The rumour was along the line that when the new club facilities are built, it will be as good or better than the Lexus Centre. Two hotel groups are included in the deal as it is proposed to have Hotel and Restaurants in a multi-million dollar facility. (Castellas were mentioned and I presumed that Mathiesons would be the other.)

A member of the board and good friend of TC has played a massive part in, at the VERY least, testing the viability of these proposals... I say at the very least because we can expect more good news to come..

His appointment was clearly and example of some excellent foresight shown by Graham Smorgon and I think GS should be applauded for this because it is going to set us up big time.

alot of the board members appointed by GS in November/December last year had been making suggestions to him for almost a year and he wasn't listening. The only time he chose to listen was around November last year because he was trying to save his own skin. You are 100 percent correct in that the board members who came on the board then, Moulton, Harrison and a couple of others are excellent board members. But GS should not be applauded for appointing them. If anything he should be criticized for not getting them on earlier. Imagine if we had swann and icke(who the new board members were instrumental in getting) this time last year. I doubt our first pick in the pre-season draft would have been wasted on Ackland.

Hello to all TCers. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you all.

Firstly some background to Stephen and I joining the board.

After being frustrated with our Club and its "issues" Stephen and I decided to run at the upcoming election as independants. We notified Graham Smorgon in October that we were seeking two positions on the board. We also outlined to Graham the options available to him ( as we saw them), which included endorsing us to join the board come election time. Six weeks later we were contacted by Graham and asked if we would accept a position on the board.

Stephen and I discussed the ramifications of accepting a position in advance of the election and decided that first and foremost we wanted to change the direction of our once great Club and it was going to be easier to do this from inside rather than outside. Part of the offer included becoming a member of the unity team. This meant endorsing GS as President.

Notwithstanding the perception that the board has been racked with indecision and a lack of leadership we are of the view that GS is the only person on the board at present or among the nominees who has the requisite attributes to lead our Club at the present time. Presidents of our Club have commited a significant amount of time in carrying out their responsibilities. Accordingly those best placed to fill the role need to have not only the desire but also the time.

GS will be the first to admit he has made mistakes but he has now sought to include additional people with a more diverse skill set. He has indicated he has every intention of embracing the initiatives and directional change that Stephen, myself, Zac and Ralph want to implement.

So to answer your question, in our opinion we represent the best interests of the Carlton Football Club. Of course we would work with others post election however we believe that GS is the person best placed to lead this Club under a unified board that STICKS TO THE RULES, including honouring their obligations of confidentiality.

We will not be compromising our views on what we believe to be in the best interests of the Club and the very issues that drove Stephen and i to put our hand up in the first place. Board members will not agree on every issue however, each board member must accept the democratic processes agreed and be bound by the umpires decision even if not happy with it.

trust me I know what happened fellas
all Im saying is that in GS indirectly promoting the CV's of Harrison Moulton and Fried in order to get his ticket up became the reason they sit on the board today..
Yeh of course that was to save his own ass- did it work? No. Was his ticket an abject failure? Yes.
But thank god he gave them the opportunity (admittedly with some arm twisting) to be placed in the public eye...

As president of a footy club GS was as ‘USELESS as a bull with tits’!!!
He was president of the Carlton Football Club at its lowest ever point in history and the sooner that we can forget that he had any involvement with Carlton the better.

trust me I know what happened fellas
all Im saying is that in GS indirectly promoting the CV's of Harrison Moulton and Fried in order to get his ticket up became the reason they sit on the board today..
Yeh of course that was to save his own ass- did it work? No. Was his ticket an abject failure? Yes.
But thank god he gave them the opportunity (admittedly with some arm twisting) to be placed in the public eye...

So you've gone from saying GS should be applauded for putting Harrison, Moulton and Fried on the board to saying in response to their appointments "of course that was to save his own ass."

Can you make up your mind? You're flip-flopping more than Giuliani on abortion

As president of a footy club GS was as ‘USELESS as a bull with tits’!!!
He was president of the Carlton Football Club at its lowest ever point in history and the sooner that we can forget that he had any involvement with Carlton the better

Sorry Rhys if I crossed the line
I just hate it how easy it is to disrespect people from behind a keyboard sometimes..

Not having a go at you but GS will go down as the worst president in the history of the AFL/VFL.

Essendon* cheated, simple as that

Not having a go at you but GS will go down as the worst president in the history of the AFL/VFL. Unfortunately for us he was the president of the Carlton footy club at a time where we desperately needed a leader.
He might be a great businessman but in regards to football and the way a club is run he was pathetic.
Thankfully voting members aren’t stupid and they voted him out. I wonder how many presidents of football clubs have been turfed in that manner.

Obviously not many, but the man still deserves RESPECT.

GS barracks for the blues like we all do.

It takes balls to put your pride on the line in a popular election.

How about we just act gracefully as a membership and allow those who have braved the odds and failed a dignified exit.

I am sure Graham Smorgon still has much to offer his beloved Blues, just as we all do.

It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.