"The Fat Kid, The Skinny Kid and the Hockey Player"
For what its worth, I went along to what was a rather uneventful AGM compared to recent years, especially given that there was no members info night this year as had been in the past. The Info Night was quite an entertaining night, Neale with his powerpoint slides and the famous 'Premiership Clock'. Nevertheless, the club in question time last night stated that with the increased communications to members this year via email
and dwindling numbers dictated that they did not have such a night this year, but that they did debate for long periods about whether it should occur.
Onto the AGM, Paul Gardener opened the night welcoming everyone, some brief interlude that escapes me was followed by CEO Steve Harris presenting the financials, which looked to be continuing their positive climb. The club was expecting an advance of 2 Million dollars from the 6 Million they get from the AFL next year as part of the TV and New Media rights, and this would go towards bringing their bank debt down to zero, which is pleasing. Next year the club budgets to make 1 Million dollars, which is the same as what they budgeted for this year, however they fell $200K short of this figure due to a number of factors such as the Commonwealth Games impact.
Next (I think) it was onto Life Memberships, Chris Fagan noted that in the clubs 149 year history only 148 people had achieved the honour of Life Membership, so it is quite a difficult and prestiguous thing to receive.
First to receive this honour was James McDonald, who got probably the longest and loudest sustained applause of the night. He was introduced by Andrew Leoncelli, the much-loved ex-demon who had formed a great partnership with Junior in the midfield in the early noughties. Chells speech was enthusiastic, he spoke of the young skinny kid who first came to the club weighing 60kgs wringing wet, who was quiet and an exceptionally hard trainer and once you got to know him had a great sense of humor. James' older brother Anthony was also at the function which was good to see. James was very quietly spoken, but was very proud of the award he received.
Next up was Russell Robertson, aka the fat kid from Penguin. Chris Fagan gave the introductory speech, he was a newly appointed coach of the Tassie Mariners when he went up north on the island to check out the talent he could grab for his team. His first impressions were of a fat kid with board shorts and LA Lakers shoes bobbing around at training. He liked the look of this kid, but the coach of the squad suggested Chris take another long-haired player who he described as 'the best of this lot'. Fages was doubtful, so pitted them 1-on-1 and Robbo won hands down. After having a tape pinched from his offices of Robbo taking some hangers, Fages next saw the footage, as we all did, on the Footy Shows Almost Football Legends segment.
And thus the Robbo legend was born. He was drafted by Melbourne, at the same time Fages was recruited by the Dees as a coach, but was soon delisted and worked his way back onto the senior list and into the side to quickly earn himself a Rising Star nomination. A message was read out from an absent Adem Yze, stating all of Robbo's achievements which are I must say quite lengthy and impressive. Robbo gave a very emotional speech, thanking Fagan for his mentoring over the last 10 years, and saying it meant a lot to him.
Big Alistair Nicholson, recently retired, was next to receive the award. David Neitz gave his speech, remembering him as the big gangly hockey player with a shock of curly hair who came across from WA. Neita described the pre-season battles they had had from the goal square over the years, and also mentioned Matthew Richardson could breathe a little easier now he was retired. Nicho seemed a bit overwhelmed up there on stage and remembered his first senior game, a cold, wet day at Waverley in which he got stationed in a forward pocket, and the last placed demons got whalloped by St Kilda to the tune of 86 points, wondering if this AFL caper he'd gotten himself into was a bit overrated. Chris Fagan also made an additional special presentation to Nicho of a large framed number 8 guernsey, stating just how many champions Nicho had taken on in 'the cage' over his career, such as Lockett, Lloyd, Richardson etc.
Last up for Life Membership was trainer Spike Harris. His speech was given by Andrew Daff, and he noted how Harris came to the club as Under 19s Manager after his wife insisted he go for the job as he spent so much time talking about the Club he may as well work there. 18 years later, Harris is still giving his time to the club, and is 'Mr Organised', ticking players off as they arrive in the rooms, at the door of the team bus and at the front of the check-in desk making sure everything runs smoothly. Harris noted that one of his best pre-season trips was down to Tasmania, a fact David Neitz, in the Under-19 squad at the time, vouched for.
Next, Board formalities and changes to the constitution were ratified, which is the boring but essential bit of the night. Such banalaties as changing the term 'Chairman' to 'Chairperson' in the constitution were all passed without issue.
Question time was also rather uneventful, someone mentioned a new Archbishop was heading to Melbourne and had no football allegiances, so the Pres said he'll send out an invite to a game for him. It was asked if we could meet the new recruits, Craig Cameron got up on stage with the new kids, and simply read out their names as they put up their hand, no background info on them which was a little disappointing.
And that was about it, the Reverend Daniher was not there, Chris Fagan let us all know he was floating down a river somewhere in Thailand on a well earned break. The crowd was quite small, maybe 150 people, so
Paul Gardener called the meeting to a close.
Myself and a couple of mates were having a cold beer afterwards, and we noticed Wheels wandering around the gaming area, so we asked him over and had a chat for a while, he said he had had heel spurs removed recently, as had Green, Godders and one other, but he was fair bit further behind those guys in terms of fitness. He then sauntered off to find Davey and Pickett who were feeding coins into the machines at the back of the room.
With that, we returned to our beers, and our discussions about how excited we are for the new season, I can't wait!
