Liam's timing is interesting. The academy has been in place for years, so you wonder why he has chosen to write the story now??
My point exactly... why couldn’t he had left the Rudan glow be enjoyed by the long suffering supporters for a couple of weeks before trying to spin the club in a bad light again. And for James I am not saying for one minute it shouldn’t be discussed but I can’t help but question his timing. I guess some guys just like bursting bubbles.
I think you are falling into the same trap as the Phoenix and blaming the media for bad media about the club.
The dom post is not out to get the Phoenix. They try and sell newspapers, so if the timing is designed to do that can you seriously complain? This is a properly researched story that makes the Phoenix look pretty iffy, and certainly in my mind calls into question some of the claims about how much of the academy is funded by Welnix. Certainly getting gaming funding and using it to pay consultancy fees to Welnix raises alarm bells.
Maybe if the club had better relationships with journalists there would be fewer negative stories, I am really not sure why they haven’t tried that approach...
I have to agree with you, the PR department def need a few lessons on how to keep them closer but thats not Rob’s way I guess...
If Liam wanted to do a proper job maybe he should have bought into question all sports rather than just picking off the Nix, like the Breakers, Rugby, league etc etc. the bottom line is they all rout the system and even when the DIA have done enquirers into these organisations they have all been found to be playing by the current rules.
It’s not the organisations fault but the rules laid out for them to follow.
The bottom line is that NZ doesn’t have enough money in any game to fund pro sport and if funding was taken away most pro outfits would be forced to cut back on coach’s and players choosing sport as a career option.
I am not supporting pokie funding but i didn’t know what other option there is and maybe it’s a wider conversation for the new Government.
If you think back to the old NZF national league that was sponsored by cigarette companies, when they ruled it out they had one or two years of ‘smoke free’ sponsorship then the funds disappeared back into government coffers and football clubs were left with no funding.
If we think of coach’s like Jose who’s wages have been almost 100% by pokies while he has learnt his trade, how do we keep guys like this in the game but not rely on pokies money?
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a much larger story that just the Nix getting a small part to help fund the cultivation of young players through the academy.