Melbourne FC comms compared to Swans

[Traja Dee 108]

This Swans video popped up on my YouTube feed last night.  I normally couldn't care less about other clubs' business and wouldn't go out of my way but I watched this one as it was right there in my feed.

I have to admit that it's very impressive.  Things that I liked on a single viewing:

• It shows what the team is working on pre-Christmas.
  • I was interested to see that the fitness drills are fairly general pre-Christmas to identify where individual players should focus post-Christmas.
• It has snippets of skill and agility drills, which is much more than the circle-work, match-sim and goal kicking that the MFC comms department offers to us.
• It showed drills inside their fitness facility.
  • I'm not sure that I've ever seen what takes place inside these big gyms other than weights.
• It showed how the players move as a team from their training facility to their outside oval, which I presume is somewhere in Moore Park. It's akin to our boys having to walk from AAMI Park to Gosch's though the MFC comms team don't show that.
• It had some informative sound bites from some of the fitness coaches.

Also interesting to see Brodie Grundy's high profile in the video - he's obviously a designated marketing tool and possibly portrayed as their white knight.  That said, I also looked out for JJ though came away thinking that I'd struggle to recognise him if he's not wearing 23 on his back - poor me 🙃.

I'm now wishing I had raised the issue of MFC Comms at last night's AGM; comms to supporters is such an important tool for clubs that trade on emotions.  Watching this Swans video made me realise the significant marketing opportunity for our MFC.

 

[praha 11,240]

Melbourne's comms strategy has always been lacking. Although comparing us to Sydney probably isn't fair. The talent pool from a comms perspective is much larger in Sydney. Melbourne's comms and PR culture is way more "grounded" and clean cut. Sydney is more glitz and glamour/Hollywood.

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Traja Dee said:

I'm now wishing I had raised the issue of MFC Comms at last night's AGM

Personally I’m glad you didn’t. Question time went on for way too long as it was. Especially when one bloke got up and read out a 10,000-word thesis which he called a preamble. Longest preamble ever. I reckon I could’ve got up and read War And Peace in half the time.

They did touch on the subject of our website not being updated frequently, but that was about it.

Also, I’ve heard folks on here asking why question time isn’t live-streamed. Perty explained that some question-askers don’t want to be live-streamed and their wishes are respected. He also said that there’s no ‘dump button’ like there is in live TV and radio broadcasting, (a 7-second delay in case someone says something inappropriate, eg. a racist comment).

[Demon Disciple 12,122]

We really miss Gibbo.

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

26 minutes ago, praha said:

Melbourne's comms strategy has always been lacking. Although comparing us to Sydney probably isn't fair. The talent pool from a comms perspective is much larger in Sydney. Melbourne's comms and PR culture is way more "grounded" and clean cut. Sydney is more glitz and glamour/Hollywood.

Any gen Z teenager with an iphone can shoot and edit video these days. The Swans head of communications is a former 3AW journo, the Swans head of media is Tom Chadwick the former fox footy/channel 9 journo from Adelaide via Melbourne.

Its not a question of talent. We've done the full preseason mini documentary series before. And the stuff we produce now isn't poor quality. It's simply a lack of investment. We do the minimum required for sponsors pieces and bits here and there but evidently the plan seems to be less is more.

I like that we aren't a meme club. Apart from GWS that's ended with a lot of junk content for most teams. But some more creative content and some longer form videos like the Swans one above would be lovely

[Neil Crompton 5,535]

Can I read a summary anywhere of what happened at the AGM? Or can I watch a replay? I don’t see anything on the MFC website. Is there something on DL?

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

1 minute ago, Neil Crompton said:

Can I read a summary anywhere of what happened at the AGM? Or can I watch a replay? I don’t see anything on the MFC website. Is there something on DL?

Video presentations are up on YouTube but the QandA as others have said isn’t published. From all reports we didn’t miss much 

[binman 42,919]

5 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Its not a question of talent. We've done the full preseason mini documentary series before. And the stuff we produce now isn't poor quality. It's simply a lack of investment. We do the minimum required for sponsors pieces and bits here and there but evidently the plan seems to be less is more.

This time x 1000. 

Pay peanuts get monkeys.

They clearly have made a decision not to invest in comms to the level i would expect of any professional sporting club in an elite competition.

Personally i think it is short sighted as fan engagement is critical in terms of continuing to grow the fan base and membership

But its more than just fan facing content and engagement. Good comms is critical in terms of managing potentially fraught issues, not to mention responding to any crisis or serious incident and/or damage control.

Look at last season.

The Grundy demotion to the VFL to 'work on his forward craft' was a shocker from a comms  perspective and the best you could say about the messaging around the clarry injury and related palaver is that they did a good job of keeping things in house. But they let Goody twist in the wind with the weekly updates he had to give.

I don't blame Richo or Goody for those comms snafus - particularly goody who is not a natural media performer like say Mcrae. Getting such messaging right is the responsibility of the comms team.

Bottom line is Demonland is much better source of information and content for dees fans than the MFC which should not be the case. 

And speaking of Demonland, from a comms perspective the club are wasting an opportunity for basically free comms and promotion.

Instead of locking out fans from Casey training they should be encouraging people like Picket Fence to get downs there and report to their hearts content. Even give them special access (get some players or club official to chat to them). Then cross promote on the MFC socials.

Free content and great engagement. Simples.

Oh and they could hire 666 to take photos. 

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by binman

[BDA 22,751]

Nice videos are well and good but I’d prefer our forwards kick straight 

[Ouch! 2,262]

1 hour ago, Demon Disciple said:

We really miss Gibbo.

... Burgo was a better Gibbo ;)

[poita 3,902]

I've seen some stuff posted by GWS on Facebook and it is light years ahead of anything that we do.

Our communications are, at best, the absolute bare minimum.

[Little Goffy 14,530]

It's a bleeping training montage with a few cliche talking points.

Seriously, some people on here would lose the plot if they found out another club had reportedly trained the house down.

I must admit that 'substandard Melbourne FC comms team fail to show our players waiting at a crossing light' wasn't on my bingo card for 2023.

[Chook 15,013]

Aren't we always saying "less talk, more action"?

[Cyclops 511]

8 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Personally I’m glad you didn’t. Question time went on for way too long as it was. Especially when one bloke got up and read out a 10,000-word thesis which he called a preamble. Longest preamble ever. I reckon I could’ve got up and read War And Peace in half the time.

They did touch on the subject of our website not being updated frequently, but that was about it.

Also, I’ve heard folks on here asking why question time isn’t live-streamed. Perty explained that some question-askers don’t want to be live-streamed and their wishes are respected. He also said that there’s no ‘dump button’ like there is in live TV and radio broadcasting, (a 7-second delay in case someone says something inappropriate, eg. a racist comment).

This was 15 minutes after Ms Roffey refused to answer the question.

There was a fair amount of spin last night at the AGM..though it was at the MCG.

[Traja Dee 108]

6 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

It's a bleeping training montage with a few cliche talking points.

Seriously, some people on here would lose the plot if they found out another club had reportedly trained the house down.

I must admit that 'substandard Melbourne FC comms team fail to show our players waiting at a crossing light' wasn't on my bingo card for 2023.

😀 Loving the banter.

Hope that the post didn't touch a raw nerve with a Demon making do in Sydney.

Personally, I'm fascinated by what goes into making a team perform. Even the 1s glimpse of the team walking across a busy road together to get to the training oval paints a picture of how they train, similar to the slope that Neale Daniher's Demons completed their pre-season training back in the 1990's.  For example, I lapped up Selwyn Griffith's presentation in last week's info session and Darren Burgess and Peter Bruckner's podcast (Brukie and Burgo, which was last updated in Aug-22).  The Swans' "Inside Sydney" video, IMO, was along the lines of the info session but in a far more engaging style.

Others may prefer what the MFC serve up for comms, which I find bland and mostly opaque to varying degrees.  (Last week's info session was interesting though rather dry).

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Cyclops said:

This was 15 minutes after Ms Roffey refused to answer the question.

There was a fair amount of spin last night at the AGM..though it was at the MCG.

TBH, I didn’t realise he had a question. I couldn’t hear properly due to folks around me groaning and telling him to wind up his ‘preamble.’

Question time by definition is a time to pose a question. It’s one thing to preface one’s question with a statement for context. It’s another thing entirely to do so with a statement that’s so long it prompts interjections from the audience. 

[Cyclops 511]

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

TBH, I didn’t realise he had a question. I couldn’t hear properly due to folks around me groaning and telling him to wind up his ‘preamble.’

Question time by definition is a time to pose a question. It’s one thing to preface one’s question with a statement for context. It’s another thing entirely to do so with a statement that’s so long it prompts interjections from the audience. 

Agreed. I was referring to the point of order regarding the streaming of question time. They turned the mike off after that.

[Ethan Tremblay 30,856]

I watched the Sydney clip. Mostly just footage of them swanning around. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Ethan Tremblay

[Moonshadow 17,676]

1 hour ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

I watched the Sydney clip. Mostly just footage of them swanning around. 

That's a fowl joke, ET

[dpositive 1,665]

3 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

TBH, I didn’t realise he had a question. I couldn’t hear properly due to folks around me groaning and telling him to wind up his ‘preamble.’

Question time by definition is a time to pose a question. It’s one thing to preface one’s question with a statement for context. It’s another thing entirely to do so with a statement that’s so long it prompts interjections from the audience. 

I did apologise at the time for the length of my 7 paragraph preamble, and do so again if you found it so unreasonable. I felt and still feel it was necessary  to put my question into some context in a structured fashion.

I did not hear any groans and indeed was encouraged by the unsolicited moans of support and agreement with most of my comments from those around (closer to)me.  Even Gary Pert who agreed to take my full submission for consideration was nodding in agreement at many of the points. Kate did answer as expected to my first question which merely, reprised my comment about member involvement. Kate reiterated that she had spoken to everyone and indeed has asked members at last years AGM to make suggestions which I have now done.

I had spoken with Kate about Fishermans Bend Port Melbourne and she had been unaware of the Australia Post warehouse which I had heard rumours of. She did enlighten me about some of the FB developers and some of the companies that were involved in the speculative land purchasing that had occurred under both Liberal government and Labor governments. She also stated that these developers had put apparently unreasonable cost barriers in the way of club options.

My question was "has the club sought from its stakeholders, members, sponsors and supporters any involvement or interests in the Fishermans Bend site"

While I do not deny any of Kates comments I hardly think asking for any suggestions, adresses my specific question. As a member, I have never seen the club or Kate herself ask about fishermans Bend or Caulfield for that matter.

I am also cognisant of confidentiality and conflict issues and my follow up questions were related to notice of who had been approached.

I am happy to provide the questions to any one who asks but do not want to unnecessarily burden you further with unwanted information.

I did have as my final question acknowledgement of the uncertainty of any feasibility study and did suggest to Gary Pert that to have an alternative proposal may provide some negotiating leveraging strategy. While not enthusiastically embracing my comments he did again, with a nod, accept my offering.

Only time will tell of the developments. I note that it is reported today that Port Melbourne have moved on the Australia Post site and i suspect that other opportunities may be lost.   

I support the club and will continue to do so. If the feasibility study shows economic and organisational suitability, I will be delighted. But as was pointed out to me, any development in the existing market of scarce infrastructure resources, with costs at maximum is perhaps unwise. Again I will be pleased to adress that in my feasibility study.

[Dr Don Duffy 103]

23 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

 

Also, I’ve heard folks on here asking why question time isn’t live-streamed. Perty explained that some question-askers don’t want to be live-streamed and their wishes are respected. He also said that there’s no ‘dump button’ like there is in live TV and radio broadcasting, (a 7-second delay in case someone says something inappropriate, eg. a racist comment).

This was a poor response from Pert. If you’re so shy about being videoed either don’t go in front of the camera or submit the question in writing. And dressed up in Big Brother-like language of “we’ve consulted with members”.

Symptomatic of a board that strangely doesn’t have confidence in itself to win an election with fair and open rules like other clubs, despite recent onfield success in all areas. Kremlin-like behaviour, and spending large sums of OUR money fighting legal cases on election matters that shouldn’t be of any worry to them.

[Guest]

Hi dpositive, it’s a shame we couldn’t have had this conversation in person on Monday evening after the meeting. Had I known you were there I would’ve introduced myself.

 I apologise for criticising the length of your statement and question. There was clearly two ‘camps’ in attendance. I was on the other side of the room and admittedly we were at times noisy. I couldn’t hear much of what you were saying and in all honesty I didn’t understand a lot of what any of the question-askers were saying since the mic volume wasn’t high. I only understood the questions asked by DA members because I knew what they were going to say before they got to the mic.

Again I apologise for offending you. It wasn’t personal at all.

[binman 42,919]

14 hours ago, Traja Dee said:

Personally, I'm fascinated by what goes into making a team perform. Even the 1s glimpse of the team walking across a busy road together to get to the training oval paints a picture of how they train, similar to the slope that Neale Daniher's Demons completed their pre-season training back in the 1990's.  For example, I lapped up Selwyn Griffith's presentation in last week's info session and Darren Burgess and Peter Bruckner's podcast (Brukie and Burgo, which was last updated in Aug-22).  The Swans' "Inside Sydney" video, IMO, was along the lines of the info session but in a far more engaging style.

Others may prefer what the MFC serve up for comms, which I find bland and mostly opaque to varying degrees.  (Last week's info session was interesting though rather dry).

Me too. 

As i noted before there are two, maybe three, aspects to comms - fan engagement (eg social media, content etc), media engagement (eg interviews, pressers etc) and issue/crisis management.

But just focusing on fan engagement, like you i love videos and info on how they train and prepare.

I'm not on social media, unless you count Demonland, but from what i have seen from clips etc posted on DL, the information and videos MFC put out on the socials often seems pretty brief and fluffy (lots of clunkily edited video put to god awful soundtracks). Popcorn. 

I understand people love that stuff, and that's great and know I'm probably in the minority but i prefer more depth and detail. The super positive response on here for the brilliant photos from 666 and fantastic track reports (thanks all) suggest i'm not alone in that. 

I get that doco style videos like the the Hell and Back series are expensive and that in a resource constrained environment perhaps the cost outweighs the benefits - perhaps being the operative word. 

Plenty on here rubbished that series - less talk, more action and all that. But for me it gave me a reason to actually visit the MFC website, the online front door to the club. Which in turn meant engaging with other information and content about the club. It is part of the value proposition for members and sponsors. 

I watched that series of videos at least twice (once after winning the flag - which was fascinating because you could see the genesis of how we got there) and thought they were brilliant because they gave me a real insight into how they train and prepare and what goes into being AFL ready. For example, the footage and interviews with Vanderburgh about the incredible ongoing rehab program (for his feet issues) he had to endure just to train and play amazed me. Crazy stuff.  

But in this day and age clubs don't need to spend a fortune on high end productions to produce content that is engaging and interesting to people like myself.

As an example, Freo, who i think do really good comms, have these videos on their website which i found really interesting from a technical point of view and getting a sense of how AFL teams prepare and develop systems -  and I'm not even a Freo fan (by the by, for any Omac fans like myself check out 3:11 to 3:38 in the second video - text book):

 

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by binman

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Dr Don Duffy said:

This was a poor response from Pert. If you’re so shy about being videoed either don’t go in front of the camera or submit the question in writing. And dressed up in Big Brother-like language of “we’ve consulted with members”.

You didn’t mention Pert’s second reason for why question time wasn’t live-streamed. There’s no guarantee offensive comments won’t be made by folks asking questions. Imo that’s reason enough to turn off the livestream. 

[The Demon Duck 56]

I  had the live stream of the AGM on, the other night, here in the depths of Gippsland, as I engaged myself in cooking dinner, when I was stopped in my tracks by Gary Pert,s admonishment of ,apparently, one present at the meeting, who was there, "with your mates to cause trouble."
From this, I conclude:
1. The aforesaid "one", apparently an election candidate, has Mr Pert rattled, 
2.The fact he gained 1900 votes may be a contributing factor, and
3. Mr Pert's explanation for disallowing questions and answers on the livestream may further indicate it's more than one who are rattled.