Dear Fritta and Turner,

It’s a great privilege to write to you today to confirm that at the conclusion of the AFLW season I will officially step into the role of President of the Melbourne Football Club.

This club has played an important role in my life and I now have the opportunity to give back to the club I love by helping lead us into a new era.

I want to acknowledge and thank our outgoing President, Brad Green. Brad’s leadership over the past 12 months speaks volumes about who he is as a person. His commitment and dedication through a period of significant change has been outstanding.

Looking ahead, Brad won’t be going far. When I commence as President, Brad will continue to serve on the Board as a Vice President.

Under Brad’s leadership, the Board has successfully undertaken a comprehensive review of the AFL program, a Board review to ensure we continue to evolve, appointed Paul Guerra as CEO and Steven King as AFL Senior Coach. Brad led the establishment of a High Performance Committee and a Member Engagement Committee to ensure the Board remains focused on football performance and members. He has also been instrumental in the club’s long-term home base project at the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve. This remains one of our highest priorities.

Nominations for the Board are now open. This year, we have one Director vacancy. The Melbourne Football Club is a skills-based Board. This year, we believe the focus for a director is senior leadership and CEO-level experience with skills in branding, marketing, business development and innovation and a deep knowledge of the sports industry. We have published a Board Credentials Statement on the club’s website that provides more detail.

I am pleased to announce that Dan Taylor will nominate for the Board.  Dan is the Executive Director of Stan, leading both Stan Entertainment and Stan Sport.  He is a strategic and commercial leader with extensive experience driving high performance, innovation and growth across technology, media and marketplace businesses. To access the call for nominations and for more details relating to the board election please click here.

To finish, I want to thank you for your ongoing support. The board will continue doing everything possible to get us back to the top.

Most importantly, right now, we have some finals footy action to look forward to. I hope to see many of you at our AFLW finals over the coming month and again at the AGM and Member Forum on 16 December.

Go Dees,

Steven Smith

We sure are a new club

The Exec Director of Stan would be a great addition to the board. It would be interesting how the club could leverage this

Whilst the board has not appointed anyone to fill the vacancy so they would be an incumbent at the election, it would appear they do have a preferred candidate in Dan taylor.

Can i be the first to say it, Dan from Stan?

Nominations for the board are now open and close 5:00pm on Tuesday 11th November.

31 minutes ago, Fritta and Turner said:

Can i be the first to say it, Dan from Stan?

Dan from Stan, the man with a plan!

stan gonna go hard for nrl and afl rights

good times

Smith becomes the fourth president in a row to tell us who to vote for as the board fills another casual vacancy prior to board elections. His framing tries to avoid saying this, but that's what's been said here.

I sound like a broken record, but Rennick said that members had given them clear feedback that we didn't like this approach.

And yet they continue to do it.

3 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I sound like a broken record, but Rennick said that members had given them clear feedback that we didn't like this approach.

And yet they continue to do it.

you’d be hard pressed to find a board member who didn’t have their own motives at play unfortunately.

Don't know why this struck me, but pretty chill signature:

I'm glad they printed the name!

3 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Smith becomes the fourth president in a row to tell us who to vote for

Not a coincidence, and standard board practice given that their role is to provide leadership and continuity. Also important that they identify specific needs in terms of skills and experience, which they appear to be doing here. None of this prohibits others throwing their hats in the ring, and they're up front and transparent about it all.

Cobbers club

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by bluey
Spell

9 hours ago, Demons11 said:

The Exec Director of Stan would be a great addition to the board. It would be interesting how the club could leverage this

Wounder if the AFL rights would permit us to run some kind of doco/MFC themed entertainment peice on Stan?

At the very least, you'd expect the standard of our social media and member communications content to improve and be top notch.

Given all the rubbish negative media coverage we've had over the past few years, you'd thing having someone with these kind of connections would also be huge in projecting a positive image and rebrand of the club and position us well in the Melbourne sporting marketplace, which could be critical for the club going forward. On face value this sounds like a great appointment to me.

9 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

I am pleased to announce that Dan Taylor will nominate for the Board

So we'll have JT and DT.

On a semi related note of the AGM, I think it would be a great move for the club to make JT a life member of the MFC. ...should nominate him for a knighthood to while we're at it.

8 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Smith becomes the fourth president in a row to tell us who to vote for as the board fills another casual vacancy prior to board elections. His framing tries to avoid saying this, but that's what's been said here.

I sound like a broken record, but Rennick said that members had given them clear feedback that we didn't like this approach.

And yet they continue to do it.

There is a difference between filling a casual vacancy before an election and identifying a candidate to run in an election with the skills the Board has identified as necessary.

1 minute ago, Radar Detector said:

There is a difference between filling a casual vacancy before an election and identifying a candidate to run in an election with the skills the Board has identified as necessary.

Agreed. I’ve got no issue with this at all. We want a unified board and if the pres believes this is a good fit then great, we get to nominate our choice anyway

2 hours ago, Radar Detector said:

There is a difference between filling a casual vacancy before an election and identifying a candidate to run in an election with the skills the Board has identified as necessary.

But publicising who it is through official channels is pushing a candidate.

The board knows a signficant portion of the membership are against this.

10 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Smith becomes the fourth president in a row to tell us who to vote for as the board fills another casual vacancy prior to board elections. His framing tries to avoid saying this, but that's what's been said here.

I sound like a broken record, but Rennick said that members had given them clear feedback that we didn't like this approach.

And yet they continue to do it.

The last thing we want is a bunch of randoms on the Board. They never work. You need a united team with a core skills across a range of areas.

We're all passionate supporters but adding value in a variety of areas is key.

It sounds wonderful to have 6 passionate members elected to the Board but without experience, drive, initiative, skills and co-ordination it quickly becomes a mess with competing agendas and egos.

Let the cobblers cobble.

No doubt someone will get their noses out of joint and there'll be another court case. Typical of previous fights over boards and the egos involved.

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

The last thing we want is a bunch of randoms on the Board. They never work. You need a united team with a core skills across a range of areas.

We're all passionate supporters but adding value in a variety of areas is key.

It sounds wonderful to have 6 passionate members elected to the Board but without experience, drive, initiative, skills and co-ordination it quickly becomes a mess with competing agendas and egos.

Let the cobblers cobble.

"Bunch of randoms". We're talking about one vacancy. That experience, drive initiative, skill and co-ordination (perhaps Groupthink) you talk of leads to 14th, 14th and membership down 12,000. Cobblers are cobbling. I am sure the compliance boxes are bing ticked.

9 hours ago, bluey said:

Cobbers club

Gee the club has some nice cobbers.

2 hours ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

"Bunch of randoms". We're talking about one vacancy. That experience, drive initiative, skill and co-ordination (perhaps Groupthink) you talk of leads to 14th, 14th and membership down 12,000. Cobblers are cobbling. I am sure the compliance boxes are bing ticked.

One vacancy this time but one time there might be three or 4 directors up for re-election at some other point.

As for current situation with onfield performance etc the current Board wears that. There is no guarantee of anything but they will live and die by results. They have acted by seeking a renewal of Board, coaching and playing group and here we are.

It may not improve but doing nothing was not an option.

15 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Don't know why this struck me, but pretty chill signature:

I'm glad they printed the name!

I read that and thought ‘Aziz Ansari is our new president?’