You asked for 3, I’ll give you a few more.
- My attitude in life is to play to win. My goal has always been to return our Club to Premiership glory, win flags. I’ve been a part of our past success, I know how good it feels to win at the MCG in September.
- I ask you to judge me on the last 2 years. I stood for the external review - I thought anything else was marking our own homework. Not acceptable.
- I wanted to hear from members, players, admin, past players what they thought we needed to get our Club moving forward again. Improve, be elite.
- My decisions cost me relationships, caused sleepless nights, took away a lot of time from my family during my out of business hours. But I pressed ahead because I felt my job was to put the members and our club first. I never want to die wondering about the full potential of our club.
- I believed it was the right thing to do and I still do.
- We all want instant success. Fact is, the AFL set us up for equalization. We need to get back on equal footing to get ahead.
- We selected AFL experience at leadership level (CEO, Coach), appointed Andrew Welsh to our board as Football Governance Director (tough player, footy smarts, successful businessman), we’ve invested over $500k into player development and our high performance training facility. Just resurfaced the MCG training oval, installed saunas, renovated the pool just to mention a few.
I appreciate you wanting to hear from me, to hear your concerns and frustrations. As a fellow passionate member I understand. I want to assure you that I too want nothing but on-field success for our Club.
This season was a rollercoaster of emotions. We saw some thrilling wins (Fremantle! I cried when I saw Merrett burst out of the centre - desperate to win and we did) and outstanding individual performances. We saw players grow and develop, and glimpses of brilliance that leave us wanting more. Then we faced disappointment, including tough losses some by the narrowest of margins. We still have a lot of work to do.
I’m working hard for us. I’m not a past player - we’ve had some of the best EFC football brains on our board in the last decade - Heffernan, Madden, Wellman, Sheedy, Rioli. That said, we have an awesome one on our board right now, as Football Governance Director, Andrew Welsh. Directors don’t play, they don’t coach. They govern through the CEO. Past players won’t make us win flags. Strategic planning, careful decision making and investment do that.
Unity and stability help too. Our players want stability - stay the course we’re on.
My question to you/Blitz. If we make change at board level now, what will change?
I’m on a plane, about to land. I’ll be back when I have some more time on my hands. Go Bombers!