GEELONG MEMBERS NONE THE WISER; LEAVE MEETING FEELING CATTY
Mark Heenan 12 October 2006

By Mark Heenan MORE THAN 600 disgruntled Geelong members turned out at the club's headquarters Wednesday night to demand answers for the team's poor AFL season, but were left disappointed. Members who questioned the club's business plan which predicted a premiership by 2006 were instead told `we will win eventually'.

GFC members turned out in force at the public function at Skilled Stadium to find out why the club suffered a dramatic slide in 2006. Long-time supporter and former GFC board candidate Rennis Witham, who organised a petition signed by 130 adult members on September 18 orchestrating the meeting, was not satisfied with tonight's outcome.

"I thought it was a good turnout but I think the answers were very poor and to some extent, patronising," she said. "The business plan for 2003-2006 had we (Geelong Football Club) would win a premiership by 2006. We are now being told `Trust us, we will win eventually' so I think that's not a good enough answer."

Witham said they would not be seeking another special meeting before the start of the 2007 season. "They (GFC) didn't give an answer about a reassurance if something went wrong and would they identify it and what would they do," she said.

"And they (the board) didn't answer the question about KPIs (key performance indicators) and if they didn't work, what would they do. "I think that question remains unanswered."

She said she was upset because no-one had taken responsibility for the poor campaign despite many tipping Geelong to be premiership contenders in 2006. "No-one puts their hand up and says `Sorry, we got it wrong and this is what we're going to do to make it better' and that didn't come across tonight."

GFC chief executive Brian Cook, who was pleased with tonight's turnout, said he was confident the club could move forward. Cook has been with the Cats since 1999 and will enter his eighth season as CEO of the club in 2007.

"I expected less people to come tonight," Cook said. "I thought the questions from the members were to be expected but (because of the large turnout) shows the passion of the place. I think we're looking at 2007 now and we've learnt from 2006, we've put a review in place and recommendations. We're going to implement that over the next year."