Hey guys
To simply answer this, yes last night Sydney FC, WSW and Jets were all at the match which is common practice as the clubs are all now working together as part of the new A-League structure.
Lawrie has told us he would "wave some flags and maybe a small banner" just before kick off to catch Fox's attention, fuel the Derby and also requested parking. Neither I or CCM staff had any idea of the size or scale of this and never was a bay pull over discussed or approved - I would never have approved a bay pull over of this scale. I have spoken to Lawrie this morning on the matter and we will follow up again to ensure there are appropriate boundaries for promoting the rivalry between the clubs.
Also whilst there was a marketing meeting the other week all conversation was about other ways to promote the Derby, not this. Again this is common practice and happens every year and also happens with the other Sydney Clubs. The main topic was how do we promote the reciprocal membership offer to drive membership and attendance.
Lawrie's intention was to get everyone talking about the Derby so no doubt this has worked and the first shot has been fired.
Not good enough. You honestly couldn't have gotten this more wrong.
Promoting the rivalry for the derby DOES NOT mean the rivals get to come in and wave banners. I can't for the life of me imagine why you thought even small flags/banners were appropriate.
Promote the rivalry at the game? Then do something to promote it. Put together a promo video for the big screen or something.
That wasn't US promoting it - that was the Jets promoting THEIR CLUB.
Some people are pissed at Lawrie - I'm not. His job is to make his club look good and completely embarrass his rivals.
Your job is to protect the image of this club.
Lawrie did his job.
You didn't.
The fact that this happened with your collusion is astounding. Stating you didn't intend something so big isn't a defence - NOTHING should have been permitted. But the fact that Lawrie was able to expertly troll you is just embarrassing and is on you, not Lawrie.
But Lawrie has embarrassed this club before. We had the whole Millar incident (and I don't recall ever hearing if the club reviewed their processes to ensure the 'dead email' debacle can never happen again). He just apologises, claims he did the right thing and moves on.
I'm all for maintaining a relationship, but lets not pretend he won't shit all over this club to protect his own. I seriously hope you've realised that now.
The bay pullover didn't need to be approved - you left the door wide open for it; all Lawrie did was walk in the door.
Not even that - he simply had to drive in!!
And while you may not have approved it, you didn't put anything in place to explicitly ban it.
But what still concerns me about this response from yours is your utterly abysmal final line where you seem to claim it was some sort of victory because 'people are talking about the derby'. No, nobody is.
I mean, do you have any sense on here of anybody talking about the derby?
All anybody is talking about is how badly we were embarrassed.
You absolutely DO NOT get to gloss over that with some throwaway comment pretending it's for the overall good.
That comment just suggests that you haven't understood just how serious we are about what a debacle and utter embarrassment this was, and how furious a lot of us are about it.
The slogan for this season is 'for the badge'.
That means pride. Pride in the club, pride in the club colours, what it stands for. In the history, in the people, in Fortress Gosford.
Instead, you whored out the badge to our worst rivals who have become experts at embarrassing us.
You didn't just undermine the club - you undermined the season's philosophy in the most crucial year this club has ever faced.
That's why NONE of it should have been allowed. Our club identity needs to be jealously guarded. If the club itself, and the CEO, are showing so little pride in the badge that they're happy for our arch rivals to promote their own club at a critical game in our stadium that has nothing to do with them, then why the heck should any of the players or fans have pride in the badge?
There should be
nothing more precious than the club's image right now. Even what you say you intended the display to be undermines the club and everything we're trying to achieve this season. The fact that you wanted any of it to happen is just......completely astounding.
And for the record, nobody really cares that they attended, along with the other clubs. Keeping relationships between the NSW clubs is great. You seem to have used that as some sort of justification in your post as well. Frankly, your reply so far here seems to have missed what the issue is.
