The public boardroom battles since 2021 have been embarrassing and cost us on-field success when we have a team in the premiership window. While Board and executive leadership fought, dragging the coach into their mess, our club suffered.  Goody and Max did the heavy lifting publicly when winning games should have been their only focus.

This is clearly unacceptable.  MFC leadership must learn from this and put in place processes to ensure it never happens again.

The good news is we're getting a fresh start with a new President, CEO and head coach. This communication is constructive feedback to inform this renewal.

We're actually in a strong position to fix this. Assets of $44 million, no debt, strong profitability, thriving AFLW and VFL programs, and what some experts call a compelling AFL playing list.  Importantly, a loyal member and fan base that I suspect runs deeper into the community than we know.

We're not broken.  But we must have strong governance, professionally executed, as a foundation to delivering sustainable success and properly representing MFC members and fans. 

Why this matters now

Steven Smith and Paul Guerra represent a fresh start, a renewal. Professional sport generates huge emotions, but this is a billion-dollar industry where emotional decision-making destroys clubs.  We’ve experienced that.

Some of you might think 'they won't listen anyway, why bother.' I get it – I once wrote to the CEO and had a nuff nuff response.  But here's the difference: if Andy approves, we're speaking as Demonland - a unified voice representing the largest collective MFC supporter base. That's much harder to dismiss.  Besides, staying silent guarantees nothing changes.

Instead of staying frustrated, we can be a constructive voice for change. For the love of the club.

What needs fixing

·       Coterie groups getting privileged information while regular members are kept in the dark

·       Crisis management that protects egos instead of the club

·       No independent oversight when things go wrong

·       No audit to ensure accountability for delivering review recommendations

·       Board elections that feel like insider deals

Governance & accountability recommendations

Here are some of thoughts:

·       Information equity: If coterie members have been shared information that has not been made public, governance principles require immediate disclosure to all members.  The MCC and coterie are important stakeholders deserving respect, but they are not above MFC members and fans in terms of accountability and disclosure.

·       Independent reviews: Use independent experts for major reviews, with follow-up independent audits ensuring accountability.  Within commercial realities and protecting competitive interests, there needs to be transparency of both the reviews and audits back to MFC members.  While we recognise and respect any review is a Board decision, we'd love to see Peter Jackson involved - everyone respects his track record with our club

·       Modern Board elections: The current process to elect Board members is outdated, lacks member respect and has not kept up to date with advances in corporate governance, sports professionalism, technology and social media.  Inform us what skills you need on the Board, why those skills are needed, how current directors deliver those skills, and let candidates engage with members through social media (Demonland) Q&A before elections

·       Process over emotion: Immediately establish clear protocols overriding individual emotions when major issues arise

Your thoughts?  Demonlanders, our voices matter – and the more voices, the more credibility.  What do you think and what governance changes would restore your faith in MFC leadership?

Perhaps you could put some detail or examples into the section What needs fixing?

Just as an aside the reason why I would pay extra $$$$$ in joining a coterie would be to get the inside information. If the coterie know about it then it is very close to public knowledge.

12 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

Just as an aside the reason why I would pay extra $$$$$ in joining a coterie would be to get the inside information. If the coterie know about it then it is very close to public knowledge.

I know the folks who run our coterie, and at home games I sell raffle tickets to coterie members prematch. But I actually don’t know what coterie is. Amongst the DA we just refer to ourselves as the ticket-selling plebs and the coterie members are the “rich folk.” 😁

I just googled coterie. Seems the DA definition is spot on 🤣

Edited August 27, 2025Aug 27 by Ghostwriter
Asked the almighty Google for help

29 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

I know the folks who run our coterie, and at home games I sell raffle tickets to coterie members prematch. But I actually don’t know what coterie is. Amongst the DA we just refer to ourselves as the ticket-selling plebs and the coterie members are the “rich folk.” 😁

I just googled coterie. Seems the DA definition is spot on 🤣

There's a page on the club site:

Before players were professional athletes, Coterie provided players with assistance and employment.

In more recent times, Coterie provided a business, financial, mentor and support network.

The Melbourne Coterie today is made up of business people from all walks of life that join together in a spirit of camaraderie to support the Melbourne Football Club to be successful on and off the field.

melbournefc.com.au

Coterie | Melbourne Football Club

My thoughts? I'm choking on my Cornies.

Edited August 28, 2025Aug 28 by Queanbeyan Demon