your right can't argue with that, but that's not what my post is addressing
I am not arguing the hard work that went in to the southern clubs, and not just Mangere East. It just seems to be from Mount Wellingtons rant that it is them that are complaining. Am I wrong?
However the effort that went into Carlaw Park started after WWI, yes about 100 years ago, by James Carlaw. Those guys were years ahead of their time in foresight and civic duty.
Fast forward 35 years and as I recall apart from Otahuhu most of the south Auckland clubs were pretty small. However during that time the Auckland Rugby League had become a financially viable organisation that ran the game very well.
Then when George Rainey took over the reins he was well aware of the legacy that had been left to the game and worked hard to keep money in the bank to freehold the land from the Auckland Hospital Board about 1973.
So most of the financial effort had been put into Carlaw Park well before most of the southern clubs, and others such as Glenfield and the Hibiscus Coast existed.
Back in the day I never heard of clubs complaining about what the Auckland League owed them. They got off their butts, like your dad did, and built their clubs. I remember the founding fathers of Glenfield working their butts off in pub raffles, maybe like your dad did.
So when I hear of modern clubs complaining about what the league owes them I say WTF??? Those new clubs did not build the legacy that is Carlaw Park.
I will dig at Mount Wellington again, because he is almost proud of his ignorance about the history of the game, and the amazing work done by those men long since dead.
However Cameron McGregor knows all about it, because his father was one of them. I think Ron McGregor was still alive about the time the Trust was formed, and was an old man in ill health. However I am sure he would have told Cameron what he thought was the right thing to do.
That is what will be driving Cameron McGregor, nothing else.
So Mount Wellington, pull your head in, it is sticking out too far, and tell your mates at those clubs to do the same. If they get hold of the Trust money and piss it against the wall it will be a sad day for the game.
Oh, and seem I am in rant mode, Graham Lowe made a sad mistake in looking for a benefactor to own the club after the Tainui venture failed. He wanted somebody with money, the trouble was Eric Watson never had any money, it was all on tick, and he would have blown a lot of that tick when he bought that appliance chain in the UK just after the Warriors. Anybody at the Auckland Racing Club could have told him that.
So Monty Betham, although some may laugh, at least wanted to sell the club to people who actually had the money. That would have solved a hell of a lot of problems, and the CPHT would still have all its money.
Just saying like.