Learning to Love Annual General Meetings

by Whispering Jack

The Melbourne Football Club 2005 AGM was finally held seventeen days into 2006 at the Bentleigh Club and it was all very refined, matter of fact and businesslike. It could well have been the AGM of any other listed public corporation. Yes, it was that dull, colourless and boring!

I used to love the AGM's of old when Melbourne was just a football club that was run on the smell of an oily rag (the late '60's through to the '70's). When you'd sit in the Long Room at the MCG and the same old codger would get up every year and ask long serving club secretary Jim Cardwell to give us a "run through on the recruitin' for next year". Jim would get up, smile and tell us how he's just come back from some dusty old bush town and that he'd just signed up this kid Bobby McDonald or Johnny Sparks (depending on the year) who happened to be the best thing since sliced bread and then we'd vote in favour of the treasurer's report (even though we couldn't make head nor tail of the figures presented in the glossy annual report), listen to a ten minute soliloquy from the coach about why next year was going to be different and then we'd hoe into a feast of party pies, sausage rolls, drinks (all free) and mingle with the players and committee members. We'd all be happy for the next three months as we waited to see Bobby or Johnny in action in a practice match. Sometimes, Bobby or Johnny never appeared but by then they were mostly forgotten.

Jimmy Cardwell was one of football's all time greats as an administrator (he built our golden era team that won six flags in a decade) but by the mid '70's he was doing the job of four or five people at other clubs; just one example of why we were on such a downward slide as a football club.

You couldn't help but be cynical about the hype that they used to dish up at AGM's. I remember one questioner asking a club chairman if the club would retain one of its controversial stars for the following season and the response was something like, "as long as I'm still here, we'll never clear the bloke." The following morning's Sun Newspaper carried a story about the bloke being cleared to another club.

My AGM highlight was descending down the MCG lift on the way out from one of these events and finding myself in the illustrious company of a very merry club Chairman in Sir Billy Snedden. The club had just endured another ordinary season on the field and was selling assets to make ends meet off the field but Sir Billy was bundle of joy singing (I'm not sure that "singing" was quite the word for it) "It's a Grand Old Flag" all the way down to the ground floor. The atmosphere in the elevator was so charged that on the drive home I was stricken with concern that if I was stopped and put on a breathalyzer I might register in excess of .05 even though I'd only drunk lemonade. I wasn't sure whether "passive drinking" would be a sufficient defence in court.

After Sir Billy's untimely departure we had two former players (Stuart Spencer and Ian Ridley) at the helm and the party atmosphere of AGM's continued until the merger debacle overtook us and we wound up having an altogether different character in Joe Gutnick as chairman. The AGM of 1996 was a memorable occasion for a club that had months earlier voted itself out of existence. It was held at the old Olympic Pool (ironically now the home of the mortal enemy and known as the "Lexus Centre"). I remember sitting up high in the gods and looking down at sweeping vista of the premises dressed up with palm plants and thinking "well, the club's gone and we're in heaven". I was brought back to earth by Joseph's opening line,

"Welcome to the Melbourne Football Company!"

I suppose that was it. We were now officially a football company rather than a football club and all would be well in Demonland.

Well, we know now it wasn't and that we were in for lots more turmoil. The first signs of disgruntlement with the new regime came early with the bloodletting of the CEO, the coach and assorted others in 1997. A couple of years later when Joe was halfway through shelling out the $3m donation towards the club revival plan there was a weak and desperate challenge to his leadership but he shrugged it off. The plotters withdrew to the Bentleigh Club car park (I heard some of them on the way out sounding much like last month's Cronulla Beach crowd) and went underground in 2000 as the team made the grand final.

The 2001 AGM marked the end of the Gutnick era. Joe finally bit off more than he could chew, was deposed at board level during the season and vowed to come back with his own team that was ultimately beaten at the polls by a well organized campaign that managed to convince the majority of members that their proxy votes would deliver stability to the club both on and off the field. The spin doctors had used a fog of innuendo and accusation to turn the saviour into an evil and disruptive hobgoblin and the members voted for a team vision that was, in fact, an empty mirage. The highlight of the night however, was the sight of the Gutnick team entering the hall, heads erect to a standing ovation from the Melbourne throng. Those who had voted for new chairman Gabriel Szondy were dining on their lobster mornay elsewhere.

And that's where Szondy was two years later when the heat was on and it all hit the fan at the 2003 AGM – elsewhere! The club's debt had spiraled out of control, several millions were lost, unpaid tax bills sat wedged in office drawers and the club was at its lowest ebb ever. That was our saddest AGM.

Which brings us to last week's AGM where the atmosphere had cleared, we're reducing our debt, making a $1,035,298 profit (albeit thanks to a generous AFL handout which can be justified) and the club's management appears to be in highly competent hands. Stability has finally come to the board, we're on budget and, in the words of chairman, Paul Gardner, we've made "a turnaround of $3.2m from 2003." The club is guaranteed at least $1m for the next three seasons from the AFL but the various clubs receive grants and benefits from the AFL for a number of reasons and we shouldn't regard it as a handout because the MFC doesn't get the inherent home ground and other fixturing benefits of some of the other clubs. Just by way of one example I'd say that Collingwood and Essendon get an enormous financial "handout" from the AFL thanks to their exclusive right to an MCG game on Anzac Day every year. This and many other benefits still apply to these clubs despite their current bottom four status. Melbourne, on the other hand, demonstrated its capacity to draw big attendances with three of the top ten crowds of the 2005 home and away season but still gets shafted when the fixture comes out (my words – not the club's).

Gardner spoke about the inroads made by the club in achieving its aims on the 4 P’s – "progress, progressive, performance and partnership" and how he was proud that we were able to gain recognition in the community even though we didn't achieve ultimate success on the field. The way the club handled the tragedy of the loss of Troy Broadbridge, its embracing of cancer awareness with the Field of Pink evening, its stand on the illicit drug issue, involvement in Michael Long's walk and Russell Robertson's role in bringing to public notice the domestic violence problem were all examples of the club's part in highlighting social awareness to the community.

Membership continues to grow strongly to a record of 24,508 AFL recognized members including a record number of MCC members while 2006 membership sales stood at 13,294 – up 8% on this time last year. In addition to outlining the club's improving financial position which sees our net asset deficiency clawed back to under $4m, CEO Steve Harris presented some exciting plans for the club's new administration and training base within the Melbourne and Olympic Park precinct where our players are expected to take part in their first training run in November 2007.

Club Director John Phillips informed us that the club had adopted the ASX "Principles of Good Governance" and also outlined the way the Red and Blue Foundation would b the vehicle to assist the club in its aim of raising $8m by 2008 to help its transaction from the Spartan conditions at the Junction Oval to the state of the art development at OP.

Later in the evening, Director Peter Dorhmann spoke of the club's ongoing process of constitutional reform and raised one new amendment concerning the expulsion of members. This was aimed specifically at a situation which had arisen where a member had been accused of stalking and sexually harassing staff members. One speaker made an impassioned plea with his concerns that the amendment might give the Board power to expel opponents and the Chairman noted this would be discussed at Board level.

Gardner introduced new Board member Sue Nattrass, and recent Board appointees Karen Hughes and Charles Sitch (any relation to The Panel’s Rob Sitch?) - all very businesslike and appropriate to Company business but there were still some throwbacks to the good old days when we were just a footy club.

Paul Gardner was happy that the club had made the finals back to back but I was a bit disappointed that no mention was made of our shocking slump after the mid season break. I know it's been addressed elsewhere by Neale Daniher but it was a blight that the club's football department must address if we are to match it with the big boys and achieve the ultimate in success. (OK - off my soapbox)

Steve Harris announced that Cameron Bruce had become engaged to Julia Pietryk and Lleyton Hewitt had won his first round Australian Open clash in the fifth set (fat lot of good that did him). Garner handed out well earned presentations to two tireless volunteers in Diane Mountney and Ruth Fleming and then came the time for life memberships awards to Andrew Daff (club doctor since 1988) and Garry Marchant (long serving volunteer organiser and statistician). It was clear from their acceptance speeches that both recipients were clearly touched by their well deserved awards. Guy Rigoni was also given a special presentation on his retirement after 107 games (a first at the MFC for a player wearing the #43 jumper) to great applause. He spoke of the fact that he was already enjoying not having to go through the pre season training grind but still looked forward to helping the younger breed of Demons this year at Sandringham.

By way of preparations for the club's forthcoming 150th anniversary celebrations, several retrospective life memberships were given to members of families of players and officials dating back to the late 19th century. Those whose family members accepted life memberships were Jack (Johnny) Leith who played in 1897-1903, 1905-08 and 1911-12, Bobby Monk 1907-14 (career shortened due to war service), George Moodie pre VFL to 1905, Charlie (Brum) Streeter 1920-28 (also club secretary in 1932), Arthur Mueller (Joe) Pearce 1904-13 (killed at Gallipolli and a relative of Jack Mueller), Charles Young pre VFL to 1904 and first Melbourne player to reach 100 games.

The following awards were made but no relatives can currently be located –

Ned Keyburn (over four decades of match day assistance - 1872-1912), Les Jones 1933-41 (career shortened due to war service), J. O. Smith 1886-1930’s (long service to the club and involved in coming up with the club song).

It was a fascinating part of the evening to relive some of the club's history but I guess we're really about creating our own history now and Andrew Daff hit it on the head when he said there's a place on his desk for a photo of himself, some Demon players and a particularly large piece of silverware some time in the very near future. If that happens in 2006 then I'm hoping that the Melbourne Football Company will at least accommodate us long time AGM goers and put on a spread of party pies, sausage rolls and free drinks this time next year.