We keep hearing the same lines about how North Ballarat Roosters’ board – in its varying forms over the past few months – is committed to creating executive and on-field stability.

How North Ballarat will keep a presence in the Victorian Football League.

Right now, it just feels like talk.

In the past week two weeks two more really good people have walked from the club. They each have their personal reasons. The latest dramatic walk-outs have taken place only one week out from the Roosters’ season opener.

The club is without a chief executive officer in Bill Mundy, who took up the top job less than four months ago. Mundy, a former regional Telstra boss, has been instrumental off the court in keeping a state league netball outfit in western Victoria.

The club is without a team manager in Marg Richards, one of the most respected managers in the VFL and highly regarded in AFL ranks.

Richards has been with the club for more than 20 years, her knowledge of the game, the league and each and every player to have been on the Roosters’ list is incredible. She is a humble but strong model for women in football, and has set this precedent long it became a trendy thing. What most Ballarat people might not realise, was her departure was noted across the state.

A key part in Richards leaving the club was that she was offered a part-time contract for a job she believed could not properly be achieved in a part-time role. The VFL is increasingly becoming a professional league. Clubs have to be able to compete against AFL resources with almost all Victorian clubs now sporting their own VFL arm, or in the process of moving in that direction. Our players are competing against AFL-listed players, whose full-time jobs are to be a footballer. This nothing new, but should serve as a reason for the Roosters to strengthen ranks on and off the field to compete, not retreat from these high demands.

It is not good enough for anyone in this town to dismiss the Roosters as a struggling team or a perennially ‘developing’ team.

There is a squad of players busting their guts each and every week to take their game against the state’s best, when really they could probably earn more and work less on their games to be heroes in grassroots leagues.

And they lack support.

Press Box has repeatedly made clear this team is bigger than one club. It is about representing a whole city.

This is why we deserve answers and strong action.

There is a genuine backing for players in deep into western Victoria, which feels North Ballarat carries the responsibility as their state league representatives.

But it is hard to generate active support for a club failing to explain what is happening in an ongoing economic and administrative implosion. 

We want to be a destination to bring AFL in-season games but how can we be taken seriously when from the outside our marquee team appears to be crumbling.

We will not truly grasp what we have got until it is gone. It is not ok to settle for ‘we tried’. We deserve more.