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Post by daviejojo on Feb 4, 2013 9:41:33 GMT
I can indeed confirm that I do not know the guy, other than a few engagement in one way or another, which, if I'm honest, have not been too constructive.
Everyone is entitled to an option of how the club should be run, and I feel that if there's a decision to be made, more often than not, the wrong one is made.
I don't for 1 second, as I have said many times, have any issue with the players, they are without doubt doing their best, but I cannot accept (in my opinion) the decision to constantly run with a short bench.
It discredits the club, the fans, the opposition, and the league.
There are some great people in the club, of that there is no doubt, they say lessons learned, and OK, there were some, yeh, can't say there wasn't, but for me, the single biggest lesson of last season was around player quantity and depth, if you run with a short bench, you don't win games, it's pretty simple, and you put those who do play, at far greater risk of injury.
Quality is absolutely key, but so too is depth, you need to the 2 combined to have a successful team. The fans are passionate, they are loyal, and for me, I think that is abused. The owners know fine well, 80% will turn up regardless if we win or not.
There are some very simple things that could be done that would make the club, for me, a far better business, with more structure to it. Fife Flyers is a money making machine, but you have to speculate, to accumulate.
It doesn't take much to look at the fixtures and say, the last 4 games were absolutely key. The 11th import was a must for those games, i fear even if we do bring one in now, it's too little, too late. Even with bringing another guy in, we still would be short due to injuries anyway, not another club in the league does this, but for some reason, the owners think it's the way forward.
People have said before, would you be happy to watch a team with no local lads in it. For me, yes, I would. I want to see the club win, so if it was 11 imports, and a bunch of Brits, none of whom came from Kirkcaldy, it wouldn't really phase me. Don't me wrong, it's not a long term strategy, nor should it be. We should absolutely be aiming to have a great Junior program to bring through the next batch of GB players for the future, and I'm sure we will do just that. But with a generation lost to the sport due to the demise of the BNL and Superleague era etc, we have to put together a 5 or 10 year plan. By all means, run with 10 imports if you have the core British depth behind then, but that is not a luxury we have at present, and is something that will only come with short term investment, and a good amount of visionary longer term planning and thinking.
I know it's not everyone's opinion, but I do stand by the comments above :-)
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Post by jonathan on Feb 4, 2013 9:48:19 GMT
I can indeed confirm that I do not know the guy, other than a few engagement in one way or another, which, if I'm honest, have not been too constructive. Everyone is entitled to an option of how the club should be run, and I feel that if there's a decision to be made, more often than not, the wrong one is made. I don't for 1 second, as I have said many times, have any issue with the players, they are without doubt doing their best, but I cannot accept (in my opinion) the decision to constantly run with a short bench. It discredits the club, the fans, the opposition, and the league. There are some great people in the club, of that there is no doubt, they say lessons learned, and OK, there were some, yeh, can't say there wasn't, but for me, the single biggest lesson of last season was around player quantity and depth, if you run with a short bench, you don't win games, it's pretty simple, and you put those who do play, at far greater risk of injury. Quality is absolutely key, but so too is depth, you need to the 2 combined to have a successful team. The fans are passionate, they are loyal, and for me, I think that is abused. The owners know fine well, 80% will turn up regardless if we win or not. There are some very simple things that could be done that would make the club, for me, a far better business, with more structure to it. Fife Flyers is a money making machine, but you have to speculate, to accumulate. It doesn't take much to look at the fixtures and say, the last 4 games were absolutely key. The 11th import was a must for those games, i fear even if we do bring one in now, it's too little, too late. Even with bringing another guy in, we still would be short due to injuries anyway, not another club in the league does this, but for some reason, the owners think it's the way forward. People have said before, would you be happy to watch a team with no local lads in it. For me, yes, I would. I want to see the club win, so if it was 11 imports, and a bunch of Brits, none of whom came from Kirkcaldy, it wouldn't really phase me. Don't me wrong, it's not a long term strategy, nor should it be. We should absolutely be aiming to have a great Junior program to bring through the next batch of GB players for the future, and I'm sure we will do just that. But with a generation lost to the sport due to the demise of the BNL and Superleague era etc, we have to put together a 5 or 10 year plan. By all means, run with 10 imports if you have the core British depth behind then, but that is not a luxury we have at present, and is something that will only come with short term investment, and a good amount of visionary longer term planning and thinking. I know it's not everyone's opinion, but I do stand by the comments above :-) The Junior hockey at Kirkcaldy seems to be very healthy. You just need to take a look at the league tables to see that. It's the transition from Falcons/Kestrels to Flyers that doesn't seem to be working.
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Post by daviejojo on Feb 4, 2013 10:01:58 GMT
I think the big problem was in the last 10 years or so, there wasn't really the stars to aim for (I don't mean Dundee by the way). It must have dented the enthusiasm of the junior players when there was no pro hockey to aim for.
Historically, just look at the quality we've produced (i won't repeat the names, we all know who the players are), but this came from the knowledge that if you play hard, work hard, train hard, there's a good chance you'll make the Flyers. And in the Heinekin and BNL era's, you had a good crop of imports, working very closely every week with the "kid line", and there was a path to glory in front of them.
With the situation Fife found themselves in, it feels like we lost that momentum, not we need to get it back. You definitely need to have that bridge between the Under 16-19 area into the first team if you like, players working together as often as possible. We can return to the says of producing the best of british, of that there's no doubt, and as you say, as a very young age, the signs are most certainly there, albeit, we're probably realistically talking about another 5 or 6 seasons before the senior club begins to see the benefit of the juniors coming through.
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Post by coloradoflyer on Feb 4, 2013 11:08:28 GMT
yeah davie the junior set up is once again looking great, also some really good talent in the kestrels hopefully they to train with the flyers and that will help them also may be some games gert them fressed and give them a shift see it goes and gives them the kick to say i want to be that good
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Post by Dirkster23 on Feb 4, 2013 11:17:30 GMT
What's happened to the two young guys that were training up with the Flyers? We're down to 5 D and 9 forwards but they're still not making the bench.
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Post by flyer007 on Feb 4, 2013 11:43:33 GMT
Think they are still training with the team but both are quite young and possible Dutes and Danny feel that they will be ready to go next year but are just too young at the minute.
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Billkmc
Pro
Posts: 1,383
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Calgary Flames
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Post by Billkmc on Feb 4, 2013 12:42:52 GMT
Didn't flyers send a couple of young lads down south at the start of the season to play with a Team down there for experience?
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Post by neebur on Feb 4, 2013 14:08:43 GMT
Surely signing players you can't afford and constantly going bust leaving trails of debt is a much bigger discredit to the league, the fans & the sport - the import numbers game is, to a large extent, irrlevant. It;'s about setting out your stall to be competitive with the best guys available within the budgets you set and adhereing to your own principals which remain to give local players a chance to play.
Think you'll be in minority there - Fife stand for a lot of very good things (much of which they get zero credit for). This is one of them. Break the link between town & team and you sever something that spans generations. Worth it just to say ''hey lookl, we won a title?'' I don't think so
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Yup they're passionate & noisy and the bond between the team and fans is strong, but I don't buy into this 'abuse' angle - it's am emotive term with no substance. Last thing the club needs is some sort of 'them and us' polarisation ...
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Post by daviejojo on Feb 4, 2013 14:53:13 GMT
Surely signing players you can't afford and constantly going bust leaving trails of debt is a much bigger discredit to the league, the fans & the sport - the import numbers game is, to a large extent, irrlevant. It;'s about setting out your stall to be competitive with the best guys available within the budgets you set and adhereing to your own principals which remain to give local players a chance to play. Think you'll be in minority there - Fife stand for a lot of very good things (much of which they get zero credit for). This is one of them. Break the link between town & team and you sever something that spans generations. Worth it just to say ''hey lookl, we won a title?'' I don't think so [/list] Yup they're passionate & noisy and the bond between the team and fans is strong, but I don't buy into this 'abuse' angle - it's am emotive term with no substance. Last thing the club needs is some sort of 'them and us' polarisation ... I know another guy isn't going to guarantee wins, it's never that simple, but you need to give the staff, and players, the best possible chance. I do the simple maths (and yes, I know it's not quite a PxQ scenario out there, but teams, significantly smaller than us in terms of fan base, and budget you'd suspect, run with 11 or 12. They know that injuries will come, running, as we do, on the bare bones just limits your chances in this league. I will never understand it. I don't profess to know the inner working of the club, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand the rational and logic behind the decisions taken around player recruitment. I don't doubt the quality of the guys we have brought in this year, but when injuries strike, you have to act, and act quickly. Even bringing guys in on short term deals, after all, the league rules allow both player, and club to terminate agreements with 2 weeks notice, so there is next to no financial gamble in bringing more bodies in. I do agree I'm probably in the minority around local guys, but you do need to put it in context about the rest of that sentence. We should have local guys, that should be the ultimate target, but until we have the appropriate quality, and in sufficient numbers, we need to look externally, either in the UK, or abroad, to bolster the ranks. I seriously believe with 1 additional import, and 1 additional British forward, we'd have been looking at another 8-10 points won this year, and that's verging on 5th place, and taking the Conference. I don't see that being beyond our budget. But as I said, it's a matter of opinion, bourne in my instance through utmost frustration.
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Post by heggig on Feb 4, 2013 16:53:12 GMT
Another few places up and if it was looking like we would win the conference would surely bring in a few hundred more punters too. Would the extra imports maybe pay for themselves?
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Post by daviejojo on Feb 4, 2013 17:42:17 GMT
Another few places up and if it was looking like we would win the conference would surely bring in a few hundred more punters too. Would the extra imports maybe pay for themselves? Totally my point. Over 2,000 at Christmas, 1,300 last week. That's a massive gulf. A winning side, aiming for silver wear, brings in the punters. And if not, and money gets tight, put them on 2 weeks notice. For the club, it's a Win/Win situation
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Post by wally on Feb 4, 2013 21:23:01 GMT
ANYWAY, are there any rumours on who the new important
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Post by wally on Feb 4, 2013 21:24:19 GMT
Cocked my last post up, I meant to ask if anyone heard who the new guy might be.
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Post by silkypaws on Feb 5, 2013 18:25:57 GMT
I'd heard it was Galbraith from Braehead.............oh, think I just experienced de ja vu!
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