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Eagles Angels tell board to end brawl
Greg Prichard | March 5, 2009
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/eagles-angels-tell-board-off/2009/03/04/1235842489641.html
MEMBERS of the Eagles Angels - Manly's all-female supporters' group - have called on the boardroom heavyweights at the club to end their public brawling with the season's kick-off only a week away.
And in further NRL action off the field, Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald has declared that while he can't guarantee the long-term future of the Eels, the leagues club's record $7.8 million loss last year doesn't mean the team is about to disappear from the league landscape.
"Certainly not," Fitzgerald said last night. "And that's because of our strong asset base and because we're taking steps to reduce expenditure and increase revenue. It's true that I can't give guarantees well into the future - purely because we can't be sure what is going to happen - and I've said that before. But we are trying to remedy our current problems."
A quick fix is something Manly also need to find. So much so that author and broadcaster Wendy Harmer, supermodel Sarah Murdoch and seven-time world surfing champion Layne Beachley, spokeswomen for the Eagles Angels, voiced their concerns at a sponsorship launch yesterday.
The women are worried the drama involving the club's co-owners - Max Delmege and Scott Penn - could overshadow and even harm Manly's defence of the 2008 premiership crown.
The Eagles Angels' high profile has enabled them to snare an $80,000 contract with Warringah Mall shopping centre, which will fund the marketing work the group does for the Sea Eagles.
Manly have had a solid run of negative headlines for three weeks, with Penn threatening legal action over missed payments to the club by Delmege. The payments were eventually made but the bad blood between the pair remains. The drama was broken only by the good news of Manly's win over English club Leeds in the World Club Challenge last weekend.
"They need to sort it out as quickly as possible because it's not a good look for the club," Harmer said. "It's disappointing to see it go on. They should take a leaf out of the girls' book and not air their dirty linen in public. Get on with sorting it out - any Manly supporter would say that."
Murdoch added: "This is when the club needs to be at its strongest, with the season about to start. They need to sort it out."
Beachley drew an analogy between the season ahead for the team and her own experience as a competitor, saying she wouldn't have been as successful had the members of her support group been pulling in different directions. "The club needs to be working together, so that the focus is on the season ahead," Beachley said. "The words and actions of the leaders resonate through the whole club, so you need to have unity, understanding and co-operation."
Penn returned to Sydney with the Manly team yesterday, and said he hoped common sense would prevail in the boardroom.
"We just need to get in a room and sort it out," Penn said. "The bottom line is that it needs to be fixed. Can it be repaired? It's a matter of the willingness of all parties. We need to find a solution."
Greg Prichard | March 5, 2009
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/eagles-angels-tell-board-off/2009/03/04/1235842489641.html
MEMBERS of the Eagles Angels - Manly's all-female supporters' group - have called on the boardroom heavyweights at the club to end their public brawling with the season's kick-off only a week away.
And in further NRL action off the field, Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald has declared that while he can't guarantee the long-term future of the Eels, the leagues club's record $7.8 million loss last year doesn't mean the team is about to disappear from the league landscape.
"Certainly not," Fitzgerald said last night. "And that's because of our strong asset base and because we're taking steps to reduce expenditure and increase revenue. It's true that I can't give guarantees well into the future - purely because we can't be sure what is going to happen - and I've said that before. But we are trying to remedy our current problems."
A quick fix is something Manly also need to find. So much so that author and broadcaster Wendy Harmer, supermodel Sarah Murdoch and seven-time world surfing champion Layne Beachley, spokeswomen for the Eagles Angels, voiced their concerns at a sponsorship launch yesterday.
The women are worried the drama involving the club's co-owners - Max Delmege and Scott Penn - could overshadow and even harm Manly's defence of the 2008 premiership crown.
The Eagles Angels' high profile has enabled them to snare an $80,000 contract with Warringah Mall shopping centre, which will fund the marketing work the group does for the Sea Eagles.
Manly have had a solid run of negative headlines for three weeks, with Penn threatening legal action over missed payments to the club by Delmege. The payments were eventually made but the bad blood between the pair remains. The drama was broken only by the good news of Manly's win over English club Leeds in the World Club Challenge last weekend.
"They need to sort it out as quickly as possible because it's not a good look for the club," Harmer said. "It's disappointing to see it go on. They should take a leaf out of the girls' book and not air their dirty linen in public. Get on with sorting it out - any Manly supporter would say that."
Murdoch added: "This is when the club needs to be at its strongest, with the season about to start. They need to sort it out."
Beachley drew an analogy between the season ahead for the team and her own experience as a competitor, saying she wouldn't have been as successful had the members of her support group been pulling in different directions. "The club needs to be working together, so that the focus is on the season ahead," Beachley said. "The words and actions of the leaders resonate through the whole club, so you need to have unity, understanding and co-operation."
Penn returned to Sydney with the Manly team yesterday, and said he hoped common sense would prevail in the boardroom.
"We just need to get in a room and sort it out," Penn said. "The bottom line is that it needs to be fixed. Can it be repaired? It's a matter of the willingness of all parties. We need to find a solution."
