Smorgon faces challenge over board row

[Grantysghost]

WESTERN Bulldogs president David Smorgon is facing a challenge for his position from a fellow board member whom he reportedly abused during a heated phone call, according to former Footscray favourite Brad Hardie.

Article in full (http://www.sportsnewsfirst.com.au/articles/2011/09/06/smorgon-faces-challenge-over-board-row/)

[Throughandthrough]

SmorgOn

[The Coon Dog]

I have it on good authority that Brad Hardie is extremely 'in the know' about what happens at The Kennel.

[Remi Moses]

Had a chap ( looked like John Cleese) come up to me on Saturday and say there is something brewing on Wednesday. Don't know how factual this is , but hopefully a bloodless coup might ensure.

[Grantysghost]

SmorgOn

Hey your right, never noticed that before. I cant change thread title unfortunately, maybe a mod can fix please.

[Grantysghost]

I have it on good authority that Brad Hardie is extremely 'in the know' about what happens at The Kennel.

Smorgon could be in for some interesting times then if thats the case. Never a dull moment.

[LostDoggy]

OMG - I wish we were getting publicity for all the right reasons at the minute! If it's true, then hopefully it will be sorted out without too much blood-letting. In-house fighting has never been a good look, and we already are seen as a "basket-case" by lots of arrogant (probably Carlton) supporters!

[Remi Moses]

OMG - I wish we were getting publicity for all the right reasons at the minute! If it's true, then hopefully it will be sorted out without too much blood-letting. In-house fighting has never been a good look, and we already are seen as a "basket-case" by lots of arrogant (probably Carlton) supporters!

Dodged a barrage of bullets by not having Graeme Smorgon as prez!
Hell could be unleashed if they get beat this week!

[The Doctor]

if any of this is true then the club is in complete disarray. at times like this we need strong purposeful leadership. we are not getting this in any shape. First, the football dept becomes disfunctional and now the board.

Sadly, the people at the club at the moment do not have the ability to deliver a premiership to us. i can't help but think we are missing Cam Rose more than we realise.

[Topdog]

I have it on good authority that Brad Hardie is extremely 'in the know' about what happens at The Kennel.

Not sure why but I can't tell if you are being serious.

Find this story hard to believe.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

I have it on good authority that Brad Hardie is extremely 'in the know' about what happens at The Kennel.

I would take anything that Brad Hardie quotes with a grain of salt!
I wpould be interested to know why you think his comments are so believable.

[LostDoggy]

Susie is not the source of the leaks.

[The Coon Dog]

I would take anything that Brad Hardie quotes with a grain of salt!
I wpould be interested to know why you think his comments are so believable.

I spoke with someone recently who said Brad seems to know everything that's going on at the Whitten Oval. Some of the stuff he knows comes as a surprise at times to people who work at the club.

[Mofra]

I spoke with someone recently who said Brad seems to know everything that's going on at the Whitten Oval. Some of the stuff he knows comes as a surprise at times to people who work at the club.
Oh goody.

We've lost Ward, probably Reid, have no head coach, have a dysfunctional board and the club leaks info like a sieve.

[LostDoggy]

Oh goody.

We've lost Ward, probably Reid, have no head coach, have a dysfunctional board and the club leaks info like a sieve.
From my observations Brad Hardie is always involved in negative things with regard to the club. Like Dimma just appear to be shit stirring, I wish one or both of them woud just do something POSITIVE for the club !

[ledge]

Good point OD but is this because the club has negative things going on at the moment,?
Where there is smoke there is fire.
If this is lies you would expect both David and Susan to come out together to put it to rest.

[bornadog]

Not sure why but I can't tell if you are being serious.

Find this story hard to believe.

I can back TCD up on this.

[FrediKanoute]

All of this just reinforces my view that there was more going on at the club than just a bad season on the field and that maybe the s!!! goinging on behind the scenes spilled ont the field, especially in the wake of Rose leaving the club. The litany of infighting this year has been phenomenal:

Match Committee v Lake
Players v Lake
Alberti v Smorgon
Smorgon v Dimma et al

Successful organisations have healthy disputes which serve to ensure that the direction of the club is focussed appropriately. Unfortunately we have unhealthy disputes which seeem to get personal, seem to result in individuals not following the plan and then a weak management team who do nothing to refocus individuals on the team plan.

Maybe all of these things were festering underneath during the Rose reign, but it seems like on heck of a conincidence that they all seemed to emerge within a year of his departure.

[Ghost Dog]

I dunno....Wasn't it only last week that Alberti endorsed SmorGON as the top bloke?
Not sure what to believe there. The article also comes at a bit of an opportunistic time for opponents of the board.

In short, bit suss

[Scraggers]

From my observations Brad Hardie is always involved in negative things with regard to the club. Like Dimma just appear to be shit stirring, I wish one or both of them woud just do something POSITIVE for the club !

Not true ... Brad only has good things to say about the Bulldogs both on Perth radio (4-5 nights a week) or in person on the number of occassions that I have spoken with him.

[chef]

Bring it on.

[Topdog]

I can back TCD up on this.

I wasn't doubting him, just wasn't sure if he was serious.

I was doubting the story though. Shattered if it is true.

[KT31]

As much as I regard Hardie as a footballer , lets not forget he only ever played 47 games for us and it still confuses me as he his held in such high esteem after he swirled a Bulldogs jumper around and then stomped on it.
Boyd and Cross cop a hiding on Woof, but a looser footballer I have not seen.

[LostDoggy]

As much as I regard Hardie as a footballer , lets not forget he only ever played 47 games for us and it still confuses me as he his held in such high esteem after he swirled a Bulldogs jumper around and then stomped on it.
Boyd and Cross cop a hiding on Woof, but a looser footballer I have not seen.

Agreed.

And the bloke has less credibility than Aker.

[Cyberdoggie]

Agreed.

And the bloke has less credibility than Aker.

ouch!, that's a bit harsh isn't it? :p


It may seem like the world is falling apart but let's look at it this way, perhaps it will be a change for the better?

Not everyone liked Napoleon but he did have some success, for a little while anyway. :)

The club has been due for a change for a while now and the longer it goes on for the larger the impact will be. Perhaps with Susan Alberti in charge (first female president?), it could start a wave of ground support for the club. It worked back in 97 when David Smorgon came to power, a disastrous year in 96 after being in finals previously, lead to Wallace taking over (some might say he back stabbed Joyce), an ex player in Rick Kennedy stood up and brought in David Smorgon with him and things went up from there.

To me it sounds like a very similar situation all over again.

[ledge]

The media blows things up, is it as bad as they say?

[Mofra]

As much as I regard Hardie as a footballer , lets not forget he only ever played 47 games for us and it still confuses me as he his held in such high esteem after he swirled a Bulldogs jumper around and then stomped on it.
Boyd and Cross cop a hiding on Woof, but a looser footballer I have not seen.
We are a strange lot at the Bulldogs - Hall belted one of our favourites (Grant) behind the play, yet after playing two seasons with us is feted as a hero - he was cheered harder than Hudson (who left the Crows with one target in mind - the Bulldogs) and Hahn who played ~180 games with us and was seen cheering the team on in 06 despite doing his knee the same night.

[w3design]

The media blows things up, is it as bad as they say?

If anyone has been part of a Board or Committee (I've been President of a Junior Footy Club) you would know that, no matter how hard you try and make everyone happy, there will always be people that aren't. Clubs will never be 100% rosey at Board or Committee level, and it's just because the Doggies have had such a bad year, there is more focus on it.
I'm not too worried about it all. You are always in the spotlight when your team is not doing well.
If Collingwood was sitting where we are, imagine the blow up about Buckley taking over next year...

[comrade]

We are a strange lot at the Bulldogs - Hall belted one of our favourites (Grant) behind the play, yet after playing two seasons with us is feted as a hero - he was cheered harder than Hudson (who left the Crows with one target in mind - the Bulldogs) and Hahn who played ~180 games with us and was seen cheering the team on in 06 despite doing his knee the same night.

To be fair, Barry also left the Swans with one place in mind and wanted to get to us much earlier than he did.

I agree we're a strange lot though.

[divvydan]

Bump. No new information but bumping because supposedly this was all going to happen after the senior coach was announced and now that's happened. Will be interesting to see what (if anything) happens over the next few weeks.