Damian Irvine

[bad boy bubby]

Mornin carchy,
Just at the farting stage
I'm wasting some real good ones too

 

[carcharias]

I'm about t go for a second go

Too many hoppy ales last night

 

[webShark]

Keogh is just a basketballer....nothing more ...nothing less.....never took a hit in his life....

Irvine was all about the club

Please enlighten me, what hits did Irvine ever take? Interested , as I back his efforts. But you imply Keogh not taken hits as he is a basketballer.

 

[Through the Lens]

I'm a bit ambivalent about Irvine. He did show up as a dope with his uncalled for comments and deserved to go. He also worked long and hard for the club, but not necessarily smart.

I thought Craig Douglas was the brains in that Board. He was the one who organised the deals. He was the one who warned continually about the budget and state of the club finances. Craig Douglas generates and composes the business plan for the development and others get the kudos.
Craig Douglas gets overwhelmingly re-elected to the board and then falls on his sword when the Unity ticket wins the major ticket.
Strange that.

 

[gavin_miller]

Damian's treatment by the club will forever be a black cloud hanging over woolooware until some recognition is handed back to him.

His achievements are documented and vast. The way I like to think of it: we desperately needed a non agenda driven, new way of thinking board and blood. He put his words into motion, unlike all of us that just thought we could do a better job. He got in there, took no money and gave literally all he had.

He made a heck of a mistake. But anyone blaming him for what went on would be foolish to blame him. Foolish. He is Cronulla through and through and if he was not allowed into a game now (I know when it went down keogh and some staff did want him there)...But now if it happened, I would personally boycott the games and take some folks with me in a very public manner. As I said, he mucked up with that moron from the Tele but even that was circumstantial. I don't expect everyone to sit around and praise him, but to ridicule him without knowledge of things is plain dumb.

 

[carcharias]

I don't know anything about Keogh
I will say this though
He was a handy basketballer and got pretty famous at it.
A sport that is not well known here
I couldn't name current one player in the Aussie comp.
That tells me he was a pretty determined athlete

Just because he was good at that doesn't mean he will be shit at running our club.

So far since he got in I have not heard of any scandal
Apart from Carney ... But the bloke who sacked him is gone and looked to have done that on his own.
On the flip side Keogh was probably involved in getting Lyal on board.
I think that has been one of the best if not the best decision any sharks board has made.

 

[Card Shark]

Fair comments Carch.

Would Lyall have come if there wasn't a development?

 

[carcharias]

Doubt it.
Damo probably saved the club.


I don't get why people hang shit on Keogh though.
as I can see he is going about his business .
No different to other board members at other clubs
They almost all have other gigs they do on top of the footy.
If by putting the right person in the job is what needs to be done ... Then so be it.

The club is by far a more professionally run place now.

 

[Born BB&W]

Speaking of Carney does anyone know where the legal action got up to?

 

[Card Shark]

Doubt it.
Damo probably saved the club.


I don't get why people hang shit on Keogh though.
as I can see he is going about his business .
No different to other board members at other clubs
They almost all have other gigs they do on top of the footy.
If by putting the right person in the job is what needs to be done ... Then so be it.

The club is by far a more professionally run place now.

I don't think he gets too much shit hung on him anymore...he had to earn respect, hence copped it early on in his tenure. I do recollect Newman stating that they didn't converse with the development partners for months after being elected - that was worthy of criticism.

Him & his board seem to be doing a fair job now & it's getting better but their treatment of Damo is disgusting imo.

 

[carcharias]

I'm not aware of the treatment toward Damian .
What happened?

 

[Weaponhead]

By the time Irvine's board came to power the club had been mismanaged for years. Debt was over $13m and growing, no clear plans to grow revenue streams and the bank nervy about calling in the loan.

Irvine and Craig Douglas with the support of some others reworked the cost structure of the business to stop the bleeding and got the development up and running. They structured the deal to get the up front payment to retire a significant portion of debt to ensure the immediate survival of the club.

The consequence of the lean structures was a lack of leadership and governance which allowed the supplement issue to get out of control. Irvine made a bad call by speaking with Rothfield. Rothfield had been sniping for ages and should have been considered an enemy of the club.

My sense is that some people were put out by the aggressive campaigning of the Keogh camp in the election. Coupled with this was the blatant cheerleading from Rothfield. All of this painted the Irvine board and especially Irvine himself as being responsible for the asada issue whilst Keogh's board were responsible for getting the development up. Using the platform of reinstating Flanagan regardless of evidence was a populist position that pissed off some long term supporters who did not appreciate the irony of the Chairman getting axed when the coach, who had responsibility for the football department (hence the supplement program) was supported.

History has always been written by the winners and in this case the Keogh board won. The legacy of Irvine and Douglas is the development and the fact the club is still in existence. For this they should have the gratitude of every Sharks fan and at an appropriate time formal recognition from the club.

Having said that, Keogh's board has settled into the job and are doing well. There are less leaks to Rothfield and they have made a good appointment to the CEO position.

For the record, I don't know Irvine or Keogh. Never met either of them.

 

[Card Shark]

I'm not aware of the treatment toward Damian .
What happened?

Warned off the grounds was probably the nicest thing that was done to him. He has had some disgusting things happen to him before he went overseas.

Verbal and written threats.

Dead animals in his letter box.

Threats from a current player.

Being ostracised from the club was very poor imo - that would have really hurt him deeply.

He bleeds Black, White & Blue.

Besides what he personally did for the club, his men's clothing company was a long term sponsor - he had the box in the ET stand.

 

[Frank Discussion]

Damian is aware of the support he has from many supporters and is thankful for it. The fallout from what happened hurt him deeply and had an immense impact on his life. He is now doing extremely well in the UK.

 

[Card Shark]

He's doing well in the UK because of his passion.....something we have sadly lost....well, forced out.

 

[shadowboxer]

Never met a nicer bloke to be honest and didn't change throughout his time I knew him down there. I remember once we had a solid chat to him about the Sticky and Josh Hannay debacle and he was pretty even handed. Even later in the piece near the end when things were going pear shaped, he had a beer with us upstairs and whilst he looked 1000 years older, he was still professional and friendly.
My take always was that his passion got in the way of common sense, like most of us on here, however for him so much more.
Glad to see him living his dream and hopefully not flogging off that clothing line he had - ordinary

 

[taipan]

He and Douglas are responsible for saving the club , resulting in apartments rising from the swamp(so to speak).He put his "body " on the line for the club's benefit.Too many areas of responsibility taken up by him due no doubt to his passion for the club.The result being the lack at times of proper governorship and control which were exploited by the likes of Danks.
I am forever grateful for his efforts in saving the club nonetheless.

I have ridden this rollercoaster of a club for decades,nearly experienced a perfect storm in 2011/2.AFAIC smooth sailing in smooth waters from now on.And a bleeding premiership would be a nice wind to sail in.

 

[Card Shark]

Well said Taipan / Boxer.

As Jack Gibson once said, "Winning starts in the front office".

If we eventually win a comp, his (& his board's) vision & passion will deserve a lot of the credit.

 

[shadowboxer]

If we eventually win a comp, his (& his board's) vision & passion will deserve a lot of the credit.

Agreed - and he wont be grandstanding or big noting.

 

[gavin_miller]

Irvine v Keogh for me is now a non issue. They treated him like poo, and rode off his misfortune to get in power. He was smart but heartless.

A few years on and the club is going great. Absolutely. I don't agree with everything the Keogh board does, I despise how they got in but where the club is now is great. Could they have done what Irvine did on zero budget and would they have even tried? Different question. All I'd ask is in time is for Damian to be recognised in some way.

As for Rothfield? He doesn't even like rugby league let alone the sharks.