The Hydra ~ Caro rears her head again

[WhyPhilWhy?]

One component of Eddie's legacy, if you compare us to the broke and broken Club pre-1998, is that we a) don't need AFL handouts to survive, which means b) we don't need to accept AFL directives linked to those handouts, like wearing a clash-strip of the AFL's devising.

We wouldn't be the powerhouse club we are today without Eddie stepping in to take that reins.

[masoncox]

One component of Eddie's legacy, if you compare us to the broke and broken Club pre-1998, is that we a) don't need AFL handouts to survive, which means b) we don't need to accept AFL directives linked to those handouts, like wearing a clash-strip of the AFL's devising.

We wouldn't be the powerhouse club we are today without Eddie stepping in to take that reins.

Well i respectively disagree with those points.
i thought we were a much bigger powerhouse club throughout the 20th century than we have been in the 21st century.
Lots of clubs struggled in the 80's and 90's financially.
We would never have folded given the supporter base back then.
Fairfax media survived on the saturday classifieds .....rivers of gold was the saying.
but along came the internet and squashed that golden egg.
The opposite happened in footy.
Along came Murdoch who saw the value of live sport on telly.
And up up up went the price for the broadcast rights.
The AFL became the dominate body .....no longer could clubs act in a semi autonomous mode.
It rationalized grounds, it built marvel stadium in private/publc arrangement. It controlled the purse strings every where.
The AFL was never ever goiing to let collingwood fall over.
But we get this mantra all over this board that Ed saved the club and he was the hero.
Ed came into the club at the right time.
The economy took off at the same time.
The AFL was paid 100 million for the broadcast rights over 6 years from 1993 to 1998.
The last agreement in 2016 was for 2.5 billion over 6 years..
That is a 25 times increase!!!!!
No wonder Ed appeared to be the magician ...... but he was getting the money direct from the big boys!!!
No work needed there just a bank account number.
The thing that annoyed me was he took a corporate view in relation to the supporters from the very beginning.
Look at the so called social club....what a joke.
More like the corporate reception centre!!!!!
Ed was a cadet journo before he came into the presidency.
He was no Rohde scholar like Bob Hawke.

[Pebbles Rocks]

I am going to struggle to 'respectfully' respond to masoncox.

Have you ever been privy to the work Eddie did to drive sponsorships? He was a massive part of the big deal we signed with certain sponsors over time.
The move from Victoria Park to Olympic park?
The recruitment of Mich Malthouse who got us to 4 grand finals.
The list of proactive achievements and things being the scenes is endless.

Compare Collingwood to Essendon or Carlton in the time Eddie has been there. They are both so called powerhouse clubs who have effectively gone backwards compared to the competition.

I cannot disagree that Eddie's nepotism with Bucks and his foot in mouth moments were weaknesses but ultimately his legacy is huge and we were lucky to have him.

[Charlie Oneeye]

Best to ignore

You could see into the women's toilet from a certain part of the ground.

This was raised by a woman at an AGM. I was there.


This is where we came from.

Then interstate sides came along with their 40000+ seats all pre-sold, relegating the strong Vic clubs to middle of the table.

Then thank God for Eddie. It took 10 years for the others to learn from him.

[masoncox]

^^^^^^
Comparing us to Essendon or with any other football team is fraught with danger.
Here is a comparison.
Since our last flag in the 50's Melbourne have won 4 flags to us 2.
I remember years ago we had a local seafood company as a major sponsor.
A lot of sponsorships were local firms.
But with the advent of the AFL from the VFL it paved the way for many more national and international firms to become sponsors.
Again my mate Ed rode the coattails of this development.
I was playing the pokies at Windy Hill the other day and i noted we got rid of our pokies as a revenue source. Essondon have kept theirs.
From a financial point that was a dumb move.
Please don't talk about the social implications.
Not interested..... this dialogue is really about whether Ed was our financial saviour.
I say our financial strength mainly came from external factors and it had litlle to do with Ed.

[neil]

Collingwood was broke when Eddie joined the board.
This is a fact
We were 20 minutes away from being bankrupt
This is a fact
We had no assets
This is a fact

Eddie solved those problems, his first decade was tremendous and turned us into the powerhouse we are today
Other people were involved in doing this as well as Eddie but he was the president

The second decade was not as good

[masoncox]

We were never 20 minutes away from being bankrapt.
We may have had a banker who wanted to call in debts.
But there was a whole world of ways of finding more money.
Including rattling tins

[Lazza]

NQR mate. I well remember that Collingwood were so close to bankruptcy that Wayne Richardson who was a committee member was considering approaching Holmes A’Court (rich dude) and asking him to help save Collingwood. They were desperate and fans were bloody angry with the VFL who didn’t give a **** about us and didn’t raise a finger to help us survive. I know Collingwood supporters who to this day hate the VFL/AFL for their couldn’t care less attitude. This was bloody real and we cannot rewrite history to sanitise or deny this occurrence. Hence the reason for the supporter fund raising can rattles until Ranald McDonald and McAllister came in. I lived through the factual scary times when Collingwood’s survival was in real danger. It really was touch and go, not something young pie fans are used to. I hope we never see that shit ever again at Collingwood.

[Charlie Oneeye]

Ive come back here and to my surprise I have discovered a some old spirit supporters. Its great


sick of idiots

[masoncox]

Collingwood was never going to fold.
Full Stop.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

Think the problem with this debate is that people are viewing Eddie as either hero or villain. In truth he's neither. It's much more complex. Collingwood would have survived the 1990's with or without Eddie but that doesn't belittle the job Eddie did in rescuing the finances of the club. He also brought Mick Malthouse into the club that gave the football department the level of professionalism it needed to have it contesting two flags in 2002/2003 and then the reboot it needed to produce a flag in 2010. You weigh that against the lack of elections during his time in office, the excessively long time he stayed on as president, his gaffs in the media that reflected poorly on the club and the diminished returns for members during his time while he chased the corporate dollar. Compare the CFC to Melbourne Storm. Melbourne Storm are giving away free memberships next year to existing members. To the Collingwood Football Club the members are cash cows and that's a sad reflection on Eddie's presidency.

[WhyPhilWhy?]

I don't think there's anyone that doesn't see Eddie's feet of clay, but as you say, credit where credit is due (which was my initial point about his legacy).

[Mr Miyagi]

[WhyPhilWhy?]

We should have merged with Carlton, and there's a perfect name for that resultant team - the Collingwood Magpies.

[Charlie Oneeye]

We should have merged with Carlton, and there's a perfect name for that resultant team - the Collingwood Magpies.

You just reminded me of that time

I remember suggesting putting the Carlton logo on the back of our shorts.. Somewhere central