Wanderboy

Mmmmm, duck pancakes with hoi sin sauce!!! Sorry @wendybr

We could get to week 3 if we play our cards right. It was important to finish 3rd. I agree though. The Eels haven't been convincing of late. I'm somewhat strangely confident against the Storm next week. God knows why? We have a 0 - 7 record against them in finals games!!

Smoggy in Newcastle. Hehehe.

Same.

RIP Dean Jones. Heart attack while commentating in India for the IPL. 59. Way too young.

I've NEVER owned an auto, , and still don't. I'm 56.

The more replies to this thread there are, the more disillusioned with this club I become. It makes me rather sad to be honest.

Yes Wendy, it is sad. This club is not what it used to be. Our billionaire owners have this week treated us with contempt. The games I went to last season, I could see fans were desperately willing the team on. Encouragement of the highest order. The ever dwindling active support busted their arses to make up for lack of numbers. La Banda performed above and beyond like they always have. Yet, just a few days ago, they send all us loyal fans a generic email stating they will again fleece us of our money from our bank accounts with absolutely no guarantee of what product we will receive for our outlay. Are they serious??

I wish you the best. Good luck getting them to even give a **** about your thoughts.

Check what you paid last year. That'll tell you.

So, I'll try and keep a long story short. An old school mate of mine who works in the education field has been working in Qld for the past 10 years, Charters Towers to be precise. He finally returned to Sydney last summer permanently (at the end of the school year) and purchased a ticketed membership for the remainder of this past season. He managed to get a seat next to us (myself and Wanderboy Jnr). That was in January. Then Covid hit not long after. We attended about 3 games together all up. Anyway, that was it for the season for the 3 of us. We didn't get to any more games, even after the season re-start. He loves his football, so he has been coming every Saturday to sit with me and watch young Wanderboy play. Today, we discussed this weeks email (I brought up the subject). He was planning on just auto-renewing. Once I expressed all my concerns (which he hadn't really thought about, nor knew about) he started having 2nd thoughts. Is this what our club wants fans like him to feel? I explained to him the following. In short, those concerns are: - We are sent an email from the club that is short and sweet, with a bit of fandom spin, giving us only 2 options with our membership. Opt out or auto renew. All within 12 days. - If we auto renew, we are fronting up with our hard earned cash for a product that we have no idea what we are getting. What will the conditions be when the season restarts? Will Covid-19 still be a thing? How many games will we be able to attend? - We are not signing players until an agreement has been reached re the salary cap. We are only signing up some juniors (Natto for example) to bolster the senior squad at this stage. Will Lopar return? What about Cox? We lost Duke. What will the squad makeup be like? - When does the season re-start? Not even the FFA know or have announced this yet. - I mentioned that "some" other clubs have been paying their players while we have ours on Jobkeeper. WTF? - I also mentioned that there are no other options other than opt in or opt out. Why not an option of putting down just $50 to hold our season ticket seats until there is more clarity regarding next season? That $50 (or even $75) would/could continue our membership until we know what is happening. They could have done this easily - getting a bit of cash up front and be seen to be looking after us fans with the hope that at some stage (guaranteeing our seats if we eventually decide to renew), they can offer us a product with some certainty. The email was just a money grab from the club to take our cash early and rely upon our loyalty. I can understand why other replies above this have decided to opt out at this stage. After the past 4 season of mediocrity on the pitch and with the arrogance from the club thinking that all us fans will continue to just show blind loyalty, I can understand why fans are finally telling them to go and get ****ed. What I just don't get is that this club could be such a powerhouse if run properly. Since the FFA sold us to our current owners, us fans have just been play things and treated as $$$ numbers. It has completely lost that family/Western Sydney feel that I used to know, where game day was something we could be proud of and was actually the best experience in the A-League. I just don't know what our owners are thinking to treat us like this.

I'm waiting for a long winded email from Lederer or JT telling us about how great the new academy and Centre of Excellence is, how they value our loyalty and thank us for our renewals each season, how our junior ranks are booming ahead in leaps and bounds, and how we will become not only the biggest club in Australia but the biggest club in …… Oh, we have a fantastic shiny new stadium as well with safe standing. Everything couldn't be better, eh? I fully understand that they want to survive and keep cash flow going. But to lump an email upon us all re auto renewal and give us a week to decide, when absolutely none of us know what we will get for the money we front up with months in advance, is just disgraceful imo. I never, ever thought our club would become like this.

What a shite situation. I know the club want to shore up memberships, but why should ANY of us opt in to the auto re-new when the FFA and the clubs don't even yet know what is happening next season? This, and the player wages issue. We don't even know who will be playing for us? Why are they even asking for our money now? One would at least think they would show us loyal fans some courtesy, and hold off the auto renewal until they could at least provide us with some clarity with regards to the upcoming season, rather than attempting to rip money from us and hope we will donate our up front membership money next season if things go pear shaped. It makes me so sad that our club has turned to this. The club we formally would do anything for. Would travel everywhere for. The club we would buy shite loads of merchandise from. The club that we would brag about to all and sundry about what a great experience it was to attend a match day. The day it all started to turn was the day Lederer and his cohorts bought the club and Lyall Gorman was marched on. Today's email is almost the last straw for me. To say they are treating us with contempt is an understatement.

Indeed. I indeed double Smoggy's indeed for your birthday Wendy. Happy Birthday!!!!

I understand the difficulties referees have in calling offsides. It's further a prick of a job without assistants. But for a ref to state before the game to both captains for the defenders to call offsides for him was just out of line. As I said, he got both calls so far wrong it wasn't funny. What else did he think the defenders of both teams were going to do? You asked about YPL 2 not having decent refs. Apparently their is a huge shortage in the Hills Football Association. I absolutely agree with the swearing bit. Young Wanderboy said something along the line of "I was behind the last ******* defender" (which he was miles behind) - and then just made a great run from a perfect through ball), but because he used the f word, the ref game him a yellow. When he actually scored from a 2nd (equally good onside run) in the 2nd half, and the goal was disallowed, he protested even more vehemently (frustration) but didn't use the f word so he didn't get a 2nd yellow. I was waiting for it. He just was yelling out "No Way, No Way!!!" I suppose I just feel as frustrated as him. It's been a tough season for his academy team. He's then gone on to score 2 cracking goals in 2 weeks and both have been disallowed due to poor officiating. Not just poor officiating, but diabolical. It's so frustrating sometimes watching this ****.