The figures are roughly what I'd have expected TBH. You can rabbit on all you want about "cloth cutting" etc. but Green bet the ranch on promotion and failed twice; the first time was the hole around the waterline but we managed to keep the boat going. The debacle of 2016 in losing to Fev though was clearly the final torpedo. I said at the time I couldn't see how we could recover from that, because it meant that not only would we be only left for another year with Championship funding (and a poor 5th place at that) but also we suicidally lost out on the big playoff games, notably home to the Rhinos.
Thus our income dried up very unexpectedly and our outgoings remained 100%. I am not for a minute arguing that the accounts show total financial competence, (I haven't seen them), but surely spending a couple of million to aim for SL is the sort of thing the fans all insist on?
Had we got to SL then we would have been able to cover this sort of shortfall and had we got to the main playoffs and the MPG we would have IMHO survived.
I'm no massive Green fan but really, what did you want him to do, sack half the players mid-season, go part-time and settle for lower-half mediocrity so we broke even? Would everyone have been happy with that? Green may not be a financial genius but this money all went on chasing the dream, and was a huge gamble, which should have paid off at least to the tune of the main playoffs, but the team let him down. He also said plainly from the beginning that he was in no position to pump money into the club, yet clearly couldn't help himself and one way or another has done.
The figures are roughly what I'd have expected TBH. You can rabbit on all you want about "cloth cutting" etc. but Green bet the ranch on promotion and failed twice; the first time was the hole around the waterline but we managed to keep the boat going. The debacle of 2016 in losing to Fev though was clearly the final torpedo. I said at the time I couldn't see how we could recover from that, because it meant that not only would we be only left for another year with Championship funding (and a poor 5th place at that) but also we suicidally lost out on the big playoff games, notably home to the Rhinos.
Thus our income dried up very unexpectedly and our outgoings remained 100%. I am not for a minute arguing that the accounts show total financial competence, (I haven't seen them), but surely spending a couple of million to aim for SL is the sort of thing the fans all insist on?
Had we got to SL then we would have been able to cover this sort of shortfall and had we got to the main playoffs and the MPG we would have IMHO survived.
I'm no massive Green fan but really, what did you want him to do, sack half the players mid-season, go part-time and settle for lower-half mediocrity so we broke even? Would everyone have been happy with that? Green may not be a financial genius but this money all went on chasing the dream, and was a huge gamble, which should have paid off at least to the tune of the main playoffs, but the team let him down. He also said plainly from the beginning that he was in no position to pump money into the club, yet clearly couldn't help himself and one way or another has done.
But this has been the whole problem. First of all I am no Greene fan. Greene had taken the club on with the strong backing of the RFL. He had no idea about rugby, indeed had never been to a match. So the only thing he could do was rely on his coach and advisor put in place by the RFL. This is the guy that badly let down Green and why I distrust the RFL.
The figures are roughly what I'd have expected TBH. You can rabbit on all you want about "cloth cutting" etc. but Green bet the ranch on promotion and failed twice; the first time was the hole around the waterline but we managed to keep the boat going. The debacle of 2016 in losing to Fev though was clearly the final torpedo. I said at the time I couldn't see how we could recover from that, because it meant that not only would we be only left for another year with Championship funding (and a poor 5th place at that) but also we suicidally lost out on the big playoff games, notably home to the Rhinos.
Thus our income dried up very unexpectedly and our outgoings remained 100%. I am not for a minute arguing that the accounts show total financial competence, (I haven't seen them), but surely spending a couple of million to aim for SL is the sort of thing the fans all insist on?
Had we got to SL then we would have been able to cover this sort of shortfall and had we got to the main playoffs and the MPG we would have IMHO survived.
I'm no massive Green fan but really, what did you want him to do, sack half the players mid-season, go part-time and settle for lower-half mediocrity so we broke even? Would everyone have been happy with that? Green may not be a financial genius but this money all went on chasing the dream, and was a huge gamble, which should have paid off at least to the tune of the main playoffs, but the team let him down. He also said plainly from the beginning that he was in no position to pump money into the club, yet clearly couldn't help himself and one way or another has done.
Whilst I agree with pretty much every point, you also have to accept that if you take that huge risk and gamble everything on making the middle 8s, you have to accept part of the blame if the team doesn't make it. Yes it's their fault for not making it, but the club then being in financial ruin is largely down to taking that risk.
I agree, had he not spent all that and we had a barely competitive squad that didn't even get close to making the top 4, then people would have moaned about that too. Undoubtedly he was between a rock and a hard place when he took the gamble. But the financial state the club has found itself in is down to the gambles, regardless of whether the reasons for those gambles are good ones or not.
It's like someone betting their life savings on the favourite in a horse race. If they then lose them, is it the horse's fault for letting them down that they're now skint?
Well, if I ran a rugby club, it is the sort of gamble I would personally think reasonable to take.
Don't ever forget we were within one kick of returning to SL and then it would have been a whole new ball game.
And as for 2016, well, I still can't understand why the players played as badly as they did in our key game, and nobody could have reasonably predicted they would, but of course the damage had largely already been done by that team contriving to be out of the top 4, which, to be blunt, was never in anyone's script. There's gambles and there's gambles, but to get on in a sports club you HAVE to take some gambles, nobody will settle for grey solid mediocrity, but if I were Green I would feel that our highly expensive squad of pampered players had dismally failed to keep up their end of the bargain.
Did Green sanction Ferres to acquire the ridiculous number of players he did in that squad?If he did then he is as much to blame as the reckless Ferres.But as we all know,the rot set in under Caisley with the unforgivable Harrisgate.
Sounds like Green really screwed us - I hope he doesnt get away with it
