Gerald the Mole wrote:scrum5 wrote:On Logie's first appearance at the URSC AGM way back in the day when it was held at Newforge and you were a cert to win in the ballot as there were more prizes in attendance than supporters
Logie said that Ulster would be best in the world, it was garbage then and it's garbage now, Cables
tore strips of him about some inaccuracies he was spouting and Logie shrugged his shoulders and went off on another tangent.... the conclusion was that we'd settle for Ulster being the best team in Ireland and that our new CEO was a spoffer, 7 years later we're probably the 4th best team in Ireland and Logie is still spoffing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 518675.stm
The good captain must have missed that AGM
Don't know about a good captain, but this Cap'n didn't.
Indeed I have just looked at photos I took and listened to a recording of the CEO speaking at that very event ....including cables taking him to task.
Some good facts there Scrum ..... and a few alternative facts thrown in for good measure.
There were approx 50 people there and 4 ballot prizes ,but hey, who's counting?
Back to the main theme.the CEO outlined the position of the pro game and the amateur game at the time and described it as unacceptable.From his description of the situation at that time, we have gone backwards - ergo by his own standards, where we are now is unacceptable. (we had one team in top div of AILthen and that needed to increase -it hasn't, it's gone backwards. We needed to increase the adult playing base - likewise backwards.
The recording confirmed my memory (including the foothills analogy) that he did not claim we would be the best, but that we should be
"the best we can be". His target was to be fully at the top table of world rugby in (and I quote) 8,10, or possibly 12 years. His shorter term "staging posts" were an ERC quarter final within the next 1-2 years (achieved - made it to final within 2 years but gone backwards since), top 4 in league with 3-4 years (achieved but gone backwards since), on route to winning another European cup (not achieved).
He spoke about developing the new stadium - achieved (perhaps not to some people's liking), but what was delivered was way beyond what had been envisaged by MR. He talked about increasing financial turnover which I presume has been achieved, and he talked about profitability, which I think was achieved initially, but now looks like going backwards. He also talked about better training facilities (probably at Ravenhill) which have also been achieved.
All in all, some of his early "staging posts" were achieved, but we look as far away as ever in getting a sniff at the rest.
On Cables taking him to task,the CEO claimed that Ulster were (then) ranked 12th in Europe.Cables corrected that to 24th. SL tried to explain how the ranking was carried out, but got some detail wrong and again cables corrected him. after being initially flustered, he accepted cables version and welcomed being corrected.
He did state that he would and should be accountable to the Ulster supporters and would welcome criticism and suggestions.I guess he must be really happy now then as he's getting what he welcomed.