Off Field Blog

Annual General Meeting

On behalf of the board I would like to thank everyone who attended this years AGM.  It is great to see so many passionate Norwood supporters come along to hear and discuss the clubs results and plans.

The club is disappointed at announcing an operating loss for 2008 but is committed to working hard to turn this around in 2009.

The result of the election this year saw strong support for the board direction with all three sitting members being returned to their postions for another two years.  Joe Tripodi, Paul Di Iulio and Bill Moody were successful in what was a strong field of candidates.  Our thanks also to those who nominated and we do hope that roles within the club can be found for everyone to be able to make a contribution.

Dominic Shepley - CEO

 

There is no doubt the that season will be here before we know it if the last two weeks are any indication.  They are absolutely flown!

 

Much of this time has been taken up working with the council regards the lighting upgrade.  All appears to be progressing well in what will be an enormous project.  There is much to be done but the improvement in our lighting and our facility is vital for the club and council.  I must make it clear that this upgrade will not be ready for the 2009 season.  However we are hoping to tackle the infrastructure before round one this year and then see some real action as soon as the season is completed with the old towers coming down and new poles going up.

 

Membership has been busy and the number continues to climb and the packs are on their way out.  Our thanks to everyone for your on going support and the number will be updated on the website soon.  I can tell you that we have 912 people signed up compared to the 588 at the same time last year which is very encouraging.  If you have any issues with the information that you receive, please let us know as we cannot fix it if we don’t know about it.  This includes the Redlegs Review and Annual Report mailout from just prior to Christmas.  If you didn’t receive them please let us know and we will get them out to you.

 

Please also remember that the administration is now located back at the oval with the entrance in the breezeway next to the Premiers Bar.  I hope everyone realizes that this pleases us no end!  To be back close to the ground and the football does make us feel even more like a football club and it will certainly make life a lot easier.

 

I said that I would provide a short run down on the financial result that was in the Annual Report.  Firstly you will notice that we have included both the Norwood Football Club and the Redlegs Club statements in the report.  This will also make life easier and gives you a greater insight into your football club.  So what do all those pages tell us? 

 

Well, it shows that your club is in an extremely healthy position and quite viable and vibrant.  With assets at 583 North East Road (The Noreast) and at 581 North East Road (The Cheesecake Shop), property in Norwood and a cash reserve the club has built its asset base into a very strong position.  Obviously the club does also has some debt associated with this but this is at a very manageable level.

 

As a board and an administration we were disappointed with our trading result for the NFC as we had been working hard within our core business with the desire for a small loss or a break even.  In reading the statements we made a very healthy paper profit but this was mainly due to the NFA entity being wound up.  The auditors chose to transfer the accumulated surplus into the NFC by recognising this as income.  This effectively transfers it to the accumulated surplus/deficit account within the NFC.

 

The traditional revenue remained consistent and healthy but we believe that we can drive our income even further in 2009.  Our expenditure naturally increased with the extra income that the club is receiving from gaming and the club committed at the beginning of the year to put that extra resource into football first and foremost.  Therefore recruiting, player costs and fees, oval management and administration all increased.  Please be assured that the club still operates with a very lean attitude towards spending and is still well behind other clubs with what they can put into their football department.  In 2008 we have now learnt just how costly it is to be competitive in the SANFL.

 

The inclusion of the Redlegs Club details in the report was an important step for the club to be seen as the one club with a number of entities.  Obviously the solid trading of The Noreast is a major part of the Redlegs Club figures and our gaming, food and bar turnover remains healthy and profitable.  Added to this the Premiers Bar did its job again and the oval catering was very healthy and up 5% in gross profit.  Unfortunately amongst this the canteen profit was down and this is something that I am currently working through with the Encore Group. 

 

Some of the confusion comes from the Redlegs Club having carried significant losses in recent years and was best explained to me as follows.  The NFC and RLC are incorporated entities and therefore no tax is paid against the profit made.  In a perfect world we would have a surplus each year and this figure would be held in the Accumulated Surplus Account of the entity.  Obviously accounting practices requires each entry to have another side to it.  So when you pay your membership the income account of membership increases as does cash at bank.  In the circumstance of the Accumulated Surplus account increasing the other side to this would be an increase in an asset such as cash at bank.  However in times of deficit we see the accumulated surplus account decrease and even get to a stage that the surplus becomes a deficit.  This means that we are depleting the assets of the entity or increasing our liabilities. The RLC shows a deficit which is due to the many years the social arm of the club could not make a surplus.  Now with the Nor East operating the RLC is showing a surplus and over time will decrease the deficit and move into surplus.

 

Overall, between the two entities and ignoring the NFA transfer and the accumulated losses the club traded at a loss of $152,227.  This clearly shows to us just how hard we must work to be able to continue to invest in football.  We have been discussing this as a board and an administration for some months now to plan what we must do to get ahead in all departments and be competitive in the SANFL.

 

I hope that this helps you understand the financial result for the club in 2008.

 

The AGM is on Tuesday February 10^th at the Osmond Terrace Function Centre.  We again will have a powerpoint presentation of the financial statements and the clubs direction for 2009 and beyond.  I can inform you that there will be an election and that the relevant information and voting slips will be forwarded next week.

 

Training remains Monday, Wednesday, Friday at Coopers Stadium and I know the boys would love to see you.

 

Dominic Shepley - Chief Executive Officer

Welcome to Season 2009.

I hope that everybody had a happy and safe Christmas and New Year and that you were able to have a break and get refreshed for another year.

I thought that before Christmas our playing group looked in great shape and that our preparation to that point had been very good.  To be as far advanced as we are has been reassuring that we are heading in the right direction.  The boys start back at Coopers Stadium on Jan 7 and it will be great to see as many as possible drop in and check on their progress over the coming weeks.  For those looking for a drink while watching training unfortunately Premiers Bar will not open until early February but when it does we have committed to putting in the time and effort to make the bar as warm and welcoming as possible and to feel like a “footy club”.

My New Years Resolution is to commit to a regular and informative blog!!!  And if I don’t I hope to hear from you about it.  However it must be said that we will only release information when we can.  The grapevine at Norwood is a pretty good one and I don’t apologise for not been able to keep up with it or not commenting until fully able.  The integrity of our club is far more important than keeping up with any gossip and grand standing.

We are also looking at again upgrading the website and committing to regularly supplying content that is regular and informative.  You will notice that the first part of this is the upgrading of the forum and that it will “stand alone”.  My thanks to everyone who helped with this.

Just before the break the administration returned to Coopers Stadium, finally!  This has been a big job but handled well by the staff, those who assisted us and particularly John Kassara and his team at Tagara Builders.  My thanks to everyone.  We still have a few final touches to make but we will be open again from Monday Jan 5^th.  I think that you will agree that this was an important step for the club.

Also before the break you will have seen that the council have committed a significant amount towards a possible upgrade of the lights.  This is a terrific opportunity for the club to finally be able to make a major improvement with our lighting at the ground.  Last year we spent $30,000 cleaning and installing new globes for the first time since 1996 after having it explained to us as simply as “imagine not washing your car head lights for 12 years!”  The result was noticeable with the lux reading improving from 230 to 340.  We are aiming for in excess of 500 lux with the installation of the new lights which will be great for football at Norwood.  This is a major task and we look forward to working on this with the council.

Once again pre season starts again this week, trial games begin at the end of Feb and round one at Coopers Stadium at against Port at the end of March.  It wont be long and footy and Norwood will be back.

Dominic Shepley - Chief Executive Officer

End of Season

The Norwood Football Club has been busy since the last ball was bounced and has conducted a strenuous review of all of its activities on and off the field.

Obviously this starts with football and both the coaching and playing lists have been looked at and the search for improvement has begun.

We have stated before that the club improved in all areas in 2008 and that we have received overwhelming support for the 2009 season.  Having been able to maintain the majority of our partners now gives us the opportunity to grow the club further.

As per a previous communication there were two resignations from the board of the club during the year.  Each year the election of three members to the board takes place to make a board of six elected members and the option to invite up to four members that bring specialist skills to the group.

If a casual vacancies occurs on the board during the year the remaining members of the board may appoint some other member of the club to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term of office of the person who has ceased to be a member of the board.  As part of the review the board has asked Bill Moody and Anthony Francis to fill these vacancies.  Both Bill and Anthony have been co-opted members of the board for a number of years and will now need to be re-elected.

The AGM will again be held in February and three positions will become vacant at that meeting.  An advert will appear in The Advertiser and the  Annual Report and the final edition of the Redlegs Review will be posted out prior to Christmas.

The Norwood Football Club has been busy since the last ball was bounced and has conducted a strenuous review of all of its activities on and off the field.

 

Obviously this starts with football and both the coaching and playing lists have been looked at and the search for improvement has begun.

 

We have stated before that the club improved in all areas in 2008 and that we have received overwhelming support for the 2009 season.  Having been able to maintain the majority of our partners now gives us the opportunity to grow the club further.

 

As per a previous communication there were two resignations from the board of the club during the year.  Each year the election of three members to the board takes place to make a board of six elected members and the option to invite up to four members that bring specialist skills to the group.

 

If a casual vacancies occurs on the board during the year the remaining members of the board may appoint some other member of the club to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term of office of the person who has ceased to be a member of the board.  As part of the review the board has asked Bill Moody and Anthony Francis to fill these vacancies.  Both Bill and Anthony have been co-opted members of the board for a number of years and will now need to be re-elected.

 

The AGM will again be held in February and three positions will become vacant at that meeting.  An advert will appear in The Advertiser and the  Annual Report and the final edition of the Redlegs Review will be posted out prior to Christmas.

Once again it has unfortunately been a while since I have posted a blog on the website. My apologies for this but when preparing for 2009 I will be committing to providing you all with more details about the operations of the club.

As from what Mark has already provided to you all since the last game it was disappointing to finish so poorly against Sturt in the 1st Semi Final the way that we did. I certainly enjoyed the first week of the finals more! There is no doubt that playing in these two matches has given us a real hunger for more and we are already well down the track of preparing for the 2009 season.

I must say at this point we have been disappointed with some of the negativity expressed on the website regards the league team performances. You will have noticed that some of this negativity has been removed. While not wanting to restrict the comments of any supporters the website belongs to all of those within the club and it is without doubt our job to protect the brand of the club at all times. I hope you will agree that the standard of the website has improvied considerably over the last 12 months and we look forward to making further improvements. Ensuring that it is a positive point of contact for all supporters is vitally important to the club. Having said this do some comments remain and others get removed. Well the answer is unfortunately "yes". This is simply only because it is impossible to be on the forum at all times and monitoring comments. I am sure that you will want the adminsitration working more productively on the progress of the club than settling arguements on the website. Our aim is to continue to present the club in the best possible light through the best communication tool that the club has got.

You may have read in the Eastern Courier last week that the overall performance of the club had improved and that we were hopeful of financial performance that is significantly better than we have experienced in recent times. Sponsorship, membership, match day and gaming have all grown at Norwood in 2008 and we must now reset our sights on further improvement. The return to finals footy clearly showed that football is the core business of the club as all of the above mentioned benefited greatly from the last two weeks. If we can get football right most other parts of the club will come with it. I look forward to updating you with our progress.

Dominic Shepley - CEO Norwood Football Club

Long overdue for an update

It is some time now that I have given you any details regards the clubs off field activities.  My apologies for this but 5 home games all on a Friday Night up to this weeks round 9 clash has been a reasonable body of work.  When combined with membership, sponsorship, gaming and the recent auction your club has been working hard.

Firstly it was relieving to see the membership number creep past last years figure.  A small improve is still an improvement but it unfortuantely appears that a 2000-2500 membership number is not achievable in 2008.  Amazingly we will start planning for the 2009 membership in a few weeks.

Sponsorship and gaming have remained healthy for the club and we appreciate the support that these two revenue streams provide us.  It has allowed the club to grow and improve in many departments.

Our match day numbers really do show a huge improvement in what we have previously done.  Although the crowd numbers will alter with the club now reverting to Saturday games we are currently the most watched club in the SANFL averaging 4600 people to our games and 5175 to our home games at Coopers Stadium.

With the club now in fourth position and the opportunity to create some on field momentum I am sure that our numbers will significantly improve on 2007.  Our catering has also been a huge success in 2008.  The move to the Encore Group has seen our operations imporve through revenue, service and professionalism.  The upgrading of the facilities, the improved range of products and our management on match day has been a massive benefit to the club.

This is extended to our pre match function that is averagling over 110 people to each week.  At the last game last year we only had 24 people attend and our last game against Port saw 162 book in!  My thanks to everyone who has supported this and I encourage anyone else to try our dinner which is vastly improved and open to everyone to attend.

Our Gala Auction has been run for another year and was again a success.  This function takes a huge effort and we place extra pressure on ourselves by having it early so that it doesnt dominate the whole year.  One other club even called in to see how we did it as they had heard that ours was the best in the league!!

On top of this I believe the club presented itself in impeccable fashion for the funeral service of Lee Blake.  Barry and Gavin had the oval looking at its absolute best and arranged perfect weather (as they do), the girls from the office ensured that everyone was accomodated during the service and fed and watered after.  On days like Lee's funeral, it is sad to acknowledge someones passing.  But it made me proud to be a part of the club with what took place that morning.

Our playing season is right in front of us this week as we take on the Bays.  Lets all get to the ground and make sure we go forward as a club in every department.

Dominic Shepley - Commercial Operations Manager

Not Long Now!

Welcome back to the Norwood Football Club and season 2008.  It wont be long!  March 28th against the Double Blues approaches fast and there is much to be done.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who attended the AGM on Tuesday night.  It is great to see so many passionate people ready to get in behind the Redlegs. I must congratulate Joe and Anthony for the way that they presented the club’s situation and desired direction on the night.  Also congratulations to Ian and Andrew for being re elected and Keith for joining the board.  There is plenty for everyone to do.

A couple of updates from me - Membership is going very well at the moment with the number moving past 1000 earlier this week.  However this is the crucial time and we must make our presence felt in the lead up to round one to ensure that our membership number returns to an acceptable level this year.

How are we going to do this, I hear you ask?  Well, we have already completed a number of tasks to build our supporter and membership base.  Sales and Marketing Manager Gemma Snewin and myself have already personally door knocked the business’ of the towns in our country region in the Adelaide Hills.

We were quite taken back by how well we were received during this process and we will be increasing our presence in the region during the year.  This will compliment the work that David Oatey, John Zanvort and Michael Arbon perform for the club in the clubs and schools.

Gemma will also have completed visiting The Parade early next week and we will then look do some promotional work in our metropolitan zone.  This will be made possible through the support of the

NAB and McDonalds on Magill Road. We hope that this will further enhance our normal membership drives.

We have been working hard on match days at Coopers Stadium to try and make each and every event at the ground an enjoyable experience.  This has resulted in the Encore Group being contracted to handle all of our catering.  This will include the running of all beer booths and Premiers Bar, the three canteens, corporate box catering and the pre match function in the RSL Hall.  I believe that this is a significant and appropriate step for the club to take.  It will improve our hospitality, provide greater choice for spectators, alleviate the problems that we had during 2007 and upgrade our infrastructure.

Sponsorship and investment continues to be very healthy and we are developing business in all the traditional revenue streams. Having said this, our cash flow does remain tight.  With gaming performing well it is important that we put our energies into growing core business, manage debt responsibly and be the best at being a successful football club.

During the off the season income does slow and we need to manage our business very carefully and therefore membership is vital to our progress as a club as we approach round 1. I ask that if you are still to renew that you contact the club and also be ready for Sturt on March 28th.

The Guernsey Presentation is on Saturday March 15th at the Osmond Terrace Function Centre in the Norwood Hotel and will signal the start of our season.  It would be great to see everyone come and meet new players, sponsors and members.  The following Thursday night we play the Port Magpies in our final trial game.  What better way to start the Easter break before resting up and being ready for the season proper.

Dominic Shepley
Commercial Operations Manager

Merry Xmas

As the year draws to a close I would like to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Safe and Prosperous New Year.

By now I hope that you have received and read your final edition of the Redlegs Review and the new look Annual Report.  The redesign of that publication alone has taken many months and I believe that it makes a strong statement to members.  Obviously a profit of that asize is something extra ordinary and is a direct result of the club finally being able to utilise its previously under performing assets at 137 The Parade and its Poker Machines.  Without this the club would have again traded at a loss but the activation of these two assets will provide vibrant future for the club.  We can now improve and continue to work hard on growing the business of the club and we must remain disciplined with the clubs finances.

Many of you have questioned the clubs direction in recent times and I hope the Strategic Objectives contained in the report give you an indication of what the club has been working on in 2007 and where it hopes to go in the future.  We believe that the four pillars identified will take the club forward.  This plan does have performance indicators within it to ensure some accountability and we have already made some genuine progress.

Since the end of the season the club has also addressed it's match day operations and has completely overhauled the catering, pre and post match functions and upgraded many facilities.  Lets not forget the incredible shape that the surface is in at the moment thanks to the efforts of Barry and Gavin.

The club came a long way in 2007 and if we can make a similar improvement in 2008 the business of the Norwood Football Club will really start to stretch it's legs.

Personally, I would like to thank everyone who assisted the club in any way over the last 12 months and I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year.

Dominic Shepley - Commercial Operations Manager

Memberships - Now on sale

It doesnt seem that long ago that we finished the season and it doesnt even seem that long ago that we asked you to join up last year.  But, it is that time again and I hope that you have all received your renewal notices and I do hope that you are considering being a part of the club in 2008.  We worked hard to put this together, to create some further value, to make it look stronger and to have it out as early as possible.

Memberships are coming in already and we have a number of ideas to ensure that our membership is successful.  We will have a presence in the new year at McDonalds, Manto Cafe, Ray White Real Estate and Enjoy Cafe on the Parade in the new year.  We will be on The Parade regularly and we will be working our schools, metro zone and country zone as hard as possible.  Although it appears a few supposed initiatives at West Lakes may hamper some of that!!  All this means is that we will have to work even harder for our club!!

If you have any feedback, good or bad, please feel free to contact the club.  I do realise the ultimate feedback will be if we can grow our membership and the best value for a member is to have a successful club on and off the field.

In other news I have already made huge inroads into our catering for 2008 and I am hopeful of a much nicer pre and post match option for members also.  To be able to address these things in November and not the week of the first game shows that we are doing things much better at the club and I would hope that our first game against Sturt on March 28th is a major event for the club.

Our sponsors continue to show great support and peoples generousity towards the club is at times overwhelming.  We are hoping to have all sponsors renewed before the Xmas break and spend the months prior to the season developing growth in our traditional football revenue.

We have almost completed an exhaustive planning process and hope to be able to provide an events schedule and strategic direction for the club very soon.

I have had some queries about the AGM.  This meeting will be held on Thursday February 7 at the Osmond Terrace Function Centre.  The Annual Report and appropriate notification will be made available in December.

Dominic Shepley - Commercial Operations Manager