Official Cronulla Sharks Board + Management

[samshark]

you guys are still seriously on about this? can't you see it for what it is.. right people for right job at right time.. enough of the conspiracy theories I say - it is hysterical and has been proven to be lacking in any form of facts.

Bruno Cullen was not appointed by the NRL - He is assembling a formidable admin team based on those available that have the best experience for the job. This is what the sharks brought him in to do.

Why did the NRL give them up - its likely David Smith is bringing in his own people and they needed a job. This happens all the time when a new CEO comes into a large organisation.

I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions in regard to all these recent appointments.

Would Cullen, Noyce and the most recent guy all be here still if not for the ASADA drama.
If Cullen was coming anyway and was requested so by the board well then why was that?
If the board were doing such a great job why did they need to bring Cullen to get a restructure happening. Why couldnt they do it themselves and advertise for a new CEO. Cullen stated form the outset that he wouldnt be here either full time or a long time.

 

[Frenzy]

Secret? Flyers went out to a number of local business people and sharks members to attend.

Why not all Sharks members I muse?

 

[tips]

your jumping at shadows samshark - I don't mean that disrespectfully.

if the ASADA thing wasn't around everyone would be applauding the fact that the board has brought in some seriously experience rugby league administers to be involved with the club - see it for what it is.

It is in fact what everyone else is saying they should have done earlier and what a new board has proposed to do. But it takes time to get good people.

the reason they can now do this now and not late last year is that they have a business plan in place which I have been told includes sufficient revenue allocated to the football operations rather than using this money to pay down interest on a massive debt that has now been wiped out. It also contains sufficient revenue to pay down the interest on the remaining loan (there is nothing wrong with this as business use loans as a means of funding for tax purposes - that's why business are sometimes measured on their debt/equity ratio)

good people and serious business administrators like Noyce, Wallace, Legg do not apply for jobs that are not long term and without a business plan in place.

 

[hamsy44]

Financially no one can argue with the performance of this current board. Its simple accounting reduced debt, increased revenue equals business going in the right direction. Also I think it would be safe to assume that had this ASADA thing not come along their decision to part company with Toyota and Shark would of paid off with increased sponsorship deals.

I think for this reason alone and the fact Noyce is on board (appointment made by the current board) you can see the right steps are being taken to secure the future of the Football side of the club. Just replace the ones who have stood down and lets get on with it.

My only change I guess is I can't vote for Irvine. I think he has done a wonderful job but we need to make a clean break from the ASADA drama as quickly as possible all I can see if he comes back are his comments being replayed over and over again by certain media. I will happily vote for him in a couple of years just not now.

 

[WillyInBris]

Fkn media slide. you know they have a hidden agenda. you dont need me to point out the obvious. clearly forrest is some how aligned with the current board. Anything else??? That searchy thingy you spoke of is coming up empty.

Seems you have that issue with most things coming up empty lol.

It wasn't me.

I had to chuckle at that Slide he must have you on his mind a lot.

 

[samshark]

your jumping at shadows samshark - I don't mean that disrespectfully.

if the ASADA thing wasn't around everyone would be applauding the fact that the board has brought in some seriously experience rugby league administers to be involved with the club - see it for what it is.

It is in fact what everyone else is saying they should have done earlier and what a new board has proposed to do. But it takes time to get good people.

the reason they can now do this now and not late last year is that they have a business plan in place which I have been told includes sufficient revenue allocated to the football operations rather than using this money to pay down interest on a massive debt that has now been wiped out. It also contains sufficient revenue to pay down the interest on the remaining loan (there is nothing wrong with this as business use loans as a means of funding for tax purposes - that's why business are sometimes measured on their debt/equity ratio)

good people and serious business administrators like Noyce, Wallace, Legg do not apply for jobs that are not long term and without a business plan in place.

I wouldnt call them shadows they are valid questions that a lot of people would like answered and I dont believe they have been answered.

 

[tips]

samshark they have mate - Cullen, Irvine and Coleman themselves have all made comments on this. What else can they do but tell you he was coming here to build a management team and assist with putting structures in place around the business model.

boards don't do this when running correctly - they govern. This is what everyone wanted, which they were working on. Previously the bank had hamstrung them on what they could do.

I keep hearing all these people say that we need business people on board - if any of these people truly understood business then they wouldn't make the comments, it is business 101 what is happening now.

I wish people would spend the time to read up on important issues and if they don't understand them, then listen to people that do - it really frustrates me.

this might help answer your question;

Role clarity is essential to ensuring a productive CEO/Board relationship is founded. The primary role of the Board is to govern, to control managerial opportunism and to ensure that CEOs carry out their managerial functions and duties in the best interests of Members. The Board is one of a series of stakeholders, which the CEO must serve effectively. An important function of the Board is to choose the CEO, and to assist the CEO in selecting the management team. Collectively, the Board remains the CEO’s employer, and the role of the CEO is one primarily of management and administration. The CEO is responsible, within parameters established by the Board, for determining and overseeing the execution of the Board’s directions and policies to ensure desirable outcomes.

 

[tips]

here's the link to the entire article that I quoted in case people want to understand in greater detail the role of a board, importantly for those solicitors or accountants out there it is completely different to a partnership or a trust;

http://betterboards.net/articles/board-ceo/

 

[Fitzy2513]

Tips, we are still 3M + in debt, Newcastle were 4M in debt when members voted for the Tinkler takeover. I am so happy we have improved all aspects of our financials, but, we are still in a hole to the value of ??
Put up some comparisons to the other Sydney clubs and give us a true indication of where we are at.

 

[fitz]

Tips, we are still 3M + in debt, Newcastle were 4M in debt when members voted for the Tinkler takeover. I am so happy we have improved all aspects of our financials, but, we are still in a hole to the value of ??
Put up some comparisons to the other Sydney clubs and give us a true indication of where we are at.

Just to be precise... the Board has got us to a position of having a BANK DEBT of about $3.5M and a combined asset of around the $52M mark with major in-place revenue streams for the future

Newcastle, on the other hand, was minus $4M+ on the balance sheet AFTER taking into account their combined asset value.

That's a VERY different proposition and one very similar to the one we were in 2010.

Just 3 years later and the Board has us sitting about +$49M on the balance sheet.

 

[slide rule]

Tips, we are still 3M + in debt, Newcastle were 4M in debt when members voted for the Tinkler takeover. I am so happy we have improved all aspects of our financials, but, we are still in a hole to the value of ??
Put up some comparisons to the other Sydney clubs and give us a true indication of where we are at.

It's a bit difficult to make a direct comparison between clubs as they all have different business models with different strategies. This means diffferent debts, different revenue streams and different assets. A debt figure alone means nothing.

 

[hamsy44]

Tips, we are still 3M + in debt, Newcastle were 4M in debt when members voted for the Tinkler takeover. I am so happy we have improved all aspects of our financials, but, we are still in a hole to the value of ??
Put up some comparisons to the other Sydney clubs and give us a true indication of where we are at.

There are two Sydney clubs at the moment that are worse off then us that I can think of off the top of my head.

Penrith - 30million
Souths - 5.5million

 

[mattaus]

Pretty sure Manly are struggling as well

 

[samshark]

samshark they have mate - Cullen, Irvine and Coleman themselves have all made comments on this. What else can they do but tell you he was coming here to build a management team and assist with putting structures in place around the business model.

boards don't do this when running correctly - they govern. This is what everyone wanted, which they were working on. Previously the bank had hamstrung them on what they could do.

I keep hearing all these people say that we need business people on board - if any of these people truly understood business then they wouldn't make the comments, it is business 101 what is happening now.

I wish people would spend the time to read up on important issues and if they don't understand them, then listen to people that do - it really frustrates me.

this might help answer your question;

Role clarity is essential to ensuring a productive CEO/Board relationship is founded. The primary role of the Board is to govern, to control managerial opportunism and to ensure that CEOs carry out their managerial functions and duties in the best interests of Members. The Board is one of a series of stakeholders, which the CEO must serve effectively. An important function of the Board is to choose the CEO, and to assist the CEO in selecting the management team. Collectively, the Board remains the CEO’s employer, and the role of the CEO is one primarily of management and administration. The CEO is responsible, within parameters established by the Board, for determining and overseeing the execution of the Board’s directions and policies to ensure desirable outcomes.

I am not arguing the roles of the board and the CEO, I understand what you are saying. The question I am basically asking is would Cullen be here and the re-structure have happened if not for ASADA and loss of the staff. Id like that clarified because I say no way. The set up would be as it was before. Why would the board hire Cullen when he lives in Brisbane and he said himself he was busy enough already on three boards. The reason I raise this is because it questions the competency of the board for me and whether they had things right to start with.

 

[sharkiesboomboomboom]

There are two Sydney clubs at the moment that are worse off then us that I can think of off the top of my head.

Penrith - 30million
Souths - 5.5million

Also Parramatta claim they are going great, since their financials look ok and they have paid off debts, however many of their members don't realise they have flogged off heaps of their assets to enable them to do so.

Not that I'm saying they are paupers or anything but sometimes boards take credit for improving the $$$ situation when they have only done so in the short term by selling assets. You can never get those assets back if needed in the long term.

I think the current board has done a brilliant job in utilising our assets in the best way possible for our future,without assuming too much risk.

 

[tips]

samshark - I have answered your question but you are not listening.

I suspect you are just trying to make a political statement instead or you have a preconceived answer in your head and reason can not penetrate it.

 

[tips]

Fitzy - to put what Fitz said in real life terms;

do you own your own house? for the sake of the argument lets assume you do..

the house you want to buy costs $500k - you have a 20% deposit which equals $100,000.

Therefore you borrow $400,000 for an asset worth $500,000. Your debt/asset ratio is 80%.

at this loan your repayments are probably $3,000 per month on an income of say $75k per year - which is $4375 per month after tax.

so your repayments are also 70% or your total income (revenue).

this is a normal everyday occurrence for the majority of homeowners in western Sydney.

Now look at the sharks;

they have borrowed $3.5m for an asset worth $52m - this is a debt/asset ratio of just 6.7%

to service this loan it would cost about $10k per month, but as opposed to the normal household it has income streams from sponsorship, game day takings, poker machines, bar, memberships + future rentals.

so in reality the sharks are paying back only $7,000 per month more than the average aussie householder.

please can you get it now

 

[tips]

sorry samshark I will answer one question again;

the bank had hamstrung the board on what they could spend money on i.e. admin staff.

now the bank does not control the club they are free to hire the best people available.

this only occurred late last year/early this year and it takes time to get the right people.

did Bruno Cullen come in earlier than was intended and did the NRL help this happen by short term financial assistance because of the situation (i.e. topped up his pay to entice him to postpone other business interests)?

reading between the lines I suspect this might have happened but it is completely irrelevant to why he is here.

 

[samshark]

samshark - I have answered your question but you are not listening.

I suspect you are just trying to make a political statement instead or you have a preconceived answer in your head and reason can not penetrate it.

Well ok then, besides being a poster called tips, who are you? And what is your source? Because everything I've read and listened to had failed to provide a clear answer on when, why, how and who hired Cullen which kick started the recent re- structure and appointments.

It's no political statement rubbish. I want that clarified to the members.

 

[tips]

why did the bank control the finances?

because the previous Pierce board of a decade before had borrowed $14m against an asset worth $4m and all but destroyed the club.