Letter of Disappointment to MFC

[satyricon 267]

So you think the receptionist/marketing rep who reads your letter gets on the phone to Cam Bruce and says, "Brucey, you'd better listen to this mate, turns out the supporters were a little nonplussed with the 10 goal caning we got on the weekend. Better sharpen up mate". Or do you somehow hold the admin staff to account for Cam putting his mates in hospital with every handball??

My point is that I understand this is therapeutic for supporters and I have no problem with it happening for just this reason. I'm sure the club understands this. Furthermore, member feedback is critical for things that the club may not be aware of like difficulties with your membership, or player behaviour or any number of things. But I think you'll find they are already fully aware that the weekend's performance was disgraceful and members are furious, shattered, etc.

Sorry, but now you are contradicting yourself, you previously said that the staff bleed for the Club, if I was one of the Marketing people, and a player happened to walk past, I would certainly tell them 'a home truth' about how their performance has been received by the supporters, would even show them the emails, in fact it was one suggestion I put in my letter, I made no mention of the staff in my email I actually praised them, my only sentiment was disappointment twwards the players performance. If I don't reply to your response it is not rudeness, have to say bye bye till tomorrow now.....

[Inner Demon 1]

It would be the height of inappropriateness and unprofessionalism for a member of the club admin staff to in any way criticise the onfield performance of one of the players. How is it anything like a marketing rep or accountant's place to tell 200 AFL game player Cameron Bruce that he made poor decisions or had bad disposal in Saturday's game??????

To return briefly to your corporate analogy, if we were to assume you were in, say marketing, for a moment and you had someone from the finance department come into your office and tear into you about their feelings on your latest promotional campaign you'd have a complaint in with their manager before you drew your next breath.

This comes back to this weird belief that the coaching staff don't see exactly what you all see on the weekend and more. They're not keeping one eye on the game on Saturday arvo while enjoying a beer and chat with their mates before heading off to the pub. They rewatch every game in painstaking detail, including individual player tracking, in order to give each player their own individual, specialised feedback on Monday during review. If you think it helps for them to have "Oi Cam, you were bloody soft on the weekend mate, get some ticker!" passed onto them by someone in admin you're exactly the kind of person I'm hoping to get through to with what I'm posting about here.

[45HG 1,539]

I remember when I was younger (11) I wrote to Danners to inform him that we'd lost the two previous games by 180 points combined and that I had a few ideas to help out.

The reverend wrote me back and we won the next week on the road against West Coast (more letters people!)

If it makes people feel better and isn't just aggressive drivel then I don't see the harm in it.

[bing181 8,165]

FWIW, I emailed them after the Freemantle game wih a few pithy suggestions, and they emailed back to thank me, and to say that my mail had been forwarded to the football department.

These mails DO get read ... and nicely put Pitty. Great that you wrote to the club, and also that you were up-front enough to put it up here with your name on it.

B

[Range Rover 1,935]

Good on you Pitty for writing in. Don't let the naysayers tell you otherwise.

[Goodvibes 3,596]

As you can appreciate, the Club is working toward sustained and ongoing success that we can all enjoy in the coming seasons. Just as we saw our team improve throughout the game against Hawthorn, you will see improvement in all of our players as they play more games together and gain confidence as a playing group.

Interested to see the word "confidence" used. Might just be something in that!

[Daz's Dee's 113]

Why not write a letter to tell the club that you love and financially support them, and the [censored] they served up on the weekend just don't cut it, what harm can it do we are all human and majority hate falure if everyone sent a letter / email regardless if they are read in full or passed on numbers speak words if the players and football department get wind that xxx amount of emails / letters are filtering through comething just may click! The more letters they recieve indicates the more passion supporters have, constructive critism can be very usefull no matter who you are!

Go for it i say write your letters if its purely to vent or you have a very good idea what harm is done?

[Don24 103]

haha What a stupid letter...mind you i havnt read it, i just think writing a letter to tell them its stupid. DO you honestly think they dont know that it was a horrible unacceptable performance? Do you think they need your letter before they will start working on things? My guess is you just wanted to get some steam off and make urself feel important.

We will bounce back...the team is young and missing key players. We will get better

[Sir Why You Little 34,444]

As long as a letter is well written with a positive slant i could well imagine the club welcome feedback from supporters, and i would hope that some of them are read by the footy Dept and players this week.

Then at least the players know we are all hurting and a far better effort is expected.

These Guys are playing AFL Football. Its Hard Tough & Ruthless- if they can't cop it, then leave.

i would love to read a transcript of what was said in the rooms at Geelong after there Round 4-5 loss down at Kardinia against North in 2007, granted most of their players were well advanced of us right now-but even so i have never witnessed a more thorough and Massive transformation in a group of players over night almost, in my 40 years of watching this game. Yes they had got close with that group of players, but never really looked like winning a flag

But after that talk the Flag was theirs weeks before September.

Somebody flicked a switch down there that night (i think it was Paul Chapman) and the After Burners Kicked in.

Edited March 30, 2010 by why you little

[45HG 1,539]

haha What a stupid letter...mind you i havnt read it

haha I stopped reading here

[GOLF 13]

Thanks Don. Read right through this thread looking for the relentless optimism this site is famous for, and didn't see it until your post.

[Eth 4]

haha What a stupid letter...mind you i havnt read it, i just think writing a letter to tell them its stupid. DO you honestly think they dont know that it was a horrible unacceptable performance? Do you think they need your letter before they will start working on things? My guess is you just wanted to get some steam off and make urself feel important.

We will bounce back...the team is young and missing key players. We will get better

The letter's basically saying that we're not happy with Melbourne's performance and we actually really want them to start improving.

You know what, let's all send in emails, they might do something then

[Milesh 26]

Good Afternoon

Thank you for your feedback, and continued support of the Melbourne Football Club.

As you can appreciate, the Club is working toward sustained and ongoing success that we can all enjoy in the coming seasons. Just as we saw our team improve throughout the game against Hawthorn, you will see improvement in all of our players as they play more games together and gain confidence as a playing group.

The directors, staff and players at the Club are all fully supportive of Dean Bailey, and everyone at the club is committed to providing him with the support he needs to build a successful team.

We all appreciate the evolution of our team that is taking place under his guardianship. It was most rewarding to see our new recruits playing well in their first outing with the Melbourne Football Club. We look forward to enjoying their further progress, as well as the continued development of the rest of our team throughout this season.

Kind Regards

Sarah Baker ç Customer Relations Executive

Standard Response #2245 - filed under C:/MelbourneFC/Correspondence/Email/Reply Message Templates/MessageTemplate_2245.doc

Toeing-the-party-line tripe, but you cannot expect anything less from the office boy/girl (I mean that with sincerity, not malice).

[Goodvibes 3,596]

Standard Response #2245 - filed under C:/MelbourneFC/Correspondence/Email/Reply Message Templates/MessageTemplate_2245.doc

Toeing-the-party-line tripe, but you cannot expect anything less from the office boy/girl (I mean that with sincerity, not malice).

Sarah does a great job and garbage like this is disrespectful.

[demons27 1]

I dont know if it was the wrong thing to do, but i have done it now. I sent a letter of disappointment to MFC because i wanted them to know that what took place on the weekend was just not up to scratch. In laymans terms, i wanted them to know that it just wasnt good enough. Please feel free to read my letter below and comment, i wont take offence. Also, is writing a letter like this good to show your passionate, or should we just let them get on with it without outside input such as mine???

Dear Jim/Dean,

I work a full time job, I get paid and I do my work. Whilst I admit Football is a slightly different kettle of fish, and you never know what might happen, the one thing I expect from the team I love and support is genuine passion, commitment and some seriously dogged determination. I honestly have no problem with losing games of football, I just want to see blokes who are prepared to have a crack.

Good news is that there are 21 weeks to go, and I hope the guys see this as a positive too, cause otherwise we might as well pack up right now.

Finally, the main reason I am writing this letter is because I want you to know that people like me care a lot about what is going on with our club. I want you to be upset that I had to write this letter, because to be honest, this is not the kind of thing I do lightly, in fact I think it's the first time I have ever done something like this, such is the way I felt from what took place on the weekend.

My advice, get straight back on the horse and give it a decent crack…

Kind Regards

Paul Pitman

MFC member

Well done Paul, your sentiments are shared by many long suffering Melbourne supporters....dare I say we were playing better during the merger talks with Hawthorn.......and notice which of these teams has progressed better since those dark days.

[satyricon 267]

It would be the height of inappropriateness and unprofessionalism for a member of the club admin staff to in any way criticise the onfield performance of one of the players. How is it anything like a marketing rep or accountant's place to tell 200 AFL game player Cameron Bruce that he made poor decisions or had bad disposal in Saturday's game??????

To return briefly to your corporate analogy, if we were to assume you were in, say marketing, for a moment and you had someone from the finance department come into your office and tear into you about their feelings on your latest promotional campaign you'd have a complaint in with their manager before you drew your next breath.

This comes back to this weird belief that the coaching staff don't see exactly what you all see on the weekend and more. They're not keeping one eye on the game on Saturday arvo while enjoying a beer and chat with their mates before heading off to the pub. They rewatch every game in painstaking detail, including individual player tracking, in order to give each player their own individual, specialised feedback on Monday during review. If you think it helps for them to have "Oi Cam, you were bloody soft on the weekend mate, get some ticker!" passed onto them by someone in admin you're exactly the kind of person I'm hoping to get through to with what I'm posting about here.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply, but as you can see from the further posts in this topic most are in agreement that we should send emails and letters expressing our dissatistaction, as long as the correspondence is not crude,derogatory etc etc......we have a right. In my corporate world as long as the 'criticism' is constructive, it is taken on board, in fact it is actively encouraged, through the proper channels. I would also assume that staff at the Club are also members, they have a right........

[Supermercado 2,611]

I pity the poor receptionist who probably had to sit there on Monday morning and cop hell from morons ringing up with far less reasoned comments than the letter by the OP. Hope she rang up and chucked a sickie at 5.10 on Saturday afternoon.

[Inner Demon 1]

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply, but as you can see from the further posts in this topic most are in agreement that we should send emails and letters expressing our dissatistaction, as long as the correspondence is not crude,derogatory etc etc......we have a right. In my corporate world as long as the 'criticism' is constructive, it is taken on board, in fact it is actively encouraged, through the proper channels. I would also assume that staff at the Club are also members, they have a right........

What kind of reaction did you get when you exercised your rights and stood up for your principles down at training and told all the senior players that they were disgraceful, unprofessional and need to show some heart??

[Longsufferingnomore 1,463]

I dont know if it was the wrong thing to do, but i have done it now. I sent a letter of disappointment to MFC because i wanted them to know that what took place on the weekend was just not up to scratch. In laymans terms, i wanted them to know that it just wasnt good enough. Please feel free to read my letter below and comment, i wont take offence. Also, is writing a letter like this good to show your passionate, or should we just let them get on with it without outside input such as mine???

Dear Jim/Dean,

I work a full time job, I get paid and I do my work. Whilst I admit Football is a slightly different kettle of fish, and you never know what might happen, the one thing I expect from the team I love and support is genuine passion, commitment and some seriously dogged determination. I honestly have no problem with losing games of football, I just want to see blokes who are prepared to have a crack.

Good news is that there are 21 weeks to go, and I hope the guys see this as a positive too, cause otherwise we might as well pack up right now.

Finally, the main reason I am writing this letter is because I want you to know that people like me care a lot about what is going on with our club. I want you to be upset that I had to write this letter, because to be honest, this is not the kind of thing I do lightly, in fact I think it’s the first time I have ever done something like this, such is the way I felt from what took place on the weekend.

My advice, get straight back on the horse and give it a decent crack…

Kind Regards

Paul Pitman

MFC member

I presume there will be another letter....................

[Sir Why You Little 34,444]

Dear Jim/Dean,

I work a full time job, I get paid and I do my work. Whilst I admit Football is a slightly different kettle of fish, and you never know what might happen, the one thing I expect from the team I love and support is genuine passion, commitment and some seriously dogged determination. I honestly have no problem with losing games of football, I just want to see blokes who are prepared to have a crack.

Good news is that there are 21 weeks to go, and I hope the guys see this as a positive too, cause otherwise we might as well pack up right now.

Finally, the main reason I am writing this letter is because I want you to know that people like me care a lot about what is going on with our club. I want you to be upset that I had to write this letter, because to be honest, this is not the kind of thing I do lightly, in fact I think it’s the first time I have ever done something like this, such is the way I felt from what took place on the weekend.

My advice, get straight back on the horse and give it a decent crack…

Kind Regards

Paul Pitman

MFC member

Interesting yesterday before the game on SEN i heard Cameron Schwab talk about letters like this one.

He likes seeing them-proves that supporters love and have passion for the club. He likes to know that supporters are hurting when we lose

Imagine if nobody had said anything after last weeks round 1 loss-Then we would be in trouble as a club.

Letters like this get written Because the writer loves the MFC. B)

[Chook 14,475]

I presume there will be another letter....................

Yeah, something like this might do the trick:

Dear Jim/Dean,

I work a full time job, I get paid and I do my work. And I guess it turns out Football is a slightly different kettle of fish, and you never do know what might happen, because today I saw the the one thing I expect from the team I love and support: genuine passion, commitment and some seriously dogged determination. I honestly have no problem with losing games of football, I just want to see blokes who are prepared to have a crack. Today I saw it.

Good news is we were good. But we can be better, and there are 20 more weeks for us to prove it. I now know that the guys see this too, because they didn't pack it up until the final siren went today.

Finally, the main reason I am writing this letter is because I want you to know that people like me care a lot about what is going on with our club, and that just as we see the negatives, so too do we see the positives when they come. I want you to be happy that I got to write this letter, because to be honest, this is not the kind of thing I do lightly, in fact I think it’s the second time I have ever done something like this, such is the way I felt from what took place on the weekend.

My advice, get straight back on the track and give it another red hot crack…

Kind Regards

Paul Pitman

Optimistic MFC member

A few subtle differences.

[Sir Why You Little 34,444]

Yeah, something like this might do the trick:

Dear Jim/Dean,

I work a full time job, I get paid and I do my work. And I guess it turns out Football is a slightly different kettle of fish, and you never do know what might happen, because today I saw the the one thing I expect from the team I love and support: genuine passion, commitment and some seriously dogged determination. I honestly have no problem with losing games of football, I just want to see blokes who are prepared to have a crack. Today I saw it.

Good news is we were good. But we can be better, and there are 20 more weeks for us to prove it. I now know that the guys see this too, because they didn't pack it up until the final siren went today.

Finally, the main reason I am writing this letter is because I want you to know that people like me care a lot about what is going on with our club, and that just as we see the negatives, so too do we see the positives when they come. I want you to be happy that I got to write this letter, because to be honest, this is not the kind of thing I do lightly, in fact I think it’s the second time I have ever done something like this, such is the way I felt from what took place on the weekend.

My advice, get straight back on the track and give it another red hot crack…

Kind Regards

Paul Pitman

Optimistic MFC member

A few subtle differences.

Brilliant work chook....keep this one!! B) B)

[Reality Bus 17]

i sent off a letter to the club this morning. it reads:

To the whole of the Melbourne Football Club,

I would just like to congratulate you on your effort on Saturday afternoon against Collingwood.

It made me proud to be a supporter, and to sit in the stand and watch such an impressive effort from the majority of the team. The man-on-man football that was employed put an immense amount of pressure on Collingwood, which, at times, they failed to deal with.

Even though we did not get the premiership points, it was phenomenal to see our experienced players and our kids alike play tough, determined football.

I understand the club, the players and the coaching staff copped a fair amount of criticism following the loss to Hawthorn, and rightfully so. However, it was good to see the team channel this criticism, and put in a superb effort on Saturday.

I suppose the only reason I am writing this is because of the criticism directed towards the club after last week. I felt it was only fair that the club should be congratulated for a positive effort. I walked home from the game on Saturday gutted, but also immensely proud.

All the best against Adelaide. The future is already showing glimpses of stunning brightness!

Kind regards,

PC

Member

[jayceebee31 666]

Done it's job Paul- suggest you write every wek till we win a FLAG

[Steamin Demon 370]

haha What a stupid letter...mind you i havnt read it, i just think writing a letter to tell them its stupid. DO you honestly think they dont know that it was a horrible unacceptable performance? Do you think they need your letter before they will start working on things? My guess is you just wanted to get some steam off and make urself feel important.

We will bounce back...the team is young and missing key players. We will get better

HAHAHA Don, Do you sign contracts before reading aswell? What do you suppose we do, Dump a truck load of chicken hearts at the gates of the MCG like Richmond supporters ?? I'd prefer a letter.