Last night (27/11) the MFC held a Members Information Night at the Camberwell Civic Centre. The night was a huge success with it being a full house.
David Schwarz did a great job as host for the evening. He was very entertaining. The only thing that annoyed me was the amount of mobile phones that went off. How bloody annoying that was. Surely people can go without it for a few hours.
Anyway it started off talking about membership. Next year the aim is 25,000. I personally don't think that will happen. With this election causing huge divisons as well as lack of on filed success I think 20,000 would be an achievement. They also went through marketing strategies and methods of building up support through school programs etc..
Then Danny Corcoran spoke. He explained a fair bit about contracts. Gave an explanation for the salary cap issue and Matty Collins. They had to make a decision. For all his toughness did you realise he only averages 6 games per season. That's not good enough so I think the right decision was made. He also spoke about how in the last two years the club has improved its facilities making it better off filed as well as explaining how much the salary cap penalties hurt the club.
Next to speak was recruiting manager Craig Cameron. I was very impressed. He gave huge detail as to what they look for and how many people they have looking out for potential recruits. People like him could go to Perth and look at footy games from 9AM to 10PM at night. What a job! At this stage they introduced our new recruits. Craig Ellis, Peter Vardy and Clint Bizzell. They showed highlight packages of each and I am generally very excited about all of them. Especially Ellis, we need a tough backman like him. Then they went through our draft selections, but they were not there because most of them live so far away. But they visited our number one pick on Sunday and they said he was jumping out of his skin to join the club. On another note the draft period is simply amazing. The amount of work they must do is unthinkable.
Then the coach spoke. I was very impressed. He was honest and up front and din't hold back on the language either. In his words, "We've got a ****load of talent" And "We are going to get our hands on that bloody thing". He believes teams go in a 4 way cycle. He thinks we should be aiming for a Top 8 spot next year. He also showed how young we are. We are still the 2nd youngest in the Competition. Then the most significant factor of all. He showed the Premiership teams of the last three years. All those teams had about four or five players with older experience then about ten that were of middle age. Compare that to the Melbourne Grand Final Side of 2000 we had one older experienced player and only five middle aged players. The rest were very young. No wonder we were beaten. It was the men against the boys. Going by this 2003 is the year that we move into the stage where we have a similar playing list to those that won the flag.
All in all it was a very good night. It was good to talk about the Club and not have Politics associated with it. It certainly gave me optimism that the club will move forward in 2002 and that the people in charge do know what they are doing something I was concerned about before.
P.S Ms Storm, were you there and if so were you wearing a white Melbourne Storm T-Shirt???
Dees Rule, when Robbo apperared on the screen there was a very loud scream, I wonder who that could have been?????????
David Schwarz did a great job as host for the evening. He was very entertaining. The only thing that annoyed me was the amount of mobile phones that went off. How bloody annoying that was. Surely people can go without it for a few hours.
Anyway it started off talking about membership. Next year the aim is 25,000. I personally don't think that will happen. With this election causing huge divisons as well as lack of on filed success I think 20,000 would be an achievement. They also went through marketing strategies and methods of building up support through school programs etc..
Then Danny Corcoran spoke. He explained a fair bit about contracts. Gave an explanation for the salary cap issue and Matty Collins. They had to make a decision. For all his toughness did you realise he only averages 6 games per season. That's not good enough so I think the right decision was made. He also spoke about how in the last two years the club has improved its facilities making it better off filed as well as explaining how much the salary cap penalties hurt the club.
Next to speak was recruiting manager Craig Cameron. I was very impressed. He gave huge detail as to what they look for and how many people they have looking out for potential recruits. People like him could go to Perth and look at footy games from 9AM to 10PM at night. What a job! At this stage they introduced our new recruits. Craig Ellis, Peter Vardy and Clint Bizzell. They showed highlight packages of each and I am generally very excited about all of them. Especially Ellis, we need a tough backman like him. Then they went through our draft selections, but they were not there because most of them live so far away. But they visited our number one pick on Sunday and they said he was jumping out of his skin to join the club. On another note the draft period is simply amazing. The amount of work they must do is unthinkable.
Then the coach spoke. I was very impressed. He was honest and up front and din't hold back on the language either. In his words, "We've got a ****load of talent" And "We are going to get our hands on that bloody thing". He believes teams go in a 4 way cycle. He thinks we should be aiming for a Top 8 spot next year. He also showed how young we are. We are still the 2nd youngest in the Competition. Then the most significant factor of all. He showed the Premiership teams of the last three years. All those teams had about four or five players with older experience then about ten that were of middle age. Compare that to the Melbourne Grand Final Side of 2000 we had one older experienced player and only five middle aged players. The rest were very young. No wonder we were beaten. It was the men against the boys. Going by this 2003 is the year that we move into the stage where we have a similar playing list to those that won the flag.
All in all it was a very good night. It was good to talk about the Club and not have Politics associated with it. It certainly gave me optimism that the club will move forward in 2002 and that the people in charge do know what they are doing something I was concerned about before.
P.S Ms Storm, were you there and if so were you wearing a white Melbourne Storm T-Shirt???
Dees Rule, when Robbo apperared on the screen there was a very loud scream, I wonder who that could have been?????????
umm thats probably Oxy bringing it all out in Neale. He has a tendancy to do that in people. Just bring them out of their shell in a way. LOL well im glad they got along.
lol 
