Should we be thankful

Quote: madoggy "im more thankful to the thousands of fc fans that buy season passes and merchadise year on year even when the board f@ck up like they do..... playing ineligable players, salary cap anomilies, having players on the books with un signed contracts, alienation of its supporters but apart from that they are fine
Yet the infrastructure, business model, youth development and community programme ensured we were one of only 3 clubs to get an A grade license.

With all due respect, the only transgression you cite that is Rule's responsibility is the Thackray registration one, and he admitted responsibility for that. The hard measure for how "alienated" the supporters are is attendances and merchandise sales, and on the basis of the evidence of record numbers of season passes and merchandise turnover, I'd say supporters are actually fairly engaged in what the club is trying to achieve. To be fair to Rule, after the succession of feck-ups you cite and the requests from supporters for more dialogue, we've had lots of communication initiatives by the club. Airlie Night every week with regular appearances by Rule and senior players, Tell Us, Call a Director, 4 fans forums a year (that Rule and Agar attend), FC Voices etc. Some of these may seem contrived, but they compare pretty favourably with what is offered by other clubs - some have only one forum a year and no board level representation at it for example.

I'm not saying the current regime is perfect by any means, but in the context of the financial performance and communication channels of the rest of the competition we've got very little to complain about (world class coaching debate aside )