Should we have an insider thread on the forums.

[Tiberius]

Personally I really enjoyed reading Heath's responses to the issues raised on Bigfooty, and hearing the club's viewpoints expressed eloquently and intelligently. In the most part he engaged in respectful discussion and was genuinely sympathetic to the emotive views expressed by most members, however he was often forced to counterbalance them with economic realities. But, if we've learned nothing else from the Tayla Harris and Racism issues of the past fortnight, we should know that anonymous nuffies who feel free to post any old bulls%*t on a public forum without fear of retribution can cause considerable damage. If the club media rep had to leave bigfooty because of abuse and disrespectful treatment then that's a sad day for the bigfooty readership as a whole.
It's a two way street, if we want the club to contribute then we have to treat the representatives with respect. I'd be all in favour of people who may have sent abusive messages having their bigfooty accounts revoked and even their football club memberships suspended.
And I feel greatly aggrieved that the rest of us have to miss out on valuable input from the club on account of a few d$%kheads who heroically decided to send anonymous abusive messages through their anonymous accounts.

 

[Groin guru]

Personally I really enjoyed reading Heath's responses to the issues raised on Bigfooty, and hearing the club's viewpoints expressed eloquently and intelligently. In the most part he engaged in respectful discussion and was genuinely sympathetic to the emotive views expressed by most members, however he was often forced to counterbalance them with economic realities. But, if we've learned nothing else from the Tayla Harris and Racism issues of the past fortnight, we should know that anonymous nuffies who feel free to post any old bulls%*t on a public forum without fear of retribution can cause considerable damage. If the club media rep had to leave bigfooty because of abuse and disrespectful treatment then that's a sad day for the bigfooty readership as a whole.
It's a two way street, if we want the club to contribute then we have to treat the representatives with respect. I'd be all in favour of people who may have sent abusive messages having their bigfooty accounts revoked and even their football club memberships suspended.
And I feel greatly aggrieved that the rest of us have to miss out on valuable input from the club on account of a few d$%kheads who heroically decided to send anonymous abusive messages through their anonymous accounts.

Respect goes two ways. The abusive comments are not okay - first and foremost. But there is an element of customer service in 99% of jobs. Is the kid that works at Target supposed to quit and run away when a customer explains that they are not happy with their service? Is a Mcdonalds employee supposed to do the same when a customer complains because their is 4 pickles in the Big Mac instead of 3? These are professionals. Suck it up and ignore it or report it.

Kimbo had legitimate questions (as do others). They deserve a response. It's respectful to do so. It's a lack of respect to ignore them AND still hold out your hand expecting people to hand over their hard earned cash. You can't please everyone but you should damn well try.

 

[Groin guru]

There's no need for the club to post directly on here. They can reach a much larger audience and control the conversation on other forms of social media.

There are only negative repercussions for a brand involving itself in a mud flinging contest. People here are passionate and can't always be trusted to interact with each other with decorum.

In sure people and players at the club read this board to some extent. They would simply choose to respond via other means.

A business should respect its clients from top to bottom. If there is mud flinging - stop, log off, come back in a day or two with a more measured response when the heat has died down. Not exclude a sub-section forever...a certain subsection that are probably its most loyal. Some of whom rallied and helped keep North where it belongs.

Which is cool.

How many usernames have you had because of said morons?

I mean imagine for a moment the journey that Luke McDonald would have been if he's been coming here for as long as he'd been linked to us.

He's gone from this ethereal great white hope to being s**t canned every time he pulls on the jumper.

You think it would be healthy for him to Com on here and red some of the absolute s**t that gets written about him?

Not to mention that it takes actual time investment to form views on posters and who to read and who to not give oxygen.

That is why the clubs would advise not to come here. It's a time trap that very little good is going to come from.

What's more our club actually still does have a connection to here via the player sponsorship specific BBQ night. Likely significantly more than other boards have.

No one is saying they have to read everything. There are multiple ways to do it. Live feed, AMA's with certain players (thread open for questions -> someone pools them together -> sends to club -> player/person at club takes 15 mins to record and respond to answers via phone camera. Minimal fuss.

I've seen MMA stars do this on sites for years. Even on lousy forums full of degenerates. There is respect there and those that come back become cult heroes and people adore them for it.

Missed opportunities.

 

[Tiberius]

Respect goes two ways. The abusive comments are not okay - first and foremost. But there is an element of customer service in 99% of jobs. Is the kid that works at Target supposed to quit and run away when a customer explains that they are not happy with their service? Is a Mcdonalds employee supposed to do the same when a customer complains because their is 4 pickles in the Big Mac instead of 3? These are professionals. Suck it up and ignore it or report it.

Kimbo had legitimate questions (as do others). They deserve a response. It's respectful to do so. It's a lack of respect to ignore them AND still hold out your hand expecting people to hand over their hard earned cash. You can't please everyone but you should damn well try.

I understand what you're saying, and I have to say that generally I agree with the vast majority of what you post, however I think there are slight differences between this situation and your scenarios. The club does have a customer service facility: you can phone them, send them an email or even drop in and see them. These are all different to an online forum.
The McDonalds worker is dealing with customers face to face, not receiving anonymous threats and abuse. The Target worker has a well defined company policy for dealing with angry or dissatisfied customers. If I got onto BigTarget.com and started posting anonymous complaints about the service I wouldn't expect to achieve much. I'd phone the store directly.

 

[Groin guru]

I understand what you're saying, and I have to say that generally I agree with the vast majority of what you post, however I think there are slight differences between this situation and your scenarios. The club does have a customer service facility: you can phone them, send them an email or even drop in and see them. These are all different to an online forum.
The McDonalds worker is dealing with customers face to face, not receiving anonymous threats and abuse. The Target worker has a well defined company policy for dealing with angry or dissatisfied customers. If I got onto BigTarget.com and started posting anonymous complaints about the service I wouldn't expect to achieve much. I'd phone the store directly.

And if you phoned the store/North directly they'd give a generic response - making the customer angrier. Or better still they'd wheel out a store/North great in a poor attempt to soften the blow. If that doesn't work you don't give up. You tried to come to a resolution so the customer that forks out several $100 a year in membership and merch isn't disillusioned when the club is going. With places like McDonalds or Target you can just go to KFC or Big W. With North you don't go elsewhere and that is part of the problem...the club knows this so they do not care enough to give the people answers to their questions. Compound that will poor performances on-field and you have a recipe for disaster - imo.

 

[Tiberius]

And if you phoned the store/North directly they'd give a generic response - making the customer angrier. Or better still they'd wheel out a store/North great in a poor attempt to soften the blow. If that doesn't work you don't give up. You tried to come to a resolution so the customer that forks out several $100 a year in membership and merch isn't disillusioned when the club is going. With places like McDonalds or Target you can just go to KFC or Big W. With North you don't go elsewhere and that is part of the problem...the club knows this so they do not care enough to give the people answers to their questions. Compound that will poor performances on-field and you have a recipe for disaster - imo.

If that's what they do then I entirely see your point. I've never phoned them so I wouldn't know. I do know that when I returned my son's misshapen t-shirt to Target and they wheeled out 8 time employee of the month Bhyryana Withers to personally get me a new one off the shelf I felt greatly vindicated and very important.

 

[shintemaster]

It's a two way street, if we want the club to contribute then we have to treat the representatives with respect.

I agree completely with this and would never make excuses for others behaviour or downplay it by saying it is just something to cop in a service role. However I will say that there has to be some awareness of the inherent nature of the medium. Heath was treated with respect and poor behaviour was shut down very quickly by our moderators (so much so that I for one didn't even see what was alluded to). I don't think you can ask much more than issues to be dealt with promptly and fairly when it is the inherent nature of these social forums. At least, I don't think that's a fair expectation. I don't come on Bigfooty expecting to not have to deal with idiots every now and again, I do expect that the moderators deal promptly and fairly with anything that crosses the line. End of the day the club and Heath in particular have every right to go elsewhere - I for one however think that it is a sad result and that it is not in the longterm interests of the club.

And if you phoned the store/North directly they'd give a generic response - making the customer angrier. Or better still they'd wheel out a store/North great in a poor attempt to soften the blow. If that doesn't work you don't give up. You tried to come to a resolution so the customer that forks out several $100 a year in membership and merch isn't disillusioned when the club is going. With places like McDonalds or Target you can just go to KFC or Big W. With North you don't go elsewhere and that is part of the problem...the club knows this so they do not care enough to give the people answers to their questions. Compound that will poor performances on-field and you have a recipe for disaster - imo.

Yep. We may be unable (or at least very unlikely to go to a competitor) however there is nothing to say that people won’t stop going full stop. End of the day nobody needs to go to the football to survive, but this football club sure as sh*t needs people to go to the football to survive.

 

[Groin guru]

If that's what they do then I entirely see your point. I've never phoned them so I wouldn't know. I do know that when I returned my son's misshapen t-shirt to Target and they wheeled out 8 time employee of the month Bhyryana Withers to personally get me a new one off the shelf I felt greatly vindicated and very important.

Now that I can respect. I'm trading in my North membership for Target gift cards and can't wait to support them during the annual Target vs. Kmart social cricket match.

 

[hilly]

Could get him to interview irish players and spend the entire interview saying he can't understand what they're saying

That was truly bad.

 

[mouncey2franklin]

I'm not ignoring it, but he doesn't get paid to engage with people on Bigfooty.

What does he get paid to do?

 

[The Butcher]

....

At the end of the day, selling any games should be considered something desperate and out of the norm, something temporary until the administration can address whatever problems hinder the club from playing all games at our home.

The sale of the games should have been conditional on the club's ability to increase the supporter base, attendances and membership in Melbourne, if you can't grow the club and put them on a path for self-sustainability while selling games, you aren't achieving anything. What business plan or strategy has the club presented the members with as a blueprint of what they are doing with their time selling games to get the club to the point where it will no longer need to sell games any longer and won't be in crisis if and when the AFL gives Tasmania their own football team license?

...

Oath

 

[The Butcher]

Below is a quote from one of Heath's responses in the Tassie thread. The bolded part.. I would like to have an insider thread just to hear them expand on this and answer the follow up questions that arise. It just sounds so final.

"If you think we're not trying to do that and haven't been trying to do that for the past decade, then where have you been? We had 23,000 members in 2007 and 34,000 in 2018 ... then 45,000 in 2016 (a record) now 41,000 this season. But Vic-based support, unfortunately, is not enough anymore and that's why smaller club's need secondary markets ... even Richmond played in Cairns until recently! So it's easy to say things like, "just grow our base in Victoria" or "focus on Victoria more and we'll be fine .. we don't need Tasmania" but it's not that simple and anyone who thinks it is, has no comprehension of just how hard this market is. I would love nothing more than to have our club play 11 homes games in Melbourne at the MCG, with average crowds of 60k, but it doesn't mean I can have it despite my best intentions to drive support and increase membership through the media. But, if we can build our strength as a club, like Hawthorn, with respect to on-field success, fan-base size etc ... then who knows what we could achieve. In the coming seasons, if we play 4 games in Tas and win them all (or most) and make the finals ... then make the grand final .. the win a premiership ... the sky is the limit!

Heath (again) ... Carl is in a meeting (sorry to disappoint!)"

 

[Mav]

Below is a quote from one of Heath's responses in the Tassie thread. The bolded part.. I would like to have an insider thread just to hear them expand on this and answer the follow up questions that arise. It just sounds so final.

"If you think we're not trying to do that and haven't been trying to do that for the past decade, then where have you been? We had 23,000 members in 2007 and 34,000 in 2018 ... then 45,000 in 2016 (a record) now 41,000 this season. But Vic-based support, unfortunately, is not enough anymore and that's why smaller club's need secondary markets ... even Richmond played in Cairns until recently! So it's easy to say things like, "just grow our base in Victoria" or "focus on Victoria more and we'll be fine .. we don't need Tasmania" but it's not that simple and anyone who thinks it is, has no comprehension of just how hard this market is. I would love nothing more than to have our club play 11 homes games in Melbourne at the MCG, with average crowds of 60k, but it doesn't mean I can have it despite my best intentions to drive support and increase membership through the media. But, if we can build our strength as a club, like Hawthorn, with respect to on-field success, fan-base size etc ... then who knows what we could achieve. In the coming seasons, if we play 4 games in Tas and win them all (or most) and make the finals ... then make the grand final .. the win a premiership ... the sky is the limit!

Heath (again) ... Carl is in a meeting (sorry to disappoint!)"

this begs he question: Why are they disenfranchising WA and SA members?

 

[giantroo]

On cue, an email from Ben Buckley


Throughout 2019 I want to open up the lines of communication with you on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity for me to communicate directly with you, our members, and provide you with an opportunity to discuss the issues that are important to you. I’ll be writing to you monthly via our website, with an update and a point of view about the important things that concern our club.

This week, I write to you in circumstances that aren’t the best after a disappointing defeat in WA, but my optimism remains unshaken.

As Jack Ziebell said, those three hours in Perth won't derail our season nor will they define our club or team. Brad and the coaches have assessed what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I know the players and coaches have had an extremely productive week and I, like you, will be expecting a response befitting our standards and values.

I was delighted with the debut of Bailey Scott. For such a young kid to come in and show poise and skill beyond his years was extremely encouraging. It was also great to have his father, Robert, a premiership player, in the rooms along with his mum, Kerry, and younger brother, Darby.

I was at the game and couldn't help but be impressed by the level of support the 40,000-strong Fremantle crowd provided and the atmosphere generated in the stadium. This week, we have the chance to bounce back against the Lions, but we need a parochial and passionate army behind us. While there might be a temptation to sit back and wait, I urge you to show some urgency and wear our colours with pride and get behind the boys. The one thing North supporters have always been, even since my time in the game, is resilient and loyal, and we're hoping for a big turn-out. We have some massive games coming up and we will need all the support we can possibly get.

I'm very confident we will make our 150th year one to remember, and I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to make it a success.

When I took over as chairman from James Brayshaw at the end of 2016, I knew we had a lot of work to do on the field. Our list had been turned over and a re-build of sorts had begun. Since then, our list managers, medical staff, coaches and players have done a great job to ensure we’ve stayed competitive. Last year, we weren’t supposed to be the finals equation, but only missed out on September action by the slimmest of margins.

With the likes of Jarred Polec, Aaron Hall, Jasper Pittard and Dom Tyson, our list has been improved and more raw talent has been acquired with the likes of Tarryn Thomas, Bailey Scott, Curtis Taylor and Joel Crocker. While we know some more pieces need to be added to the puzzle, we feel that the foundations have been laid and the ingredients for success are largely there.

But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking - starting on Sunday against the Lions. I ask that you turn out in force so we can get our season underway.

Focusing on other areas now and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our AFLW team for a magnificent first season. With Scott Gowans and Emma Kearney leading the way, the girls made us proud in their first season. The list management team is already hard at work forming next year's squad and from what I'm already hearing, we will be contenders again. Thanks to all of you who signed on as Foundation Members and supported the women so passionately. It means a lot to all of us to have one of the biggest fan-bases in the league.

A lot has gone right for us this year already with stage 1 of our new facilities close to being finalised. Again, a massive thanks to all those who donated - without you, we could not have made that happen. The AFL, AFLW, VFL and soon VFLW now have new locker rooms, a players' lounge, sauna, heat room, and expanded gym. Soon the coaches box tower will be on-line, the new light towers will be made operational and the scoreboard installed; just in time for us to bring football back to Arden St. with the VFL season about to get underway.

To finish up, thank you for your ongoing support and loyalty.

Sincerely,

Ben Buckley

 

[Mav]

On cue, an email from Ben Buckley


Throughout 2019 I want to open up the lines of communication with you on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity for me to communicate directly with you, our members, and provide you with an opportunity to discuss the issues that are important to you. I’ll be writing to you monthly via our website, with an update and a point of view about the important things that concern our club.

This week, I write to you in circumstances that aren’t the best after a disappointing defeat in WA, but my optimism remains unshaken.

As Jack Ziebell said, those three hours in Perth won't derail our season nor will they define our club or team. Brad and the coaches have assessed what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I know the players and coaches have had an extremely productive week and I, like you, will be expecting a response befitting our standards and values.

I was delighted with the debut of Bailey Scott. For such a young kid to come in and show poise and skill beyond his years was extremely encouraging. It was also great to have his father, Robert, a premiership player, in the rooms along with his mum, Kerry, and younger brother, Darby.

I was at the game and couldn't help but be impressed by the level of support the 40,000-strong Fremantle crowd provided and the atmosphere generated in the stadium. This week, we have the chance to bounce back against the Lions, but we need a parochial and passionate army behind us. While there might be a temptation to sit back and wait, I urge you to show some urgency and wear our colours with pride and get behind the boys. The one thing North supporters have always been, even since my time in the game, is resilient and loyal, and we're hoping for a big turn-out. We have some massive games coming up and we will need all the support we can possibly get.

I'm very confident we will make our 150th year one to remember, and I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to make it a success.

When I took over as chairman from James Brayshaw at the end of 2016, I knew we had a lot of work to do on the field. Our list had been turned over and a re-build of sorts had begun. Since then, our list managers, medical staff, coaches and players have done a great job to ensure we’ve stayed competitive. Last year, we weren’t supposed to be the finals equation, but only missed out on September action by the slimmest of margins.

With the likes of Jarred Polec, Aaron Hall, Jasper Pittard and Dom Tyson, our list has been improved and more raw talent has been acquired with the likes of Tarryn Thomas, Bailey Scott, Curtis Taylor and Joel Crocker. While we know some more pieces need to be added to the puzzle, we feel that the foundations have been laid and the ingredients for success are largely there.

But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking - starting on Sunday against the Lions. I ask that you turn out in force so we can get our season underway.

Focusing on other areas now and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our AFLW team for a magnificent first season. With Scott Gowans and Emma Kearney leading the way, the girls made us proud in their first season. The list management team is already hard at work forming next year's squad and from what I'm already hearing, we will be contenders again. Thanks to all of you who signed on as Foundation Members and supported the women so passionately. It means a lot to all of us to have one of the biggest fan-bases in the league.

A lot has gone right for us this year already with stage 1 of our new facilities close to being finalised. Again, a massive thanks to all those who donated - without you, we could not have made that happen. The AFL, AFLW, VFL and soon VFLW now have new locker rooms, a players' lounge, sauna, heat room, and expanded gym. Soon the coaches box tower will be on-line, the new light towers will be made operational and the scoreboard installed; just in time for us to bring football back to Arden St. with the VFL season about to get underway.

To finish up, thank you for your ongoing support and loyalty.

Sincerely,

Ben Buckley

a long winded way of saying, shut up and buy a membership.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

What does he get paid to do?

He's the General Manager of Media.

He manages the staff and the tasks of those assigned to the media team.

As much as it might not seem to make sense with how devoted people are on BigFooty, you target the easiest, biggest areas of social media first and foremost to reach your general audience.
Namely: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Bigfooty is a far distant 2nd, 3rd or 4th as you're MAYBE if you're lucky reaching a couple hundred people at best.

No ones going to devote large amount of time to MySpace when they can go to Facebook and reach a far larger audience. Yet Heath still came on here from time to time, despite it being outside the focus of the club.

As much as we feel we are more important than the big 3 social media platforms, we're not. And if representatives are going to cop abuse through the account they have here to engage with us, then its understandable why they would withdraw that branch and focus on the bigger picture instead.

 

[Firestarter]

Welp this thread hasn't helped me change what I've already said about what happened...

 

[shintemaster]

As much as we feel we are more important than the big 3 social media platforms, we're not. And if representatives are going to cop abuse through the account they have here to engage with us, then its understandable why they would withdraw that branch and focus on the bigger picture instead.

Ya reckon they don't get abuse on facebook and twitter though? Some of the stuff I've seen on there makes the worst I've seen on Bigfooty look like a cuddle in comparison. I'd also hazard a guess that the money they get out of the average facebook supporter is piss all compared to the average supporter on here. We don't expect them to put the same resources into 3 game members as they do to premium corporate supporters and I'd argue a similar principle applies. I wouldn't expect them to write off an entire avenue based off what was their own misstep. To be honest while I disagree with being abusive the whole episode out of the club was incredibly cynical and anyone that thought it would be a good idea to use that time to do some pretty transparent damage control was naive at best. They stuffed up IMO and it has had some pretty poor consequences for all involved.

Anyway. We're going around in circles. My view is that the club should use whatever avenue's it has to engage and get support from passionate supporters. There's is different. It won't be the first thing I disagree on the club with and I doubt it will be the last.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Ya reckon they don't get abuse on facebook and twitter though? Some of the stuff I've seen on there makes the worst I've seen on Bigfooty look like a cuddle in comparison. I'd also hazard a guess that the money they get out of the average facebook supporter is piss all compared to the average supporter on here. We don't expect them to put the same resources into 3 game members as they do to premium corporate supporters and I'd argue a similar principle applies. I wouldn't expect them to write off an entire avenue based off what was their own misstep. To be honest while I disagree with being abusive the whole episode out of the club was incredibly cynical and anyone that thought it would be a good idea to use that time to do some pretty transparent damage control was naive at best. They stuffed up IMO and it has had some pretty poor consequences for all involved.

Anyway. We're going around in circles. My view is that the club should use whatever avenue's it has to engage and get support from passionate supporters. There's is different. It won't be the first thing I disagree on the club with and I doubt it will be the last.

The difference being with these mediums is that the abuse is directed at the club, not the individual. The s**t that they post is pretty horrendous at times, but there's no assignment of the comments to the specific club worker who has to wade through the s**t.

Could the club make an NMFC account on here and have a nameless worker man it from time to time? Sure. But again it comes down to management of resources and whether thats a good use of their time with the limited amount of people they're actually engaging with said practice.

 

[SpiderBurton22]

On cue, an email from Ben Buckley


Throughout 2019 I want to open up the lines of communication with you on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity for me to communicate directly with you, our members, and provide you with an opportunity to discuss the issues that are important to you. I’ll be writing to you monthly via our website, with an update and a point of view about the important things that concern our club.

This week, I write to you in circumstances that aren’t the best after a disappointing defeat in WA, but my optimism remains unshaken.

As Jack Ziebell said, those three hours in Perth won't derail our season nor will they define our club or team. Brad and the coaches have assessed what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I know the players and coaches have had an extremely productive week and I, like you, will be expecting a response befitting our standards and values.

I was delighted with the debut of Bailey Scott. For such a young kid to come in and show poise and skill beyond his years was extremely encouraging. It was also great to have his father, Robert, a premiership player, in the rooms along with his mum, Kerry, and younger brother, Darby.

I was at the game and couldn't help but be impressed by the level of support the 40,000-strong Fremantle crowd provided and the atmosphere generated in the stadium. This week, we have the chance to bounce back against the Lions, but we need a parochial and passionate army behind us. While there might be a temptation to sit back and wait, I urge you to show some urgency and wear our colours with pride and get behind the boys. The one thing North supporters have always been, even since my time in the game, is resilient and loyal, and we're hoping for a big turn-out. We have some massive games coming up and we will need all the support we can possibly get.

I'm very confident we will make our 150th year one to remember, and I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to make it a success.

When I took over as chairman from James Brayshaw at the end of 2016, I knew we had a lot of work to do on the field. Our list had been turned over and a re-build of sorts had begun. Since then, our list managers, medical staff, coaches and players have done a great job to ensure we’ve stayed competitive. Last year, we weren’t supposed to be the finals equation, but only missed out on September action by the slimmest of margins.

With the likes of Jarred Polec, Aaron Hall, Jasper Pittard and Dom Tyson, our list has been improved and more raw talent has been acquired with the likes of Tarryn Thomas, Bailey Scott, Curtis Taylor and Joel Crocker. While we know some more pieces need to be added to the puzzle, we feel that the foundations have been laid and the ingredients for success are largely there.

But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking - starting on Sunday against the Lions. I ask that you turn out in force so we can get our season underway.

Focusing on other areas now and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our AFLW team for a magnificent first season. With Scott Gowans and Emma Kearney leading the way, the girls made us proud in their first season. The list management team is already hard at work forming next year's squad and from what I'm already hearing, we will be contenders again. Thanks to all of you who signed on as Foundation Members and supported the women so passionately. It means a lot to all of us to have one of the biggest fan-bases in the league.

A lot has gone right for us this year already with stage 1 of our new facilities close to being finalised. Again, a massive thanks to all those who donated - without you, we could not have made that happen. The AFL, AFLW, VFL and soon VFLW now have new locker rooms, a players' lounge, sauna, heat room, and expanded gym. Soon the coaches box tower will be on-line, the new light towers will be made operational and the scoreboard installed; just in time for us to bring football back to Arden St. with the VFL season about to get underway.

To finish up, thank you for your ongoing support and loyalty.

Sincerely,

Ben Buckley

Yawn, every paragraph is so predictable. It's why I don't take anything coming from the coach, players and club at face value. It's all just white noise.

 

[Snake_Baker]

On cue, an email from Ben Buckley


Throughout 2019 I want to open up the lines of communication with you on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity for me to communicate directly with you, our members, and provide you with an opportunity to discuss the issues that are important to you. I’ll be writing to you monthly via our website, with an update and a point of view about the important things that concern our club.

This week, I write to you in circumstances that aren’t the best after a disappointing defeat in WA, but my optimism remains unshaken.

As Jack Ziebell said, those three hours in Perth won't derail our season nor will they define our club or team. Brad and the coaches have assessed what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I know the players and coaches have had an extremely productive week and I, like you, will be expecting a response befitting our standards and values.

I was delighted with the debut of Bailey Scott. For such a young kid to come in and show poise and skill beyond his years was extremely encouraging. It was also great to have his father, Robert, a premiership player, in the rooms along with his mum, Kerry, and younger brother, Darby.

I was at the game and couldn't help but be impressed by the level of support the 40,000-strong Fremantle crowd provided and the atmosphere generated in the stadium. This week, we have the chance to bounce back against the Lions, but we need a parochial and passionate army behind us. While there might be a temptation to sit back and wait, I urge you to show some urgency and wear our colours with pride and get behind the boys. The one thing North supporters have always been, even since my time in the game, is resilient and loyal, and we're hoping for a big turn-out. We have some massive games coming up and we will need all the support we can possibly get.

I'm very confident we will make our 150th year one to remember, and I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to make it a success.

When I took over as chairman from James Brayshaw at the end of 2016, I knew we had a lot of work to do on the field. Our list had been turned over and a re-build of sorts had begun. Since then, our list managers, medical staff, coaches and players have done a great job to ensure we’ve stayed competitive. Last year, we weren’t supposed to be the finals equation, but only missed out on September action by the slimmest of margins.

With the likes of Jarred Polec, Aaron Hall, Jasper Pittard and Dom Tyson, our list has been improved and more raw talent has been acquired with the likes of Tarryn Thomas, Bailey Scott, Curtis Taylor and Joel Crocker. While we know some more pieces need to be added to the puzzle, we feel that the foundations have been laid and the ingredients for success are largely there.

But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking - starting on Sunday against the Lions. I ask that you turn out in force so we can get our season underway.

Focusing on other areas now and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our AFLW team for a magnificent first season. With Scott Gowans and Emma Kearney leading the way, the girls made us proud in their first season. The list management team is already hard at work forming next year's squad and from what I'm already hearing, we will be contenders again. Thanks to all of you who signed on as Foundation Members and supported the women so passionately. It means a lot to all of us to have one of the biggest fan-bases in the league.

A lot has gone right for us this year already with stage 1 of our new facilities close to being finalised. Again, a massive thanks to all those who donated - without you, we could not have made that happen. The AFL, AFLW, VFL and soon VFLW now have new locker rooms, a players' lounge, sauna, heat room, and expanded gym. Soon the coaches box tower will be on-line, the new light towers will be made operational and the scoreboard installed; just in time for us to bring football back to Arden St. with the VFL season about to get underway.

To finish up, thank you for your ongoing support and loyalty.

Sincerely,

Ben Buckley

Yeah.

An email (that every member gets) shows up when the s**t has hit and gone through the fan. Am I supposed to feel special now?

Yawn, every paragraph is so predictable. It's why I don't take anything coming from the coach, players and club at face value. It's all just white noise.

Yep. More insincere bullshit and a generic rear guard PR exercise.

 

[Mav]

Yawn, every paragraph is so predictable. It's why I don't take anything coming from the coach, players and club at face value. It's all just white noise.

I want to know where the “opportunity to discuss the issues” is.

 

[Snake_Baker]

The Chairman tending to the supporters concerns..........................



You wanna get the members back on side Ben? DELIVER PROACTIVE CHANGE!

Keep the "stay the course" bullshit to yourself.

 

[Groin guru]

"But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking"

That's right Ben, talk on and off the field is cheap. Time to be transparent, proactive, and productive. Not reactive.

I'm watching.

He's the General Manager of Media.

He manages the staff and the tasks of those assigned to the media team.

As much as it might not seem to make sense with how devoted people are on BigFooty, you target the easiest, biggest areas of social media first and foremost to reach your general audience.
Namely: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Bigfooty is a far distant 2nd, 3rd or 4th as you're MAYBE if you're lucky reaching a couple hundred people at best.

No ones going to devote large amount of time to MySpace when they can go to Facebook and reach a far larger audience. Yet Heath still came on here from time to time, despite it being outside the focus of the club.

As much as we feel we are more important than the big 3 social media platforms, we're not. And if representatives are going to cop abuse through the account they have here to engage with us, then its understandable why they would withdraw that branch and focus on the bigger picture instead.

Incorrect. If you allocate time to engagement you break it down into parts.

For shits and giggles lets say:

• In the bubble (members)
• On the cusp (flirting with entering - casual followers).
• Outside the bubble (footy...what's that?)

Then you break that down further:
- In the bubble (us)

• Big Footy (percentage wise I'd say we'd have the largest member/poster ratio)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

They would have the analytics on their social media pages. Percentage that click. How long people spend reading etc. Non-Big footy areas would be incredibly low % wise. I highlighted that when the news of the extra Tassie game was posted on Facebook it got 160 'likes' and yet around 90% of the comments were anger/frustration. Heath was using the 'like' button as a measure of how successful the news taken - which is incredibly misleading and if he actually uses that as a measuring stick (I highly doubt he would). People see a North link/story, click 'like' because they like North but a very small amount would click and read the link (off the top of my head I think it's around 5-20% actually click and read internet links). So you're more than likely going to get the low attention span types not investing as much time as they are scrolling down their news feed/wall.

Big footy. Lower numbers but significantly higher attention spans and interest. We would carry more weight simply because we are obsessed with North and discuss North probably more than players and club staff. We are the top 1%. Less in number but significant to the overall. We read every damn thing. We talk trades, tactics, we sack scott daily, and have autopsy/preview threads. You don't forget about your heavyweights just so you can flirt with the single folk.

Now I'm no data scientist but I deal with data...I love it. I'd hope there is someone just as obsessed with data at North as I am (I know Tania Gallo is) but I mean the business and marketing types. If they aren't crunching the numbers and ticking all the boxes they aren't doing their job. It shouldn't just be up to the media...the players should be media trained (they sure sound like they are robotic enough) and willing to be more engaged.

Now if you're smart you think outside the box and spread your resources or whatever you have at your disposal. That's free games of football, merchandise, and maybe even a pat on the back. You have 'community managers' - examples include - someone to take care or act as a go-between on the facebook page, big footy forum, twitter. You have competitions or encourage people like those involved in 'the stern look', giantroo, Smaturin. Maybe "thanks for your hard work Giantroo. You're a credit to North and our community so here is a free membership to you and your young boy". Sometimes people only need a little encouragement. That's just one example

North like to say how they are big on community - huddle, women equality etc. and yet they left their most loyal supporters behind. People aren't naive. That's grandstanding to sponsors/media/government. North should be an ecosystem. It isn't...it's far from it and needs work.

 

[Grogg]

"But talk is cheap, and our actions must do the talking"

That's right Ben, talk on and off the field is cheap. Time to be transparent, proactive, and productive. Not reactive.

I'm watching.

View attachment 644121

Incorrect. If you allocate time to engagement you break it down into parts.

For shits and giggles lets say:

• In the bubble (members)
• On the cusp (flirting with entering - casual followers).
• Outside the bubble (footy...what's that?)

Then you break that down further:
- In the bubble (us)

• Big Footy (percentage wise I'd say we'd have the largest member/poster ratio)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

They would have the analytics on their social media pages. Percentage that click. How long people spend reading etc. Non-Big footy areas would be incredibly low % wise. I highlighted that when the news of the extra Tassie game was posted on Facebook it got 160 'likes' and yet around 90% of the comments were anger/frustration. Heath was using the 'like' button as a measure of how successful the news taken - which is incredibly misleading and if he actually uses that as a measuring stick (I highly doubt he would). People see a North link/story, click 'like' because they like North but a very small amount would click and read the link (off the top of my head I think it's around 5-20% actually click and read internet links). So you're more than likely going to get the low attention span types not investing as much time as they are scrolling down their news feed/wall.

Big footy. Lower numbers but significantly higher attention spans and interest. We would carry more weight simply because we are obsessed with North and discuss North probably more than players and club staff. We are the top 1%. Less in number but significant to the overall. We read every damn thing. We talk trades, tactics, we sack scott daily, and have autopsy/preview threads. You don't forget about your heavyweights just so you can flirt with the single folk.

Now I'm no data scientist but I deal with data...I love it. I'd hope there is someone just as obsessed with data at North as I am (I know Tania Gallo is) but I mean the business and marketing types. If they aren't crunching the numbers and ticking all the boxes they aren't doing their job. It shouldn't just be up to the media...the players should be media trained (they sure sound like they are robotic enough) and willing to be more engaged.

Now if you're smart you think outside the box and spread your resources or whatever you have at your disposal. That's free games of football, merchandise, and maybe even a pat on the back. You have 'community managers' - examples include - someone to take care or act as a go-between on the facebook page, big footy forum, twitter. You have competitions or encourage people like those involved in 'the stern look', giantroo, Smaturin. Maybe "thanks for your hard work Giantroo. You're a credit to North and our community so here is a free membership to you and your young boy". Sometimes people only need a little encouragement. That's just one example

North like to say how they are big on community - huddle, women equality etc. and yet they left their most loyal supporters behind. People aren't naive. That's grandstanding to sponsors/media/government. North should be an ecosystem. It isn't...it's far from it and needs work.