Evening Telegraph

[Diamond Warrior]

Of course you are right re Under 18's however we are in a unique situation where we are the 2nd biggest supported club in their catchment area so there is a bigger community interest than normal.
I also think it's a good news story, which is often a rarity!!

Agreed, what would be good would be a young, hungry journalist who could see this as a stepping stone to a better job.

Give me 2 years.. ;)

[Formic]

i've nothing against their coverage of us, providing ml doesn't have a hand it in. whenever he was away and jim lyons did our reports, they were so much better. concentrating on what happened, throughout the 90mins. not 3/4 of the report slagging us off or being negative.

Agreed, I've noticed Marc Blazely (I think that's his name, correct me if I'm wrong) has been doing the majority of our match reports for the under 18s in the herald & post.

Couldn't he be our match reporter for the future, or indeed Jim Lyons, if he's still around?

I think there's some confusion here. I reported at over 200 RDFC games, and I think Jim Lyon might have covered no more than 2 of them. When Mark Lea was on holiday various other reporters covered for him - John Smith, Alec Swann, Jon Dunham and even the odd reporter from the Chronicle and Echo. Marc Bazeley is one of the reporters for the Herald & Post, and he was their main reporter at Diamonds games, but they probably only sent a reporter to a quarter of the RDFC games in the past few seasons.

Dave is doing a great job with his reports, and if these papers are happy to use his reports then that's all we really need. At our current level there is no requirement to provide proper press facilities (team sheets, press access, squad lists, pre-game interviews etc) so it would be difficult for those papers to cover the games properly anyway.

[AFCRD_Dan]

My mistake, I never used to read the reports of our games in the Herald & Post, as I usually got the ET on a Monday, so wasn't aware of who did the reports for the Herald & Post.

[luckyfour]

Bozzer - glad to hear that you are meeting with the ET and hope that some positives come out of it.

I get it delivered every day but I have to say that I have come very close to cancelling it over the last couple of months.

I never had a problem with any of Mark Lea's match reports as some people seem to have. I thought he did a pretty decent job and was much better than the bloke that did it before him. Although I take the point that one or two of the reports written in his absence were more informative from the footballing perspective and may have had less criticim. I felt that most of the criticism was generally justified and I agreed with most of what he had to say. I don't get the Herald and Post so I haven't seen there coverage.

I find it hard reading the latest spin from Imraan La Dick in the paper. I would love to see some them asking the difficult questions of what's happening rather than just trotting out the party line whether it be IL, KC or the Beasants earlier this year. However, we all know that isn't going to happen because like most papers they need to have a good relationship with the club to get their stories and interviews etc. Also they won't have the time or resources (and possibly the talent) to do some proper investigative journalism. The danger they face is that they look stupid when they trot out the party line and hype it up and then it all turns to shit. We've already seen it to a lesser extent with the Beasants and I believe we are seeing it again on a whole different level with "Project Nene Park".

As a Diamonds fan I found was not happy about having Project Nene Park plugged shamelessly in the ET a few weeks after our club was raped and pillaged and many people left seriously out of pocket.
That said, I have a choice as to whether I buy it and read it or not and it has been a close call lately.

The main reasons that I have persisted are because I have been glad to see the odd photo and little snippet about AFC and the coverage of the NSYL. I am taking an increasing interest in the UCL leagues as we are visiting a lot of these grounds this year and hopefully we will be able to play in the UCL next year. I want to know what is happening and their coverage of the UCL is pretty good. They also have some coverage of the other NSYL league.

I would like to see a bit more from them in terms of regular and consitent coverage - the usual stuff little match reports (or not so little if possible!), news, fixtures and results. I like their coverage of the UCL leagues but once again more is better. I would also like to feel that there is some support from them carrying our progress as a "good news" type story as you say. A little bit of sponsorship from them - a board at the ground or similar wouldn't hurt either and would demonstrate their support without costing them much.

Good luck with your meeting and I hope something positive comes out of it.

[Trek]

A little bit of sponsorship from them - a board at the ground or similar wouldn't hurt either and would demonstrate their support without costing them much.

Good suggestion but wouldn't be possible since I understand Raunds Town control all advertising boards at Kiln Park.

Now when AFC get their own ground...... ;)

[Biggles]

There is a bit about the Fundraising game in the paper today and mentions the forum next week.

Also i think the ET already have a board at Kiln Park.

[davealbon]

A little bit of sponsorship from them - a board at the ground or similar wouldn't hurt either and would demonstrate their support without costing them much.

Good suggestion but wouldn't be possible since I understand Raunds Town control all advertising boards at Kiln Park.

Now when AFC get their own ground...... ;)

That's not entirely accurate. Raunds do control the advertising boards (as they do everything at Kiln Park, because we are hiring the pitch on a match by match basis and NOT groundsharing with them!) but they are more than happy for us to sell boards for whatever price we like, as long as they are not pro-AFC R&D. We will then pay Raunds a pre determined fee to display the board.

[luckyfour]

A little bit of sponsorship from them - a board at the ground or similar wouldn't hurt either and would demonstrate their support without costing them much.

Good suggestion but wouldn't be possible since I understand Raunds Town control all advertising boards at Kiln Park.

Now when AFC get their own ground...... ;)

Sorry I thought a board was one of the options in the commercial brochure that was produced but anyway player sponsorship, match sponsorship, whatever, you know what I mean.

[Trek]

That's not entirely accurate. Raunds do control the advertising boards (as they do everything at Kiln Park, because we are hiring the pitch on a match by match basis and NOT groundsharing with them!) but they are more than happy for us to sell boards for whatever price we like, as long as they are not pro-AFC R&D. We will then pay Raunds a pre determined fee to display the board.

Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Secretary. ;)

[luckyfour]

Nice little feature in todays ET - well done Bozzer.