Finals Open Training - Gosch's Paddock

📆 Friday, November 7

⏰ 10:30am - 12:30pm

📍 Gosch's Paddock

🏃‍♂️ Session type: Finals Open Training

🎨 Facepainting

🍩 OMG Doughnuts

🛒 Demon Shop

☕️ Coffee Cart

🛍️ Partner Giveaways

✍️ Player Signings

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/training-times

22 minutes ago, Kev said:

Finals Open Training - Gosch's Paddock

📆 Friday, November 7

⏰ 10:30am - 12:30pm

📍 Gosch's Paddock

🏃‍♂️ Session type: Finals Open Training

🎨 Facepainting

🍩 OMG Doughnuts

🛒 Demon Shop

☕️ Coffee Cart

🛍️ Partner Giveaways

✍️ Player Signings

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/training-times

The decision to have this Family Day type of training session on a Friday baffles me. For starters, it’s a work/school day. The W don’t attract nearly as many to training as the M. There’s a chance of rain.

We’re not even putting on a sausage sizzle since we’d expect to run it at a loss and because we simply don’t have enough folks who can take time off work. Personally I’ve managed to turn a Friday morning shift into a Saturday morning one just to be there.

Also, it’s not a captain’s run in that it’s not gameday eve as it should be.

Again the Club makes a decision that makes no sense.

26 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Again the Club makes a decision that makes no sense.

I agree, Saturday could have been the better option. Especially, since they need the kids to be on board.

Yeah, I can understand they want to build a vibe around finals. But it seems like a strange choice to put resources (mostly aimed at kids?) into a weekday training during term time. That is, if the aim is fan engagement. And if you want numbers for that, it requires more lead-time than a few days, which obviously can't be done for a finals event unless finals are locked in early.

If it's to reward those who always turn up, well that's nice and deserved, but I suspect they don't need the bells and whistles!

What would make sense to me for the kind of "family day" open training that's meant to build members and engagement, is to have it on a weekday mid-season during the school holidays, ideally close to a few home games. It's very possible that I missed such an event earlier in the season.

I didn't want to be the first to criticise this, so am glad that others have jumped in.

I'm sure the timing is great for retirees, the unemployed and preschoolers - everyone else, not so much.

I get the feeling that at times the club is more concerned with being seen to do the right thing, rather than actually doing the right thing.

2 hours ago, poita said:

I didn't want to be the first to criticise this, so am glad that others have jumped in.

I'm sure the timing is great for retirees, the unemployed and preschoolers - everyone else, not so much.

I get the feeling that at times the club is more concerned with being seen to do the right thing, rather than actually doing the right thing.

I work part time, and not on Fridays, but even for me it's still an effort to attend. I feel for those who are working or studying.

Well, what a p!zz poor event that was. It was actually embarrassing. You know the attendance is dismal when there’s more staff and players than spectators. There was lucky to be 40 people there and some of those were players’ parents. The “activations” weren’t even “activated” and the poor face-painting lady painted a grand total of three faces having taken the better part of an hour to set up. I felt so bad for her that I got an MFC fake tattoo on my arm.

They should’ve just left it as a regular captain’s run. The absence of spectators amidst the Demon Shop, Harvest Snaps, face-painting etc. vans stood out like a sore thumb.

45 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Well, what a p!zz poor event that was. It was actually embarrassing. You know the attendance is dismal when there’s more staff and players than spectators. There was lucky to be 40 people there and some of those were players’ parents. The “activations” weren’t even “activated” and the poor face-painting lady painted a grand total of three faces having taken the better part of an hour to set up. I felt so bad for her that I got an MFC fake tattoo on my arm.

They should’ve just left it as a regular captain’s run. The absence of spectators amidst the Demon Shop, Harvest Snaps, face-painting etc. vans stood out like a sore thumb.

I drove past and noticed how desolate it looked.

I think it's another example of something that plagues the marketing of AFLW in general. The AFL and clubs (especially Victorian ones) are used to a very enthusiastic and almost captive market that's willing to put up with a lot. Like, I'm sure we can all list many things that annoy us about the management of the men's league, from umpiring to fixturing and so on. The difference is that, the support is so established, that fans are willing to ignore quite significant issues because they're so wedded to their team/the league, so many will turn up to even poorly planned events.

For AFLW, they're in the very early days comparatively of building a fanbase, and yet they often do things that would work in the men's, seemingly without thinking about how they might not translate. I won't hold my breath on the AFL admin getting it together, but hopefully the club at least learns from what hasn't worked with events like this. I would say that there have been some successes in this regard, particularly the match-day experience at Casey (facilities, "activations" - helicopter aside) has gone up another level this season, once you're actually there.