Gallop fears for Raiders

[Social Loafer]

So now we have ignorance from the very top making uninformed comments..

By Steve Mascord

March 11, 2007 12:00


CHIEF executive David Gallop has admitted the NRL is concerned about the short-term future of the Canberra Raiders in the wake of mass departures from the national capital.

With six days left until the 2007 season kicks off, The Sunday Telegraph spoke to Gallop about the challenges facing the game, including off-field drama, tension between joint venture partners and the battle with AFL for sponsorship, television money and school children.

Gallop, a former Canberra resident, conceded the departure of Clinton Schifcofske, Jason Smith, Adam Mogg, Jason Croker, Simon Woolford and others was a worry.

"In retention and recruitment, the perception will clearly be that they have not achieved what they wanted to achieve,'' Gallop said.

"Particularly for young footballers who live at the coast, it's tough selling moving to Canberra.

"Every team wants to attract representative players and despite trying to, in recent years the Raiders haven't been able to attract a big name player.

"They are also under pressure in the lower parts of their roster to attract players to live there.

"At the same time, it's not that long ago that Townsville was seen as a difficult sell so there are cyclical aspects to it.''

http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegra...006066,00.html
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It will only be tougher now to attract players with you making comments like that...
Anyway Canberra doesn't need to attract the big name players to do well, we develop our own and have faith in our juniors. The main reason why we didn't sign any 'big name' players for 07 is the fact we upgraded the contracts of a lot of players to keep them here long term..

Gallop, a former Canberra resident, conceded the departure of Clinton Schifcofske, Jason Smith, Adam Mogg, Jason Croker, Simon Woolford and others was a worry.

Again, doing about 45 seconds of research would tell you that we RELEASED all those players, the only one that we would have liked to keep was our captain. If we wanted to we could have kept Mogg, Croker, Smith & Woolford.. But we didn't need to, we are heading in a new direction..

As for mass departures..

The eels lost the following players...

Eels:
John Morris
Glenn Morrison
Wade McKinnon
Luke O'Dwyer
Brett Delaney
Jeremy Smith
Matthew Petersen
Paul Stringer
Michael Vella
John Williams
Ashley Graham
Dean Widders
Henry Perenara
Peter Lewis
Adam Peek
Marcus Perenara

The Dragons lost:

Dragons:
Trent Barrett
Colin Best
Matt Bickerstaff
Luke Bailey
Clint Greenshields
Aaron Gorrell
Daryl Millard
Shaun Timmins
Reece Simmonds
Michael Henderson
Andrew Price
Chris Sheppard
George Ndaira
Lee Te Maari

(player list taken from here)
We have the players to compensate for all the players we lost, yes Schifcofske will be hard to replace, but we will be playing a different style of footy this season, Neil Henry has confirmed we will be throwing the ball around more and the forwards will be encouraged to offload..

"They are also under pressure in the lower parts of their roster to attract players to live there.

*cough* Bullsh!t *cough*..

We signed plenty of younger players in the off season to boost depth, Steve Irwin, Brett Kelly to name a few.. Did anyone know that Canberra made the top 8 in all 3 grades last year?? we must have pretty crappy depth if that's the case..

Would the NRL prefer we throw 600k a season at 1 player then see him go down in a trial? I'd rather give 4 'non superstars' who are willing to put in 150k each then spend 600k bring someone here from Sydney..

ffs Gallop, as a CEO (and a former Canberra resident) of the national competition you should know better... Funny how the fact we are probably one of the few clubs in the NRL with major, sleeve and shorts sponsorships signed up until the end of 09 never gets a mention.... :noidea:

[/end rant]

[DIEHARD]

I 100% agree with your rat.

Thanks for pointing all this out, I knew it was all hot air but you really clarified the situation.

[Social Loafer]

Me and many other Raiders fans believe there is an agenda to try get us to pack up and move to the central coast, all these articles about 'club in crisis' 'fear for long term future' now one for our 'short term future'.. Living in Canberra you expect the typical Canberra bashing, but it really seems to have stepped up a notch this year..
What I also find surprising is the amount of praise given to Matt Elliott, all this consensus of him being a "super coach", and "overachieving" with the Raiders...
The bloke dead set struggles to come up with an attacking game plan and hold back juniors, Penrith is probably the only club in the NRL who haven't settled on a starting halves combo.. say something?

[Steve]

There seems to be the conception that you need big names to win the big matches, and although the Raiders haven't had many big names, they've had a good team. Look what happens to the Knights when Johns gets injured, they fall apart and get flogged every game. If the Raiders lose a player injured, it's not going to have that effect, and that's got to improve their chances in the premiership. Heck, I don't get why they're favourites for the spoon.

While I definitely don't have a soft spot for the Raiders (being a Panther fan at high school in Bowral in 90/91 was painful), I still can't see them struggling. Souths with all the big names they've signed are probably still likely to have problems more than the Raiders.

[Capital_Shark]

This stuff ya can cop from boofhead journos, bookies, so called experts on fox sports, but from the CEO of the game, poor form, David.

Just a couple days after some articles telling what good job he's done, this is a let down.

Without even beating around an argument over whether or not he should bother with sorts of comments on clubs, the inaccuracies is most disappointing. As Schifty said, a little bit of research wouldn't have been too hard.

[Social Loafer]

Just on another note, does anyone recall how much criticism and negative press Canberra copped for signing an 'over the hill' Jason Smith.. Now we cop it for releasing him and going with younger players...

Can't seem to win down here..

[Capital_Shark]

Just on another note, does anyone recall how much criticism and negative press Canberra copped for signing an 'over the hill' Jason Smith.. Now we cop it for releasing him and going with younger players...

Can't seem to win down here..

haha, thats right, him and Matt Adamson. And I remember question marks over the green machine when Adamson would be injured.

[Robbie_Dee]

Just on another note, does anyone recall how much criticism and negative press Canberra copped for signing an 'over the hill' Jason Smith..

Can't seem to win down here..

I don't remember none of that, but that is pretty big BS then...

Cowboys sign him up and he is getting massive wraps!!! :!:

[Future Star]

I liked Gallop until this.

The Idiot.

[DIEHARD]

Not having a team in Canberra would be a retrograde step.

Why wpuld Central Coast be better than Canberra?

It is far better for rugby league to keep the famous Raiders in the ACT.

Anyone with any other idea is kidding themselves.

They'll come good.

[Dakink]

Probably a poor choice of words from Gallop,

Though the perception is there (rightly or wrongly) that it is hard to attract players there.

The RAiders should and will always be in Canberra, fullstop.

[Future Star]

Why is everyone fearing the survival of the raiders?

we do better than expected every year, we have a young good sqaud, and we draw some good crowds (not the best, but still..). Theres no-way we will have to move anywhere anytime soon.

[Titanium_BD1103]

I think Gallop has stuck his head out again on the wrong issue. Canberra aren't in any problems.. 3 year deals with sponsors, good junior base, decent crowds and a team that seems to be the best it has been for a while... can't complain there.

The issue I think ATM for Canberra is that their juniors keep going after 2 or 3 years... you can't build a good side like that... and to Gallop I say stop giving big clubs money and start supporting the Raiders for providing the comp with good junior talent. If that was to occur, more players would stay in Canberra and you wouldn't have your fear.

The solution is easy, whether the NRL want to take it, well that's another matter entirely...