FRG Upcoming Meeting

We have a teams meeting coming up that was due the 25th but due to the members quiz nite has been rescheduled for another nite. 

Im happy to put forward some questions but please dont expect answers on matters that could be deemed sensitive or involve disclosing  things about the running of the club or their affairs that may be deemed the same. Also would prefer not to have a heap of questions all having a similar theme.
Domey and often a couple of other staff members normally take part.

Here's a question: have they done any soul searching about why the club have failed to win a finals game since Ricki left?

This could well be one they decline to answer, but I think a lot of us would welcome some insight into the roles of the DoF and the Football Committee compared to the roles of the two head coaches - especially when results aren’t meeting club expectations.

Simon B

This could well be one they decline to answer, but I think a lot of us would welcome some insight into the roles of the DoF and the Football Committee compared to the roles of the two head coaches - especially when results aren’t meeting club expectations.

I was thinking of asking firstly who is on the football committee. Then are decisions reached by consensus or does the committee just offer suggestions and Welnix (Rob) make the decisions.

do you want to add to that if so add it here.

Happy to ask that one imanixsupporter 

Will likely be passed over but hey no harm in asking. I don’t think the response is going to impact competition.

Question 1 - could we name all the business units in the Phoenix? (i.e. charter school, academy, etc, etc). 

Question 2. Who is the person at the top of each unit and who does that person report to?

Question 3. Which of these are profitable (don’t need to know the amounts just if they earn at least a dollar more then money spent on them over the course of the year)

Another question would be about Chiefy trying the incredibly risky high line approach that was eventually discarded and was ultimately a huge waste of time. It was dismissed as foolish and treated with derision by a lot of notable A-League pundits and even some players and coaches, from very early on in the season. Were people like Gill and Domey at all sceptical or uncomfortable about this approach? Should there have been more oversight and should it be part of a Director of Football's role in future to prevent such things happening again?

AucklandPhoenix

Will likely be passed over but hey no harm in asking. I don’t think the response is going to impact competition.

Question 1 - could we name all the business units in the Phoenix? (i.e. charter school, academy, etc, etc). 

Question 2. Who is the person at the top of each unit and who does that person report to?

Question 3. Which of these are profitable (don’t need to know the amounts just if they earn at least a dollar more then money spent on them over the course of the year)

Happy to ask that one but think that one is more suited to something else im going to ask. As there isnt a podcast where some of these things can be asked would the Phoenix be up to answering a list of questions put to them. Just as an aside havnt you named the business units cant think of any others there could be. Maybe commercial/sponsorship etc but really dont see them answering anything about that for obvious reasons

imanixsupporter

Another question would be about Chiefy trying the incredibly risky high line approach that was eventually discarded and was ultimately a huge waste of time. It was dismissed as foolish and treated with derision by a lot of notable A-League pundits and even some players and coaches, from very early on in the season. Were people like Gill and Domey at all sceptical or uncomfortable about this approach? Should there have been more oversight and should it be part of a Director of Football's role in future to prevent such things happening again?

no. If the dof is getting too involved in that they may as well be the coach. 

With respect this is a question for the club and not you. I dont think your view about the extent of what a DoF does is very standard. 

I think it was a really extreme and irregular approach from Chiefy and it resulted in our team being much mocked in the media, it wasnt just like any other particular tactical approach from a coach.  And I think such massive philosphical things are within the purview of a DoF. What else does a DoF do? Domey and Gill before the season said they wanted to see a much more pleasant attacking style and they said this publicly. Do you think that means they may as well be the coach too? 

I would like to know why the club is lacking in engagment with the fans.  Seems they do the bare minimum. There are no fun videos or clever promotions.  I understand that it is easier to promote a team that is winning but how do they expect people to care about the players and team if we don't know anything about them.  Even on match day there is sometimes one post and then crickets until an hour before hand. 

They used to ask where people were watching the games from every match day and put the times the games would be on overseas. 

I'd also like to know if anyone from the Nix speaks to Metink/Kiwirail/GWRC about ensuring trains are running on game days, bus replacements are a barrier to getting people to attend. 

Thank you if you're able to ask any of these questions.

Procrastinixing

I would like to know why the club is lacking in engagment with the fans.  Seems they do the bare minimum. There are no fun videos or clever promotions.  I understand that it is easier to promote a team that is winning but how do they expect people to care about the players and team if we don't know anything about them.  Even on match day there is sometimes one post and then crickets until an hour before hand. 

They used to ask where people were watching the games from every match day and put the times the games would be on overseas. 

I'd also like to know if anyone from the Nix speaks to Metink/Kiwirail/GWRC about ensuring trains are running on game days, bus replacements are a barrier to getting people to attend. 

Thank you if you're able to ask any of these questions.

Will ask the first part but the club dosnt need to be asked the 2nd part as we already know the answer for that. It is Metlink schedules track maintenance months sometimes years in advance well before any A League games are scheduled and due to the state of the rail link and it requiring constant maintenance its often not able to reschedule that at short notice.

More of a question on the commercial side of things.

1a) Is the club happy with the current level of partnerships/sponsors that are on board with the Phoenix?

And; 

1b) Is there then some scope to build on what we have, not just with potential local/national partners, but perhaps looking to a more international market as well? This is not limited specifically to just businesses either, but could include something like a club partnership.

Not a conventional fan group question, but I am curious to hear anything regarding this. Thanks in advance.

imanixsupporter

With respect this is a question for the club and not you. I dont think your view about the extent of what a DoF does is very standard. 

I think it was a really extreme and irregular approach from Chiefy and it resulted in our team being much mocked in the media, it wasnt just like any other particular tactical approach from a coach.  And I think such massive philosphical things are within the purview of a DoF. What else does a DoF do? Domey and Gill before the season said they wanted to see a much more pleasant attacking style and they said this publicly. Do you think that means they may as well be the coach too? 

a chairman may set expectations or goals for the ceo, but its generally up to the ceo to decide how to achieve those goals. If the chairman starts interfering too much then what's the point of a ceo?

Actually, ask the question. If higher ups made chiefy adjust to avoid embarrassment from pundits, some poor little fans can't handle it, then that's probably the biggest reason for Gill and Domey to go. 

And looking back, we probably played ~ 6 games with a highline for 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses.  We out shot the opposition in every game, cumulatively 95 to 56. Cumulative xg was 8.46 to 8.1 in our favour. We had a majority of possession in 5 of those first 6 games averaging 59% and the only game we didn't we had 49% of possession. This also without Payne for basically 5 of those games, having Loke in and trying to get him used to the defensive coordination, and losing Ishige for the season in the third game.

Why did Chiefy abandon it if it was so successful?

At the end of the day it was a very risky approach, the risk backfired massively, it was a big waste of time. It is the job of those at the very top of organisations to manage risk. It was a wild gamble by a rookie coach who was out of his depth and I think it is a fair question to ask if they would allow such a thing to happen again. 

Edit: also, Chiefy isnt the CEO, Domey is!

imanixsupporter

Why did Chiefy abandon it if it was so successful?

At the end of the day it was a very risky approach, the risk backfired massively, it was a big waste of time. It is the job of those at the very top of organisations to manage risk. It was a wild gamble by a rookie coach who was out of his depth and I think it is a fair question to ask if they would allow such a thing to happen again. 

Edit: also, Chiefy isnt the CEO, Domey is!

seriously you didn't get my analogy of ceo being akin to a head coach and dof is like the chairperson. Dome isn't ceo as well, he's a gm.

And I don't know why chiefy did change, unavailability of certain players, external pressure, thinking its not working as well as he would like, maybe always wanting to invite a press and play out but to appease the the higher ups played a high risk/high reward style so that he could then go "see its not working, can I please now play my way ", to piss off imanixhater? 

imanixsupporter

Why did Chiefy abandon it if it was so successful?

At the end of the day it was a very risky approach, the risk backfired massively, it was a big waste of time. It is the job of those at the very top of organisations to manage risk. It was a wild gamble by a rookie coach who was out of his depth and I think it is a fair question to ask if they would allow such a thing to happen again. 

Edit: also, Chiefy isnt the CEO, Domey is!

I'd say the high line was mostly moderated and then abandoned altogether, as first we were leaking obvious soft goals due to the extreme high line (ie players struggling to adapt) and then Oluwayemi got injured.

Putting aside his horror first half on the weekend, Josh O was showing some signs of getting to grips with being a sweeper keeper up until getting injured. McCarron & then AKH didn't have those few months playing like Oluwayemi with the tactic. They were thrust in at the deep end, so Chiefy started to eventually abandon it all altogether. 

At the end of the day, last season was turgid awful stuff. Tactics had to change. The high line at least meant plenty of action, and goals scored.

Ok fair he isnt technically CEO, but he is the closest thing to it. Morrison is the chairman, not Domey. You cant just pretend roles are completely different and then use that as justification for your argument.

Anyway I stand by my question. Really risky approach by the coach, a massive gamble that backfired spectacularly and has damaged the club, higher ups are supposed to manage risk, would/should they allow such a risky approach again? That is a reasonable question for them, I don't know why you seem to be so upset about me asking it. 

Edit: I will clarify. I dont think the DoF should be telling the coach midseason to change tactics necessarily. I was more envisaging a scenario where a coach goes to the DoF in preseason and says "my blueprint is this really risky approach, do you endorse it, will you allow for me to recruit specifically for it" and the DoF might say "I don't endorse this, because it is too risky and also if/when there is a change in coach in the future it is unlikely they will want to carry on such an approach". He might also say, this is not the approach of our academy teams, it doesnt fit in with the wider ethos of the club. This would be a very standard coach/DoF conversation and would not make the DoF essentially the coach.

imanixsupporter

Ok fair he isnt technically CEO, but he is the closest thing to it. Morrison is the chairman, not Domey. You cant just pretend roles are completely different and then use that as justification for your argument.

Anyway I stand by my question. Really risky approach by the coach, a massive gamble that backfired spectacularly and has damaged the club, higher ups are supposed to manage risk, would/should they allow such a risky approach again? That is a reasonable question for them, I don't know why you seem to be so upset about me asking it. 

how did it backfire spectacularly? Other than to your ego.

And the ceo/chair thing is an analogy, to highlight the roles of coach and dof (or others that sit above the coach as a chair does over a ceo).

We wasted half of the entire season on it before discarding it, and it is no surprise that we have looked completely disjointed since, compared to other sides who have stuck to a system and slowly evolved throughout. That's how it has backfired spectacularly. As a result we are 11th and we are playing terribly and the coach has been sacked. Has nothing to do with my ego.

Ask about the Fraser Park rumours, especially the boutique stadium plans.

imanixsupporter

We wasted half of the entire season on it before discarding it, and it is no surprise that we have looked completely disjointed since, compared to other sides who have stuck to a system and slowly evolved throughout. That's how it has backfired spectacularly. As a result we are 11th and we are playing terribly and the coach has been sacked. Has nothing to do with my ego.

so, its not the high line but the dropping of it backfired? And you didn't care what the pundits said? And in my estimation we dropped the high line by the 2nd derby, definitely by the jets after the 2nd derby by chiefy's comments. So 6 games of a high line, out of a 26 game season.

I’d like to know a bit more about last winter in all honesty. What was established at the review and why has the implementation of said review failed (assuming it has)? 

Also, do the club accept they rested on their laurels with the arrival of the blue stuff? Almost borderline arrogance thinking we just rock up and win (obviously this last bit doesn’t need to form part of the question). 

Thanks guys will frame some questions up and post them to make sure i have them right. For the moment thats enough otherwise the meeting will go on forever with the questions some of the others have.

Is Greenacre the short term fix till the end of the season or the cheapest fix and hope for the best next season?? Any thoughts of getting that guy from Heidleberg?

When are the club going to change their ethos of continually aiming to finish in the top 6, usually in 6th?? How about aiming for number 1 instead? Auckland did that and achieved it in their first go. But for 18 years we "hope" to finish in the top 6.

Are we going to see Luke Brooke-Smith now getting game time. Instead of protecting him until he's 21 and we lose him overseas without getting any benefit from him or payment from a foreign team?

Okay people so here is where we are at. I have been in contact with the club asking if we forwarded some question is there any way Domey would consider looking at them and possibly answering them.
The reply was yes he would where possible, just remember they are perfectly within their rights to limit answers where it may deemed not appropriate to answer. I think thats perfectly okay as some of the things people want to know i doubt there would be many clubs who would bother answering.
So the club are planning a Q&A session to be announced in a couple of weeks the questions i submit will be answered at that session which apparently will be available online.
Hope that is okay with you all.
Later today i will go through the questions suggestion and write them up and repost them. I intend to forward them to the club as they were originally posted where possible.
I told the club that with there being no podcast where fan questions can be asked any longer there is growing frustration within the fan base that they arnt hearing anything from the club. I said many of those asking the question on the YF forums have been long term participants in discussions.

nice work mate, I used to enjoy going to these kinds of sessions in the early years. Looking forward to the responses.

Nice one. 

Be good to see this online.

Okay this is what i have done. Have a read let me know if you want any changes. I dont think we should add anymore questions as there will be others on the nite of the Q&A. Will leave it for a couple of days and will send to the club we then have to wait for the Q&A to get the answers.

 1/  Have they done any soul searching about why the club have failed to win a finals game since Ricki left?

2/ Who is on the football committee, are decisions reached by consensus or does the committee just offer suggestions and Welnix (Rob) make the final decision.

3/ Some would welcome some insight into the roles of the DOF and the Football Committee compared to the roles of the two Head Coaches ,especially when results arnt meeting club expectations.

4/ Could all the Phoenix Business units be named ie Charter School, Academy etc etc. Who is the person at the top of each unit and who do they report to.
Which of these are profitable (amounts not required) just wondering if they earn more than is spent.

5/ With Chief trying an incredibly risky high line approach then discarding it. Were people like Domey and Gilly at all skeptical or uncomfortable with this approach. Should there have been more oversigh tand should it be part of the DOF role in future to prevent such things happening.

6/ Why is the club lacking in engagement with fans. Seems they do the bare minimum. There are no fun videos or clever promotions. understand its easier to promote a winning team but how do you expect people to care about the team or players if we dont know anything about them. Even match day there is sometimes one post then nothing till an hour before the game.
It used to be asked where you were watching from with times in relevant zones.

8/ Is the club happy with the current level of partnerships/sponsors that are on board with the Phoenix.
Is there some scope to build on what we have, not just with potential local/national partners, but perhaps looking to a more international market as well? This is not limited to specifically to just businesses either but could include something like club partnerships.

9/ Are the club disappointed there are no standout young players in the first team? That after selling 3 players for healthy transfer fees in 2024,the club will likely go 2 years with no transfer fee income at all.
Are the club monitoring the success of the Jets this season and seeing if there are any learnings for the Phoenix especially around the development of younger players.

10/ Can we hear anything about the Fraser Park rumor's about a botique stadium being built there.

11/ What happened with the last winter review. what was stablished at the review why has the implementation of said review failed (assuming it has)
Do the club accept they rested on the laurels with the arrival of AFC. 

12/ Is Greenie the short term fix till the end of the season or the cheapest fis and hope for the best next season. Any thoughts on the Heidleberg coach.
There is the perception that the club is just  happy to aim for the 6 rather bthan state that we want to finish 1st is that likely to change.
Are we going to see more of the young players like LBS or are they going to continue being protected without us getting any playing benefit or an increase in their transfer value.

can we ask about Samba's injury and her recent posts and creation of a go fund me page to get surgery in Qatar?
Did she turn down the options in NZ? Does the club have any concerns aboiut her recovery especially as she is due to return next season?

theprof

can we ask about Samba's injury and her recent posts and creation of a go fund me page to get surgery in Qatar?
Did she turn down the options in NZ? Does the club have any concerns aboiut her recovery especially as she is due to return next season?

Might speak to someone and see if that can be asked at the Q&A thats being held at the quiz nite

theprof

can we ask about Samba's injury and her recent posts and creation of a go fund me page to get surgery in Qatar?
Did she turn down the options in NZ? Does the club have any concerns aboiut her recovery especially as she is due to return next season?

There is an article on Stuff about it. Seems she has chosen to go to Qatar and the cost could be up to $135000. Much more than it would be to have it done in NZ under those circumstances dont think the Phoenix should be expected to pay for it. For that reason i wont be asking that question as its pretty well covered in the article.

No questions here. Mostly everything looks covered. 

Just thought I'd say thank you Ballane you're awesome 😊

imanixsupporter

Why did Chiefy abandon it if it was so successful?

At the end of the day it was a very risky approach, the risk backfired massively, it was a big waste of time. It is the job of those at the very top of organisations to manage risk. It was a wild gamble by a rookie coach who was out of his depth and I think it is a fair question to ask if they would allow such a thing to happen again. 

Edit: also, Chiefy isnt the CEO, Domey is!

Josh got injured. It wasn’t an option for the back up keepers to play as a sweeper keeper. 

Also I disagree that the tactic backfired massively. 

The tactic was decided between Chief and the players I believe. 

All I know is I dont want a rookie coach coming in and trying something radical like that again. It was a crazy gamble and it ruined our season. It has done untold damage to the club. 

It would be one thing if it was a highly experienced coach who had successfully implented such a system in the past. But Chiefy has very little experience and had never done anything like it before.

I think a sensible and capable DoF would have nipped it in the bud when they first learned that Chiefy was strongly considering this to be the blueprint for the season. Sorry Chiefy, our club is not your guinea pig for crazy experiements like that, this approach does not fit in with the wider club's ethos, our youth and reserve teams dont play like this and as such it will make things even harder for young players trying to break into the first team, which is a priority of ours. 

But of course we know Gill and Domey just do and go along with whatever the coach they hired says, probably because they are not at all qualified to be overseeing a professional club's football operations. 

imanixsupporter

All I know is I dont want a rookie coach coming in and trying something radical like that again. It was a crazy gamble and it ruined our season. It has done untold damage to the club. 

It would be one thing if it was a highly experienced coach who had successfully implented such a system in the past. But Chiefy has very little experience and had never done anything like it before.

I think a sensible and capable DoF would have nipped it in the bud when they first learned that Chiefy was strongly considering this to be the blueprint for the season. Sorry Chiefy, our club is not your guinea pig for crazy experiements like that, this approach does not fit in with the wider club's ethos, our youth and reserve teams dont play like this and as such it will make things even harder for young players trying to break into the first team, which is a priority of ours. 

But of course we know Gill and Domey just do and go along with whatever the coach they hired says, probably because they are not at all qualified to be overseeing a professional club's football operations. 

what do you mean untold damage? You are being far too over dramatic. No need to get embarrassed personally. 

Ok maybe I am being overdramatic, but I'm not personally embarassed. The Nix's failings aren't my own, why should I be? 

Putting that aside, I hope Domey and Gill reflect about this fiasco and don't let something like this happen again. Higher ups at organisations have veto powers. They should have been capable enough to use them in this instance. 

Yeah alright, bud. We heard you the first 600 times.

Thanks Ballane! Great work collecting the questions, much appreciated.

Thanks Ballane

I know as you said the Q and A will be online.

Will this be a delayed video and link?

Or solely live?

If you could let us know which one and the date/time, we can potentially start booking our annual leave or making fictious meetings in our work calendar!!