Preseason 2021

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Jun 19, 2016
20,756
39,602
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
They engage well enough IMO.

Could they do better? maybe but let’s not get carried away I’m sure all clubs have their issues
I think you’d be surprised by the content the majority of other clubs are getting this preseason.
The new President would certainly have experience in this area so it will be interesting to see any influence she has.
Anyway back to preseason.
 

Virgin Dog

Cancelled
Oct 29, 2017
9,734
20,645
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I get that but the area is changing and has changed. It’s not just about the now it’s about 5-10 years from now. Being a small club means we need to be better at this stuff. We should be all over the West but we aren’t. I’m not suggesting sinking loads of cash into marketing but if North and Saints can provide quality info around training and intraclubs then we should also.
Oh I absolutely agree in that sense. Our fan engagement is awful, and must be close to the worst of any club throughout the competition. I'm just saying in terms of memberships, unless we decide to start fudging the numbers like other clubs apparently do, we will likely never see any dramatic lift in membership numbers. I agree that better fan engagement would help though
 

Cadillac

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 25, 2016
5,986
14,156
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Even a team that has been a complete off-field rabble all post-season does it better than us.

This is what fan engagement and building a sense of excitement in the team looks like on the other side of Dictator Bevo's black curtain.

https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/ne...EmdrWkmnYw692L5Xq2N0GNrcBTN2SDChZnKaX7301pA5E

Meanwhile on our side of the cold, dark curtain 24, 48hrs after or who the fu** knows when our scratch match was, all we hear is the chirping of crickets.

I look forward to reading all bout our practice match on hawthorns website next Wednesday.
Rumour has it that the Russians have taken over our social media content and will be blocking all Western Bulldogs members IP addresses when we try and access the Hawthorn website next Wednesday.
 

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Libba39

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 10, 2008
5,843
7,040
Murrumbeena
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Our comms are barely existent at the moment. I have no idea what is going on and it annoys the bejesus out of me.

To top it off Sam Lloyd is still in the team list on the website but they haven't had the time/opportunity/organisational skills to add Bedendo's photo or even his height...
 

CarnTheScray

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 4, 2019
6,790
8,370
Ballarat
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
The increases in the likes of Carlton and St Kilda’s membership would say not. It’s the clubs job to build some buzz and a narrative around the club. Just waiting/hoping for us to be better is so very us. We’re not very good at selling ourselves.
I believe part of the problem is we have a significant section of fans who are very apathetic around this stuff. It’s a small club mentality that holds us back.
Lol that’s because those are the two most delusional yet loyal supporter bases in the league. They could declare the descendant of Adolf Hitler as their next coach and memberships would go up.

but like I’ve said before a lot of our members are wait and see. Usually we are mid to high 40,000s yet our highest ever preseason tally is 38k. 10,000 hop on during the season. Beat Collingwood, go deep in finals and maybe more and the number goes up.

I don’t blame our members for hopping on during the season especially after the rubbish we served up the start of last season...and in finals in 2019...and in 2017.

I also don’t blame the ones that aren’t buying one due to thinking this will be another year stuffed up by covid.
 
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I have no interest in membership numbers. I liked us before we got famous. I've seen great, gripping games in a crowd of 20,000 and snorefests in front of 40,000. Our finances are secure & the AFL tv rights fund the league in any case.
 

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Jun 19, 2016
20,756
39,602
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Lol that’s because those are the two most delusional yet loyal supporter bases in the league. They could declare the descendant of Adolf Hitler as their next coach and memberships would go up.

but like I’ve said before a lot of our members are wait and see. Usually we are mid to high 40,000s yet our highest ever preseason tally is 38k. 10,000 hop on during the season. Beat Collingwood, go deep in finals and maybe more and the number goes up.

I don’t blame our members for hopping on during the season especially after the rubbish we served up the start of last season...and in finals in 2019...and in 2017.

I also don’t blame the ones that aren’t buying one due to thinking this will be another year stuffed up by covid.
The membership chat came up in the context of better fan engagement. I don’t care about the number count growing for the sake of it. I care about us securing our future by keeping those that did stay as members during COVID and getting some of the ones we unfortunately may have lost due to COVID. After the season the fans just had I would have thought it was as important as ever to get fans engaged for the upcoming season. I don’t think we can rely on the goodwill of members to sign up again with uncertainty about what the 2021 season could look like.
The afl lost $23m last year. Salary and soft cap has been reduced and who knows what lays ahead. Rationalization of clubs keeps coming up. We haven’t replaced one of our main sponsors. Our new apparel was late so we missed xmas revenue.
A club our size can’t afford to be so apathetic about this stuff.
There’s some interesting chat on woof on this with one of the player sponsors considering pulling their support due to feeling disengaged.
 
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Bulldogs Legend

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 18, 2015
6,848
7,454
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I think you’d be surprised by the content the majority of other clubs are getting this preseason.
The new President would certainly have experience in this area so it will be interesting to see any influence she has.
Anyway back to preseason.
I had a look at a couple of websites after this and couldn’t notice a big difference but I get what your saying we can always improve and your right our new president should be in tune with this area
 
Aug 24, 2012
37,270
53,408
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
T'Wolves/Patrick Beverley/Footscray
and for six years we have outperformed most clubs financially have we not despite th historical disadvantages we live with?

if we scrimp on anything then I would suggest we can live with it, not that I think there is anything wrong with our website or content but hey I get it some people are not happy

and yeah nah I will do it my way you do it yours and a heads up for you there is an arrow down button
I don't see how more open training sessions and greater online coverage would harm our financial position...? I am sure that more funding would need to be put into digital media, but that would be small and greater fan engagement is always a positive and can help drive greater membership.

I'm not sure why the animosity in your last line - more than anything I was trying to offer a suggestion for you as it can't be easy to reply to a post and then have to navigate back to where you were up to in the page, but if you have a preference towards doing it that way that's fine. Just keep in mind as well that you might pick up deleted posts/warnings for having 5+ posts in a row on other boards if you go there (e.g. main board, general discussion).
 
I have no interest in membership numbers. I liked us before we got famous. I've seen great, gripping games in a crowd of 20,000 and snorefests in front of 40,000. Our finances are secure & the AFL tv rights fund the league in any case.
Remember when we were playing great "sexy" footy in unpopular time slots and Carlton had nearly every Friday night, played terribly and lost nearly all of them?
 

D Mitchell

Premiership Player
Jul 28, 2006
4,720
2,093
Melbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Footscray Football Club
I have no interest in membership numbers. I liked us before we got famous. I've seen great, gripping games in a crowd of 20,000 and snorefests in front of 40,000. Our finances are secure & the AFL tv rights fund the league in any case.
Me too. That's not how it works. Membership numbers are everything unless you hand the Club to Russian Oligarchs, Chinese Dictatorships or ....
 

hazza21

Team Captain
Feb 7, 2008
356
503
Germany
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I am glad others have already raised this discussion. It’s farcical the content that gets released to us fans and paying members. We get a 3 minute highlight package of a scratch match. While even the wooden spooners the Crows live stream their whole game.

Christ, I even watched the Essendon highlights which went for 3x as long and even showed a player being run down from two different angles. They’re prepared to show more negative highlights than we are total content.

Why the secrecy? Any positional/ role changes will all be revealed in the televised preseason game and then round 1 anyway... which I’m sure there won’t even be anything drastic.

Give us something!!!
 

hazza21

Team Captain
Feb 7, 2008
356
503
Germany
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Also I noticed the Sam Lloyd profile still being there too. Whoever is in charge of the website / social media really needs to have their position reviewed. It’s comical a player that has been off the list for two months still features. If that was my job I’m sure my boss would be asking some serious questions.
 

Brass Dog

Senior List
Feb 19, 2019
296
634
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Yankees
Also I noticed the Sam Lloyd profile still being there too. Whoever is in charge of the website / social media really needs to have their position reviewed. It’s comical a player that has been off the list for two months still features. If that was my job I’m sure my boss would be asking some serious questions.
Perhaps with COVID cuts, that person has already been let go and the work has been lumped into someone else’s already full time load?
 
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