MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB MEMBERS INFORMATION NIGHT

[Demonland 73,139]

by Whispering Jack

The Melbourne Football Club Members Information Night 2005 was held on Tuesday 6 December at the Camberwell Civic Centre with the whole of the playing group in attendance except for Jeff White who is on "long service leave" playing and watching some golf (he will be back on deck however, later in the week).

While we had a chance to see almost the entire playing group, the attendance of members was disappointingly well down on previous years - perhaps because for the first time in a while there was no real controversy surrounding the end of the year.

Those who did attend were taken through many aspects of the club's operations - particularly its core activity i.e. the football team. After a brief introduction from Club Chairman Paul Gardner, we heard from CEO Steve Harris and the football department people in Chris Fagan, Craig Cameron and of course the coach Neale Daniher who spoke almost exclusively about football this time which was a refreshing sign after having to spruik up other aspects of the club in past years due to our parlous financial state.

Fortunately, things are improving in the fiscal area and the Reverend was able to concentrate on dealing with many of the issues that faced the club on the field in 2005 and with how he and his team intend to generate further improvement in the quest for ultimate success.

Demonlanders will be pleased that the coach has high expectations for the popular Four Horsemen at the club in youngsters Brent Moloney, Brock McLean, Colin Sylvia and Daniel Bell who he expects to step up as midfielders in 2006. That's not to say that he doesn't also have expectations of improvement from the others but Daniher said that he will give the youngsters an opportunity in the pre season competition and we shouldn't expect Jeff White, David Neitz or Adem Yze to saddle up for the National Bank pre season competition opener in Darwin against the Western Bulldogs.

What we can expect is the likes of Chris Johnson, Matthew Bate and possibly even newcomer Nathan Jones to get a run in the pre season games. Neale also gave a big wrap for rookie Matthew Warnock and of course, he reckons dual premiership player Byron Pickett will play a big role at the club as a mature age recruit.

And of course, the clock was back in all its glory!

I'll deal with the evening in a number of parts and begin my report with Paul Gardner's opening and Steve Harris' report.

PAUL GARDNER - WE'RE IN THE MONEY WITH A MILLION BUCKS PROFIT

Club Chairman Paul Gardner opened the night with a welcome to the members. He pointed out that this was the first time for many years that there were no internal issues at Board level and similarly the club had made a profit in successive years as well as making the finals in 2004 and now 2005. The profit figure was in excess of $1m but that needs to be looked at in the context of the AFL's handout of a similar sum. He also announced that the date of the AGM had been changed to 17 January 2006 due to a delay in posting the requisite notice to members.

The club's new Board member elect Sue Natrass was in attendance, she will officially join the board at the AGM. The man she replaces, former Demon star Garry Hardeman was also thanked for the long years of service he has given to the club going back almost forty years to the mid 60's when he joined as a player.

STEVE HARRIS - OLYMPIC PARK DREAM BECOMING A REALITY

Melbourne CEO Steve Harris noted that 2005 was a good year in terms of profits, record membership, rising attendances particularly at the MCG, improved relations with the MCC and developments in securing our future home in the Olympic Park precinct. However, there is still a lot to be done in terms of achieving sustained success.

The club is nearing its 150th anniversary in 2008 and negotiations are continuing with regard to the Olympic Park project which should be ready by that date. Some of the early plans are really exciting as they would give us the opportunity to have one place for training and administration and a place where supporters can celebrate after games.

Our current facilities at the Junction Oval fall well short of those of the wealthier AFL clubs like the interstate powers, Collingwood and Essendon. The Olympic Park proposal is probably our last opportunity to have a home where we want it - close to the MCG (connected to it by a walkway), close to the City of Melbourne and with a training ground plus gym, pool and admin facilities all under one roof.

The club is planning extensive fund raising to make this all happen - "Make it 8" referring to the $8m the club needs to raise. A number of initiatives will be involved in this regard, a bequests programme, a 150 Club whereby members will be asked to contribute a figure of over $12,000 over the next 3 years to raise $1.858m. Every member can make it happen in some way - e.g. If all supporters put in $1 a day, the club could raise over $11m in just 2 years.

In excess of 8,000 members have already re-signed for 2006 memberships and Harris asked for members to find one other new member each to ensure they signed up and helped us achieve even better membership figures for next year.

CHRIS FAGAN - YEAR IN REVIEW AND WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW

Chris Fagan, General Manager – Football Operations took the floor and spoke about the club’s review of 2005 and its forecast of what was needed to put the club into the top 4 for 2006.

After the team was pushed out of the finals in September, the club undertook a review of all aspects of the football department. This review process involved the valuable input of CEO Steve Harris, and two board members in John Phillips and Michael Coglan. Neale gave an overview of the team performance, Craig Cameron reported on the processes of his department, the assistant coaches reported on their respective areas e.g. defence, attack, midfield as well as giving a run down of their respective roles at the club.

The review looked at team playing styles, time management and team leadership and they came away with a clear understanding of where the club stood – an across the board overall improvement of at least 5 to 10% is required to get the team into the top 4.

In order to achieve this the following needs were identified (and some initiatives are already being implemented to cater for these needs): -

# The need to continue to improve list by trading and drafting smartly,

# The need to put more time and effort and resources in developing our current crop of players (we have12 staff in this area compared to the rich clubs which have double that number). Fortunately, the football department has been allocated an additional $425,000 whereas last year there was a reduction of over $200k.

# The need to restructure the football department to enable a focus on individual and team development. In this regard the club has appointed former Eastern Ranges TAC Cup premiership coach Barry Prendergast as a full time opposition analyst. A full time IT Coordinator has been also been appointed (this year Mark Williams doubled this up with his job as Zebras coach - now he can fully concentrate on his role). Part time coaches Danny Frawley and Paul Broderick have been added to the staff along with three player mentors Garry Lyon, Robbie Flower and Phil Krakouer. There have also been changes in the physical education department.

# The need to keep the list fit and healthy. An example was the purchase of GPS tracking devices to monitor player workloads,

# The need to collect information about other teams (Barry Prendergast’s appointment as above as well as, for the first time, a new scout in Queensland, which is starting to produce some good footballers),

# The need to identify and the most effective player owned team leadership model for the club,

# The need to improve facilities and equipment such as new systems and computers,

# The need to improve the ability of the whole team to defend, and

# The need to draft a full compliment of rookies. The club has retained Matthew Warnock from last year’s rookie list and has the capacity to rookie list a further four players in next week’s rookie draft.

The team is training well after the break and is striving to get better in 2006.

Chris concluded by introducing Ralph Lawrie of the Ballarat Demons and Julie Lockhart of the Eastern Demons who raised funds to purchase two portable massage tables for use on away trips, an improvement on the trestle tables used previously.

CRAIG CAMERON - NEW FACES

Craig Cameron. General Manager, Recruiting & List Management spoke about the recruiting period which involved the trades and the national draft.

Craig believes that ultimate team success requires sustained high performance. If you look at this year's premiers Sydney and Port Adelaide, Brisbane and Essendon before that, these clubs had a number of years in a row of consistently high performance prior to achieving a premiership.

The club's aim in the trade period was to recruit the most talented player available and Craig believes that it achieved this in securing Byron Pickett, a dual premiership player with the pace and aggression and who can have an immediate impact.

In the National Draft our ongoing philosophy is to bring in the best available young talent to put pressure on the older players and to take their places when they retire or leave. On the issue of passing over previously listed he referred to the 2001 draft when the recruiting team debated over the club’s last pick at 55 as to whether the club would go for a player with previous AFL experience who might be good for a few years at best or whether to go for a young player from Queensland. In the end the decision was made to recruit Brad Miller. There is a risk in this policy but if the untried player comes good then it's well worth it.

Craig then introduced the club's 2005 National Draft selections:

* Nathan Jones was our first pick at # 12, an All-Australian U18 player, clean, tough, nuggetty and a high-possession winner who had 36 possessions in the TAC Grand Final with the Dandenong Stingrays. He is a triathlete who has done a 15.4 beep test and has a big motor.

* Simon Buckley was taken at # 53 from the Sandringham Dragons. He is tall, quick, versatile, with good skills and he showed plenty of improvement late in the season. In his last 5 TAC Cup games, he averaged 20 possessions and was his team’s best in an end of season game for Victoria against the Allies.

* Clint Bartrum was pick 60. He was an AIS Academy member this year and has excellent speed, aggression and endurance.

* Our last selection, Heath Neville was selection 68 who is quick, courageous and good overhead. He played at CHB in Tasmania for Clarence (TFL Seniors) and played in the Grand Final against men.

With respect to the rookie list, the club has retained Matthew Warnock and has four available players for next week’s rookie draft. If we think the right players are there we will use all four selections. The overall philosophy in that draft will be to look for players with an upside in pace and athleticism.

NEALE DANIHER - AIM FOR THE SKY AND WATCH THE CLOCK

Coach Neale Daniher presented in his own inimitable style interspersing his discussion points with some player interviews. I'll deal with the interviews in a separate segment. His presentation looked at the MFC entering 2005, how the club went in 2005 and then going forward into 2006 -

ENTERING 2005

The club's aims going into 2005 were:

# We had to back up and play in the finals again to break the up and down cycle of odd and even years.

# With the tragedy of the loss of Troy Broadbridge at Phi Phi in the Boxing Day tsunami we had to deal with the emotional aspect of his death which was always going to be difficult. This was handled well by the club and the players and we played in a manner that Troy would have been proud of.

# Develop the last line of defence. Neale referred to those who "play in the cage" i.e. who rotate in the full back position. These players include Nathan Carroll, Ryan Ferguson, Alistair Nicholson and rookie player Matthew Warnock. Carroll was complimented for the way he played late in the year and the promise that he showed, Fergs also played some great games especially his performance in round 1 while Warnock was singled out for his development this year as a rookie with Sandringham. It was a big wrap for someone who is still on the rookie list and in the normal course will only play in the AFL team in exceptional circumstances.

# Develop tough "inside" midfielders. The coach stated that after the disappointment of losing to Adelaide in the 2002 semi final, it had been decided that there had to be a change in the structure of the midfield. Three years later a new midfield is emerging - specifically in the form of four young players Brock McLean, Brent Moloney, Colin Sylvia and Daniel Bell as the players who are being groomed to eventually assume midfield roles (adding that he expects recruit Nathan Jones to join this group). Interestingly, these are the players referred to by Demonlanders as "The 4 Horsemen" of the club's future tough midfield. He added that there were a few older players who also fit the mould of this group, namely Junior, Godders and Phil Read.

# Develop a culture of big-bodied players who can win the hard ball. We need to be bigger and stronger as a team.

# Continue to develop a multi-dimensional forward line. Neale sees the likes of David Neitz, Russell Robertson, Adem Yze, Brad Miller, Paul Johnson, Ben Holland, Nick Smith (only 21), Brad Green, Cam Bruce, Byron Pickett, Aaron Davey and Shannon Motlop. There's a lot of variety there.

# We need to work on finishing off a season - we were just not fit (healthy) enough at the end of the year to compete effectively in finals.

# Continue to play running football but also be able to win ‘ugly’ when necessary. We need to play a contested brand of football and sustain it through the year.

# Develop and evolve our game style.

# Continue to identify develop leaders – with players voting for the composition and members of the leadership team. In 2006, it has been decided to have a smaller leadership group.

THE "ACTUALS" - How The Club Went in 2005

Daniher said that each club treats the pre season differently e.g. Carlton won the pre season competition last year. Where were Sydney? The MFC will be giving its younger players every chance this year. David Neitz, Jeff White and Adem Yze may not play.

We started well winning the opening match of the season - The Tribute Match - and had a great win in round 3 against Geelong of which Neale said we haven’t played a better game of football under him. In many ways it had a lot to do with the respect the group has for Neita in his 250th AFL game, one in which he also kicked 500th AFL goal.

It was important to win games on the road, which we did against Sydney and the Kangaroos and in the middle of the year, which we did against Richmond, the Kangaroos and Collingwood to go 9-4 after 13 rounds and hold second spot.

Our challenge was to sustain this form but we fell away badly in rounds 14 to 19 starting with the game against the Eagles after a 5-day break and then performing badly on the road and when injuries hit in the game against St. Kilda.

We showed great spirit to come back with fighting victories in rounds 20 to 22 to make the finals. We played exciting, gutsy football in those three games even if we weren’t playing great footy.

Daniher credits the turn around to the leadership of the players when they went away to Queenscliff. A lot of the things that affected us during our downward spiral were all in the mind and now that we’ve had the experience, we’ll take the lessons with us into next year.

The final against Geelong was disappointing but we were always struggling with Neita and Belly out and with players going down with injury during the game. Jeff White is on the mend and is looking OK.

The competition is so even that we simply need to be healthy during the finals so that we can do better at that end of the season.

THE CLOCK TICKS

A Members Information Night wouldn't be complete without The Clock which came back in its full glory (after all, the members were demanding it now). Neale uses it to demonstrate the evolution of a premiership team.

The clock indicates how very competitive things are at the AFL. You have Carlton and Hawthorn in the rebuilding phase in the early hours while Brisbane and Port Adelaide who won premierships from 2000 to 2004 are still hanging on just on midnight but still capable of winning a flag if things went their way. Out on its own and on the way up is Richmond which is like Melbourne was circa 1998 - still gathering experience. Then there is a group at about 7 to 8 o’clock including Essendon, The Kangaroos, Western Bulldogs, Fremantle and Collingwood.

The main contenders for the top 8 (in alphabetical order) are Adelaide, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda, Sydney and West Coast.

What are the attributes a team needs to win a premiership?

The MFC is gaining maturity and experience - starting to get the right mix.

Three players with 200 games plus - David Neitz, Adem Yze and Jeff White,

Five players over 150 games - Russell Robertson, Ben Holland, James McDonald, Clint Bizzell and now Byron Pickett,

Eight players over 100 games - Brad Green, Travis Johnstone, Cameron Bruce, Nathan Brown, Alistair Nicholson, Matthew Whelan, Phil Read and Daniel Ward

Four players with over 50 games - Paul Wheatley, Simon Godfrey, Shannon Motlop and Brad Miller.

In other words the side is rapidly gaining the necessary experience for the attainment of success.

To achieve premiership success, you need to:

# Play in consecutive finals series,

# Finish top 4 (to give yourself a realistic chance to go the next step),

# Be ranked top 4 in defence and attack,

# Have an "A" Grade goal to goal line,

# Have a quality defence with a good range of options,

# Have at least one "power" forward and a multi-faceted forward line,

# Have three or four "A" Grade midfielders (the young players need to step up and Neale sees Matthew Bate fitting into the midfield group)

# Have key ruckmen. He expects big things from Mark Jamar (uninjured and doing a good pre-season) and Paul Johnson should also lend support after a great year in the VFL,

#Have three or four enforcers

ENTERING 2006

Team Defence - this applies not just to the back six but everyone needs to be able to defend,

Continue to develop inside midfielders

Focus on winning more contested ball in the midfield and at stop plays

Continue to develop multi-faceted forward line

Implement multiple game styles

Identify and develop "on-field leadership"

Neale reported that the club was faring well so far as injuries were concerned at the moment and highlighted only three injured players: -

Colin Sylvia - is over the shoulder but need to control and manage groin soreness (a hangover of osteitis pubis),

Travis Johnstone - operation on an elbow ligament which he played with during 2005 and

Matty Whelan - calf. Wheels is now back at training and going well.

The main injury worry at the club is assistant coach Anthony Rock who has a broken leg but Neale thinks we can cover for him until he’s fully recovered.

MEMBERS INFORMATION NIGHT INTERVIEWS

During Neale Daniher’s presentation at the Camberwell Civic Centre, he interviewed some of the playing group.

1. Byron Pickett

Daniher is beginning to rival his old mentor Kevin Sheedy in his appreciation of the sporting ability of our indigenous people and he welcomed Byron Pickett to the stage to what was probably the loudest applause of the night. He was clearly happy to have on board this 28-year-old dual premiership player of 170 games experience who can win the contested ball.

They joked together about how well Pickett was coping in his new environment. Byron said he was getting to training with his new mate Matty Whelan and that he was getting along with most of the blokes including Aaron Davey but joked that he was keeping his distance from Shannon Motlop. He said the white blokes were OK too and that Wheats was a good bloke. Daniher then called up Nathan Brown who had been cleaned up by Pickett in a game at the MCG in 2003 and Doggie assured us that everything was now fine between them and that hopefully he would clean up someone from the opposition in the future. He was joking, wasn't he?

When asked where he thought he played his best football these days, Byron nominated half forward flank or wing and said he didn't mind kicking goals - in fact he hopes he can kick more than Flash or Shannon.

2. Matthew Bate

Twelve months ago Matthew Bate was the youngest player on any AFL list and he came across then as a shy, quietly spoken young man. He seems to have gained a bit of confidence after his twelve-month apprenticeship at the club playing mainly at senior level with Sandringham.

Bate said that he really didn't know what to expect when he came down after playing Under 18's when he went straight into the VFL playing against men. It's a big jump and you have to work hard gaining experience and he said it took him a while to get used to the transition.

Daniher noted the improvement in Bate by VFL finals time. The youngster has played in a number of positions from key forward to key back to wing, the flanks and midfield and he is looking to possibly play him in midfield in the pre season competition, which would be an asset for a player of his size. The coach said that both he and Chris Johnson, another young left footer will get their opportunities next year.

3. David Neitz

The skipper spoke of the post season trip to Phi Phi and how the experience was necessary in a way to bring closure to the tragedy of Troy's loss. The group worked as a united group and put in a great effort to help complete the building of the school. He rated this as one of his major achievements in his involvement with the sport.

He is now into his 15th pre season at the club and feels that the club is in a good position for the coming season. He spoke of his highs and his lows in 2005. The high being his 250th game when he played well against a top full back in Matty Scarlett when he kicked his 500th goal and the team was going well. The lows being the frustration of the finals and his injury for the second year in a row at that vital time of year. There is a need for the group to grasp their chances now, all players had to live up to their responsibilities and there are many potential leaders to help him at the club.

4. Travis Johnstone

We rarely hear publicly from Travis Johnstone so it was perhaps significant that Neale called on Travis for an interview. Travis spoke of his recent elbow operation to repair a medial ligament that was half off the bone. He is now recovering well, his brace is off and he has rejoined training. He expects to be ready to go flat out in a couple of weeks time. He said he is trying a few things differently including Pilates and a new physiotherapy programme which is working well.

5. Nathan Jones

Daniher stated that the club had been aiming to get as many tough inside midfielders as we could get and our first round draft choice Nathan Jones was in that category. The 17 year old looks the goods but wasn't going to do much talking - he looks the type who prefers to let his deed on the field do that!

Nathan comes from the Mount Eliza football club where the senior coach is former Demon Paul Hopgood but he didn’t have much to do with Hoppy other than the odd session when he was with the Under 18’s. He has also spent the last three seasons with the Dandenong Stingrays under another former Demon defender Graeme Yeats who impressed on him the need to play hard footy. He has played mostly on the ball but was also played down back for Victoria Metro in Under 16 and Under 18 representative games.

The Jones boy has already had a tough initiation in competitive work when Phil Read welcomed him in a tough skills session that left the youngster with a split eye. It looked like water off a duck’s back to a tough young man and I get the feeling that he will definitely see some AFL action in his debut season at the club.

QUESTION TIME

When question time comes around at functions such as the Members Information Night, one usually has half an eye on the exit door and half a mind on the food and drink to come. I was thinking of a nice cool, frothy Heineken myself but still found some of the questions and answers equally as refreshing.

The first question was about the team's fall away in the midfield in 2005 compared to 2004 and Neale Daniher responded by saying that this was partly due to the new centre circle rule which saw Jeff White struggling with in the initial stages. This was particularly apparent early in the Hawthorn game when he was towelled up by Spida Everitt. Jeff worked hard with some specialist training and got better at it but the club still performed poorly at the clearances after the half way mark. We really need our young tyros to step up in the midfield. They were brilliant at times but they have to step up next year as must everyone in the midfield.

The next questioner asked where does the club benchmark itself against the reigning premiers – the Sydney Swans.

Neale Daniher said that when the club undertakes its internal review it benchmarks against the top 4 sides - this year including West Coast, Adelaide and St. Kilda as well as the Swans - to identify where our improvement can come. We need to improve team defence – we tend to concede too many points when the flow of the game goes against us. We need to match the top sides all over the ground but particularly the midfield at the contested balls and stop plays. Importantly, the top four sides have resilience – they don't fall away as we did in 2004 and 2005. The Swans in particular were able to cover their injuries going into the finals in 2005 but we shouldn't forget that when they played St. Kilda in the 2004 semi final, they lost a couple of players just before half time and they fell away as well.

All of this does not necessarily mean that the club should emulate Sydney or any other club in its playing style.

Neale believes that despite the toughness of the competition, we’re not that far away.

Chris Fagan said the club was studying how the Swans kept their team fit and healthy in the latter part of the season. The club has acquired GPS tracking meters to monitor the workload of players as has been done by the Swans.

A questioner remarked that there were more journalists covering the AFL than Federal Politics in Canberra and asked how, in the light of the media spotlight, the club deals with the many player management issues these days.

Chris Fagan said that the AFL and the club has put several processes in place including a forum for education on issues such like drugs and sex. There are support structures in place for draftees but even before that the club does a lot of work in screening its recruits in terms of their character. We look for people who will not only be good footballers but also better people who have respect for others.

Neale Daniher said that the players are professionals and have represented the club really well and is sure that they will continue to do so in the future.

A question was asked about the managing the future with a key player like David Neitz in particular getting older.

Daniher said that a succession plan has been in place for a while. Back in 2001 we drafted Brad Miller, in 2002 Jared Rivers, Nick Smith and Ryan Ferguson, and in 2004 we took three talls. These players are all maturing and will fill key roles but sometimes you might to have to trade to get the talls you want as well.

The perennial question came up about whether Jeff White could be used in a forward role and Daniher said that this was a possibility. Paul Johnson might also be used up there. He was considering using Jeff in more of an Adam Goodes role at times next year.

On a similar note, a question was asked about rotating David Neitz to preserve him and to win matches. Neale said he has already been trying this. There are times when we need to get him further up the ground and we have played different players in the full forward role – Robbo, Yze and Green.

In response to a question about using Brad Miller in the ruck Daniher called out our tall guns like Mark Jamar, Paul Johnson and Nick Smith to stand next to Miller and Robbo and it was visually clear why we shouldn't expect Brad Miller to much ruck work at any time in the near future.

Other questions related to the development of Team Melbourne i.e. some loose alignment with other sporting clubs carrying the Melbourne brand name and associated with the new Olympic Park Precinct and the possible threat of soccer to our game with the national team in the World Cup Finals next year. Chris Fagan does not see this as a threat but said we need to work hard at keeping our game in the forefront wherever it is played.

The final question related to Guy Rigoni. The club will mark his retirement at the AGM and he has addressed the players on his retirement. Thanks were given to outgoing players Steven Armstrong, Chris Heffernan, Cam Hunter and Luke Williams.

It was announced that Riggers will not be lost to us altogether as he has been appointed as a playing assistant to Mark Williams at Sandringham. (Mind you we heard about this on Demonland a while ago).

FOOTNOTE: It seems the Zebras are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to make it a threepeat in 2006. Apparently, they have signed former Demon Chris Lamb who spent last year travelling the world. His last game was the 2004 grand final when he shared the premiership with his good mate, the late Troy Broadbridge. His last piece of play in that game was a matchwinning save that prevented a Port Melbourne game in the dying minutes.