When you start asking a bunch of 18-35 year old footballers how you should run your club…you’re in trouble!
Football club boards are a funny thing in 2014. The NRL is trying to push for football club boards to be far more professional than they are now. They are even looking to have a say in who gets appointed to the boards of clubs.
Being the member of a football club board is a great job that affords you a number of well paying opportunities. Just take a look at the constant war that goes on at the Parramatta Eels…these are positions people really want to gain and hold onto.
The reason NRL teams didn’t looking to build big membership bases for so long was because football club board members didn’t want to risk their jobs. They didn’t want to grow the numbers that can vote on football club elections and risk a new membership base voting them out and someone else in.
Football club boards are supposed to be custodians on the club. They appoint the CEO and have a big say in who is appointed coach. They weird so much power and yet for the most part when things go wrong they never are held accountable when a club runs into problems.
A lot of the time when a club is going poorly you will see the board sack the coach. If things don’t improve the CEO goes. After all, it can’t be the boards fault can it?
This is where you come in…
If you are the member of an NRL club you can have a say on the makeup of your clubs board. You might need to be a member for a few years, but you will still get the opportunity to vote when the time comes.
I’m always astounded when I see a poorly run club have football club elections and you see their membership base return the board in it’s entirety. If change is needed your vote counts, it’s important, and it shouldn’t be thrown away.
The rot sets in at a football club at the top. When your football club starts asking outside consultants to ask what it should do to improve the club, or they start asking the players who should be the coach, it is time to use your voting power and bring someone in who knows how to run an NRL club.
As Rugby League supporters we can blame poor management for running our clubs into the ground, but if we are not using our voting powers to keep that management on it’s toes and working for us, we have no one else to blame but ourselves.
So if you see your club is being run poorly, vote at your football club elections. Have your say on the direction the club should be going in, after all, boards are accountable to the members….not a bunch of footy players.
