DAFC Supporters groups meeting 22.11.22

[Rossmcno1]

Is the club planning on making offers to out of contract players before January window opens, or waiting to see what league we are in before committing?

[rosythpar]

Is Keretic still involved with the club?

What is the latest update with the training ground?

[Legend85]

When does the joma contract expire.

 

[Secure Par]

3 hours ago, rosythpar said:

Is Keretic still involved with the club?

What is the latest update with the training ground?

Yeh what’s the script with the new all purpose training ground/Academy?

 

[GG Riva]

On 18/11/2022 at 16:37, Superally said:

I would like to ask a question about traffic management at East End Park at FT. This is a significant issue of public safety and there is a serious risk of someone being seriously hurt when crowds walk out onto Halbeath Road. I gather while the club has requested a TTRO and this was supported by the Fife Council the Police have refused. What are the club doing to escalate this further as this is an unacceptable decision by Police Scotland

If Fife Council supports the TTRO and pays the wages of Police Scotland in Fife, how can it refuse to carry out the request?

I think the Police were diverting traffic via Garvock Hill, in the early season games, so what's changed? If anything, it's more imperative now, given it's dark at 4.50 pm.

[Raymie]

It never fails to amaze how so many drivers still try to get along Halbeath Road at 4.45 when there is a game on. Why not use some savvy and plan a detour?

[parsforlife]

5 minutes ago, Raymie said:

It never fails to amaze how so many drivers still try to get along Halbeath Road at 4.45 when there is a game on. Why not use some savvy and plan a detour?

Because the majority of people don’t have a clue there’s a game on.

[Raymie]

You would assume that a fair percentage of those that get caught up are local and it's a regular occurrence? I can't imagine there are many people who come to Dunfermline from afar to shop on a Saturday?

Edited November 21, 2022 by Raymie

[Digs]

5 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Because the majority of people don’t have a clue there’s a game on.

I'd argue that if they are driving along Halbeath road and can't see the floodlights on from miles away giving them the opportunity to take a detour even if they don't know it's on, then they shouldn't be on the road.

[Digs]

I'm going on behalf of EEB. We'll try and get as many asked as we can between Piracy and I. 

[parsforlife]

1 hour ago, Digs said:

I'd argue that if they are driving along Halbeath road and can't see the floodlights on from miles away giving them the opportunity to take a detour even if they don't know it's on, then they shouldn't be on the road.

Aye but you’re thinking as a football fan, you see floodlights, automatically think football match, realise it’s near full time, think there will be a crowd exiting and take a detour.   Most wouldn’t join those dots.   I doubt if you surveyed everyone in west fife what time we normally play at home you’d get 20% who would say Saturday afternoon without guessing,  they would then struggle to tell you when full time is and definitely couldn’t tell you how many people would be there.  

Not that there isn’t many many people who shouldn’t be on the road.

I drove past east end during the Celtic B game, but knew there was about 10 minutes to go and there would be minimal crowd at the game so it wouldn’t be a disruption.  In your scenario most wouldn’t have a clue the difference between that and Falkirk at home.

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by parsforlife

[rosythpar]

Where will the money that the KDM Group paid for the naming rights be invested?

[Piracy]

Hi. Sorry but I can't make tonight something has cropped up which means I have to head elsewhere. I'm a bit ****ed off as there's value in attending these events.

[Digs]

Just in from this, really informative and most of the things asked were covered. 

Ill put my notes up soon, but I went straight from work so I need to get my dinner as I’m starving. 

[Digs]

So, as I said, very informative and started off with David Cook giving some updates on a number of things, as we waited on the manager getting back from Edinburgh from the reserve game. 

Everyone delighted to be 7pts clear and how well we’re playing. 7 away wins out of 8. They’re not too disappointed with some of the points dropped, he said we’d maybe look back on the Clyde game as a huge point, from the point of view of the spirit showed, how we stayed focussed and got ourselves back into the game. McPake had said at his interview that the one thing he would gaurantee is they would be as fit as they possibly can be, and will be hard to beat and the general feeling is he’s delivered on that.

Tommy Scanlon, our head physio has gone to Hibs. We got him from there, but he’s gone back to a bigger job as Head of Medical. So they wish him well. 
We are currently at an advanced stage with a replacement from a Premier League club. 

Alan Main has left the club - Nothing sinister in it, he’s just decided he doesn’t want to work in football anymore. A replacement is imminent. 

Paul Allan - He was making good progress but has had another setback and has undergone surgery on a broken metatarsal last night. He will be back in 6-8 weeks.

McCann is ahead of Schedule and could make an appearance around the Christmas fixtures. 

Kevin O’Hara will be back in a similar timescale.

Janauary Window - We are continuing with the same ethos of only adding quality rather than getting bodies in the door. We are looking for players to play in the final 3rd, someone who can offer something a bit different to what we have. They are being offered lots of players at the moment and are getting through reviewing them, whether tha be in video, going to watch them, or having them watched. JM said later in that something that stuck with him in regards to players on his Pro Licence was David Moyes who told a story about how he went to see Jolean Lescott 17 times before he asked Everyon to buy him. It’s about making sure he’s got what you need, ability wise, and character wise. 

Off the field, they are delighted that we are happy, and want that to continue. 

David said the “Marmite” 3rd kit has sold well with half the stock being sold in 2 days. (I couldn’t get a word in here to ask about the Joma contract - Sorry)

Rosyth - We’re not really that further forward from the last meeting. We have conditional planning approval, and are currently working with Scottish Water and some third party consultants to overcome the challenges presented by Scottish Water. I asked if the challenges that have been previously documented and the current status and the obvious additional costs have caused them to perhaps rethink or deviate from their original plans for the place. The answer was an unequivocal no. They have a vision of what they want and need it to be and haven’t ever deviated from that, as it is integral to the plans they have for the club so we will persevere and get there in a timely manner being mindful of costs. That doesn’t mean we will drop parts of the plan to make budget, it will just be done responsibly. 

The club will be announcing an initiative soon involving the Business Club, the Centenary club, Supporters Trust etc to buy Christmas presents for under privileged families in the area. We will need volunteers to help with this. More to come in that soon.

Bring me nicely into Volunteers. The clubs volunteers has been pretty much the same group of people for the last ten years and they are essential to the club. We need more help though so they are going to hold an event in the Purvis Suite to do a ‘Speed Dating’ volunteering event for people to come along to see how they can offer their help. They need drivers (to drive youth players to games, events, college etc) tradesmen such as plumbers and electricians, Marketing/Comms skills, Social Media help. An overview wil be given as to what is required shortly. 

Outside East End after games - Fife council approved the TTRO but Police Scotland have declined to honour it due to resourcing pressures. This applies to both us and Raith Rovers and a steward has already been knocked down at Starks. The club have tried to appeal to them in a safety basis but have so far been ignored. This is not over yet and the club are pursuing this. 

James McPake gave a demo of the analysis software we use and let us see how they prepared for the Falkirk game. He says it’s a massive part of the game. Generally speaking, Some players are really tactically aware others need things explained if you want them to do a certain thing, and this is a really big help. 

They show it in a Thursday, and again in the hotel at lunch on game day. He was introduced to it down south when he played under Chris Coleman and learned a lot from him. It’s usually a 10-12 min video, showing how the opposition like to attack, how they defend, and also what they want us to do in certain situations, occupying pockets of space, being aware of their surroundings in those spaces in order to stop the other team, or keep a shape to press high or force them further up the pitch by dropping into the pocket to occupy defenders and create space for the midfield to get beyond.

We didn’t go to Falkirk to counter attack. We knew we they would have the ball and the idea was to keep a shape, with Wighton dropping into a space to pick up McGinn when they had the ball, but get us up the pitch when we had the ball. He also spoke at length about corners and Falkirk don’t seem to pay too much attention to individuals or how they set up. We noticed that they mark zonally and usually have two men at the back post not really picking people up. 
Im not going ti give the game away as to how we did it, but our goal was completely planned and was an example of a perfectly executed corner kick, and was thanks to Dave Mackay who worked on it after picking it up in the analysis. 

They also use it to show the players what they do well, what they like, and what they need to tweak. 

Matty Todd got a lot of praise from the manager, showing examples of his the runs he makes, like the one at the death in the Falkirk game, will cause them, and other teams problems. He makes loads of runs during the game and it’s deliberately done to occupy defenders and get people to pick him up and create space for others, stretching the opposition. The manager loves the runs he makes. 

It was asked about Hamilton and why he isn’t always playing and the manager says it’s purely tactical. Says he actually spoke to him about it on Friday and that it’s all about playing the best 11 to beat the opposition in regards to the formation and tactics we want to play and he is fully confident that Hamilton will have a great career with us and sees him as one of the players who can improve and we will be able to sell on to bigger and better things and he’d love him to do it. 

We are hopeful of keeping all four of the loan players but there are lots of variables involved so nothing is Gauranteed but the signs, at the moment at least, are good. On a side note Kane Richie Hosler was apparently the best player on the park today. He was sold on us as a winger but it’s obvious to us he is better in a more central role and likes playing there, so if we see him playing there, it’s not out of position (that’s my take on why they said that BTW)

I think that’s everything, lots more was said around some of this but it was detailed on what we were seeing in the screen so really difficult to translate to notes. JM clearly loves football, and is loving it here. We were there from 6pm to 8.45pm and most of it was him talking about football, I could have listened to him all night tbh.

In summary, very informative and really enjoyed it. The one thing that kept coming up from board down to the squad to us fans is togetherness. They see it, and they are feeding off it so the longer it continues, the better for me.