I am becoming very concerned about our board in the post administration environment. It appears to me that we have a board that is so WOKE in respect to political correctness that the management of the club compared to our competitors is being damaged by a lack of practical business dealing.
Parra has gone through a hiatus of damage since the corruption era culminated in 2016 and the club was placed in administration. The new board that evolved out of this process was sound in principle but has proven so conservative that they are doing damage they probably still do not realise to this day.
There is a lot of rhetoric in discussion re TPA’s.\ and that’s what I am alluding to.
We seem to agree in the principle but never the less we seem to fracture at the “old arms length” scenario. In a city the size of Parramatta to the point of being able to get sponsors (albeit unofficially) should not be a problem.
This is where the naivety of the current board and leadership becomes the problem. They were fine in the post “administration stages” but now in the after-recovery stage they lack the “commercial nous ” and where with all that is practically required to having “unofficial” people out there hawking our cause.
I have been a great supporter of the board through the administration stage but now we need a change in direction from the Chairman and CEO. Yes, the board appointment structure is fine but the leadership is not and we need to be rotating some new directors with a better practical understanding of our footballing needs.!
I am not sure we have anyone outside of the structure that is proactive and understands these needs with the possible exception of Bernie Gurr …..now this is not a problem just endemic to Parramatta RLFC…… many companies in Australia are ruining their very existence because of their lack of understanding in terms of management and its consequences, look no further than our banks and major corporates, they have no understanding of the needs of their customers, only the value of their shares…..we in my day once had a philosophy of “win win”…..boards now are as big a cancer to our country, up there with the “greens” and for people that think that is politics, just understand there are no right and left arguments, just decency in results for what we stand for.
I am writing this to say we have a wonderful environment emerging for our football club, lets not stuff it up through conservatism… I feel this problem is not being addressed appropriately at the level it needs to be…..Accountants and Lawyers bring bad management to many organisations our board is basically one of being contained by such people.
The current CEO and Chairman should be looking at recruiting a CEO that is football aligned and one of the Current CEO or Chairman stepping aside. A good example would be a Frank Ponissi type person to take such a role.
I realise this maybe confronting to some, but at least one may think about what I am saying.
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Can someone give a rundown of the current structure and membership of the admin and board across both the Parra Leagues Club and the Parra National Rugby League Board? For some reason it's really hard to find.
Leagues club board here: https://www.parraleagues.com.au/about-us/board-management2/ Mark Jenkins and Richard Foda both on the PNRL board.
For some reason the PNRL board isn't listed on the club's website.
I'm disappointed about the response to this, not because its my blog (couldn't give a shit about who wrote it) just that I think it is the most important thing we can comment on as a supporters group.
We argue about captaincy, leadership and the coach, direction of pathways and who our GM Football is.............
All those problems and discussions emanate from the board and the direction it points us in. A Frank Ponissi is the type of bloke we should be making an offer to with regards to an offer too good to refuse....pay him 2m if it means he creates a total new direction.
,As the CEO (not GM Football, he is stronger as an executive director than any of the current board).He chooses a GM Football, Coach, Player committments, Recruitment and Pathways.....no one is going to argue with him.
This is what we need as we run around like headless chooks arguing how big BA's dick is or isn't and anyone else that we want to knock.
It will take us to the next level whereas I don't think the current board will for all the reasons espoused.
Don't get lost, no need to change the constitution, just the recruitment rotation of the type of incoming directors and the resignation of the current CEO or Chairman. We only need one bean counter in the two highest positions, I have no idea who is the better operator and if it's the current Chairman then Sarantinos can still stay on the board as a non executive director. If the Chairman retires then I cannot see why Saratinos cannot take the Non Executive Chairmans role.
The main thing is getting a football brain in charge and Ponissi would be brilliant, I cannot imagine seeing one argument against him.
NB Special note in recruiting new directors to the board as they become vacant, we should be looking at some high profile business types ( not executive managers out of large firms) i.e. Ziggy Forest (I know he is taken), Gina Reinhardt (Chairperson Rural Aid), the richest person in the country. Parramatta would be a great vehicle to assist Rural Aid....just think laterally about a power director, there must be some out there, Lachlan Murdoch maybe affiliated to the Eastern Suburbs but see if he would be interested.....interestingly enough Frank Ponissi would know all these people, who could be available and all the systems used by the likes of his contacts to turn Parra into the powerhouse it should be.
I genuinely think the lack of response is due to lack of understanding Poppa and I include myself in that ignorance.
Who are the directors and chair holding Sarantinos accounable?
Firstly there are two boards, Licenced Club and Licenced Football Club.
They are managed as seperate entities but come under the one umbrella, I am not sure how that umbrella? actually fits over the top.
To answer your question Coryn boards usually have portfolios applied to them, could be a audit commitee, a finance committee, a football commitee......from the business and football side the CEO in this case is an executive that effectively runs the club (exclude licenced leagues club) under the direction of board policy. The Chairman essentially delegates this policy to the CEO. Non Executive members of the board have no hands on involvement outside of their committee functions, in our case Sarantinos is the only executive director.
The CEO has the various general management levels reporting directly to him i.e. GM Football and Head Coach would report directly to the CEO with dotted lines between the GM and Head Coach (obviously a high level of cooperation is required between these two).
I am sure someone that knows the Club better than me (remember I live in Qld and have done for the last 44 years) will be able to fill in anything I have missed, my asumptions are based on how a corporate board works and extending it accordingly. there maybe aspects that are particular for PDRLFC that I am not aware of!
Personally I'd be targeting Fletcher from Penrith. He has that place humming and knows what structures are needed to win. He wouldn't have to uproot family and move interstate like Ponisi would.
It's ignorance from me to0 Poppa. I can watch the team play and have an opinion, but i can't really see what's happening at board. Same goes really for TPA's. Salaries are only guessed or leaked exaggeratedly by player managers to get more - so it's hard to really assess that. (Though the bulldogs and roosters do seem to be able to sign everyone)
No point changing the board without also removing their appointments. We need a real director of football.
For those who wish to see us hire a new coach, we won't get anyone decent whilst a muppet like Oneill is doing the recruiting and making decisions.
West Tigers just sacked their entire board effective immediately
Not so much the Board - but the PR / Marketing department have been busy. And it all looks good.
1. Sponsorship announced today with TAB
2. There's talk City of Parramatta is looking to sponsor to the tune of 2.5M
3. Thunder / Eels partnership
4. Project Paradise Clip
5. The Holiday Camp for Kids
6. Ongoing community activities and sponsorship arrangements
It looks really promising. They still need to fix their Shop/Merchandising and for gods sake update the website with correct players across all grades and with Pics - but I am happy to see the activity so far.
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