It's your time to score a piece of the Fury
A CHANCE at owning a piece of the Northern Fury is less than three weeks away.

The club revealed - at a public information session yesterday - a plan to roll out their community ownership structure by start of December, with prices ranging from $90 to $1000.

It has been highly anticipated as an essential aspect of the Fury's ambitions of returning to the A-League after their controversial axing at the end of the 2010/11 season.

Northern chairman Rabieh Krayem said the club was confident they had got the structure right.
"If you're a member of our club, you'll have a say in the running of the club," he said.

"We're making it affordable for everybody - obviously the foundation memberships ($1000) are important to us but even at $90, they can make sure they have a say in the club."

In the next 12 months, the Fury aim to attract 3000 "members".

But Krayem said Northern believed they could attract up to 20,000 owners by the time they hoped to achieve readmission to the Australia's top-flight competition.

"We've got to set ourselves goals and why can't we have 20,000 by five years?" he said.

"The brand itself, the Fury, is known around Australia and all our members don't have to come from here, so our target is 20,000 within five years."

The information session was attended by about 80 people interested to hear from Krayem and director of football Ian Ferguson talk about the direction the club was taking.

Attendees also took the opportunity to quiz the pair and voice their concerns, with a regular issue being a perceived lack of unity between the Fury and the local competition following its maiden 2013 season rebirth in the the second-tier National Premier League.

"Some people thought throughout the year that there wasn't a cohesive unit and there wasn't, Krayem said.
"There were some areas that we dysfunctional.

"We have recognised that, and having someone like Ian Ferguson - who is a very qualified person ... he can unite the clubs and unite the football teams together.

To find out more about Fury ownership, register online.

So there is a chance for Townsville after all. Thats good.

Dear Northern Fury,
We are writing to request information on the structure of the community model for the Northern Fury Football Club. We are an independent supporter group made up of fans from within Australia and the United Kingdom. Within our collective we have fans that have followed the Fury since the clubs inception into the Hyundai A-league to the clubs current standing in the NPL.
We have a number of issues we wish to raise regarding the club and the future structure of the clubs community model. The listed requests below are items we deem crucial to the clubs success. Furthermore, the response to these requests before the publication of the model will either have our support and purchase shares in the club or withdraw from buying into the club.

List of requests

1. Total Transparency.

Total transparency from the chairman and board on all issues such as;-
- Security expenditure
- Ground rental fees
- Wages paid to Northern Fury employees
- Profit and loss statements from the first season in the NPL
- Full disclosure on the resignations of Paul Smalley and Gareth Edds.
- The Chairman’s right of appointment for the upcoming season. Including benchmarks set by the board.
- The written financial plan for the future for the club.
- Media handling. It was with great disappointment last season to see how the chairman manipulated the media. On more than one occasion the chairman refused to engage with fans first before intoxicating the general public’s views through distasteful press releases and television interviews on the F-troop. In addition, the hate fuelled posting on the clubs Facebook page by the administrator/s of said page against members who expressed their right of reply was not only disgraceful, but unprofessional.

2. Power to Vote.

Power to vote on all issues such as;-
- Voting in of all members of the board, General Manager, Head Coach and the chairman. This is a community club and the community should be able to vote in or out members they deem worthy of the position/s. All members of the board including the chairman and General Manager must be held accountable if this is to become a successful community club.
- Voting on how the club directs their expenditures. For example, many supporters were disturbed by the finances that were spent on security and ground rental costs in the Northern Fury’s first season in the NPL.
- Player Registration fees. There is no point if the club is declaring an unattainable fee for a junior player to play for the club. All this breeds is elitism and excludes the vast majority of the football players whose parents simply can not afford exuberant registration fees. This club must be for all the community not just the privileged minority.

3. The right to buy group shares in the club.

- We request that any group have the right to buy shares in the club and for that collective voice to be heard as a group in all issues stated above in points one and two.

In conclusion, it is of our firm belief for the Northern Fury to survive in the future there must be more accountability held of the Chairman and the board in how the club operates including improved communication and plans of sustainability for the club. Furthermore, we believe that the club must be for all the community such as active fan groups, families, minorities and the general public. There can be no more denial of the fact that the club failed to engage with the parties and alienated many. This has to improve!

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”
Marcus Aurelius

Regards
Northern Fury Fans

How come?

Mate of mine (and F-Troops) is in hospital to get some pretty major surgery done on Thursday and he's been pretty worried bout it but nonetheless he's had an NQ Fury flag hanging in his hospital room and today Fergie and Rabieh Krayem dropped by and handed him a framed/signed Fury Jersey with all the team signatures.

-PB

The only way to make our players better is for them to play against better teams this will take them out of the local comp intern alienating them further from the community.

Fury Membership packages went live today; https://memberdesq.imgstg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=custom_data_image_listing&CategoryID=24153&itemLayout=1&headerselector=3&OrgID=20701

-PB

Attended the season launch last night, was really impressed with Craig and what he had to say.

The Northern Fury looking for execution after first round draw against the FNQ Heat in the NPL Queensland.

Season opener between the Northern Fury and the FNQ Heat at the Townsville Sports Reserve which ended in a draw. Northern Fury's Kevin Fraser celebrates his goal with Braedyn Crowley. Picture: Wesley Monts Source: News Limited

NORTHERN Fury coach Ian Ferguson is confident his team will find their killer edge as the season goes on after pulling a 1-1 draw in the North Queensland derby against the FNQ Heat.

The draw was probably a fair result, with both teams looking for polish in the attacking third in the first round of the National Premier Leagues season, as they played in front of a strong crowd at the Townsville Sports Reserve on Saturday night.

The Fury were unable to beat their traditional Cairns rivals last season and threw everything forward early but it was the Heat who best took their chance late in the first half.

In the shadows of half time, the Fury earned a free kick on the edge of the Heat box but their cross along the ground didn’t pay off and the Far North side hit back on the counter in numbers.

Heat captain Alex Smith, formerly of Wellington Phoenix, was played through down the right wing and cut back inside his defender before unleashing a left-ooted drive, which took a deflection to sail past Fury keeper Dylan Hudson and give Cairns the lead.

But the Fury again came out strong in the second half and eventually found themselves even on 68 minutes through Scotsman Kevin Fraser.

While midfielder Corey Waples was originally credited with the goal, Fraser, ran on to the midfielder’s through-ball from a free kick and poked the ball under Heat goalkeeper Kevin Ward.

Winger Sam Herlihy forced Ward to parry a long-range strike over his crossbar just three minutes later and the Fury were denied a golden chance to take the lead on 82 minutes.

Only the upright denied Fraser a second, beating his man after being played through by Herlihy, and the ball bounced out to substitute Jani Peut, whose back-up shot was cleared off the line.

Ferguson said the goal before half-time was a let-down but he was happy with the performance of his Fury players.

“That’s what I said to them when we went in there (at half time), the shape was good, the structure was good, the game plan was good and we put a lot of pressure on their quality players and stopped them from playing and our quality players took over,” he said.

“The execution probably let us down in the end.

“We’ve got a lot of things to work on, I’ve only had the boys for six weeks and that’s the second time we’ve played the Heat and we’ve ended up with two draws.

“I felt as though it was a fair result, each team put in a fair effort and a lot of good commitment.”

Midfielder Waples, a key figure in the Fury’s midfield last year under Gareth Edds, said the team had undergone a rebuild but they were confident of again pushing the league’s top teams.

“Fergie has put his own influence on the style and it’s only going to be a matter of time before the way we play is going to be exactly what he wants,” he said.

“When that comes, we’re going to be one of the teams to beat so we’ll go from there.”

The Fury took home the inaugural Frank Farina Cup 15-9, based on all results from the clubs junior and senior teams over the day.

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/sport/the-northern-fury-looking-for-execution-after-first-round-draw-against-the-fnq-heat-in-the-npl-queensland/story-fnjfzr2z-1226843366520

They should rename the football club to Townsville Fury because it looks like they want to base themselves in Townsville again.

I don't get it, haven't they always been based in Townsville?