On The Radio | Kate Roffey | 3AW

on the radio is brought to you by zurich insurance the perfect place to catch up with all things melbourne if you enjoy this content and want more inside access from the team make sure you visit the club website uh nick get me the president oh he's one now this is the president of the melbourne football club and the president not just any president good morning to you good morning everyone what a magnificent day i'm sitting here overlooking the fantastic mcg and i have got goosebumps it's just it this is just fantastic it's not bad is it ah it's me this is what it's all about this is the day you've been waiting for absolutely look and you know we in perth the whole time it was we just can't wait to get back here and play in front of our fans and you know to have i think 33 34 35 000 people coming today i did make the error of getting dropped off and walking down to get in here two two two kate absolutely melbourne supporters are just so fantastic and they they're so excited they're queued up outside the car parks are getting full it's just and it thank you heavens what a magnificent day we've got here financially it'll be a bit handy for you too yeah look it's free access um to get in of course it is free access but i'm sure the merch will go crazy yeah i'm pretty sure the bars will do fairly well mcc will be fairly happy with us here as well but you know this is melbourne supporters we um we often talk about the fact we may not have the most members of any club and this is statistically accurate we have the highest retention rate of any club and that means our members stick through and they have just been magnificent and time to celebrate today members and fans because this is incredible 57 years it's a new club a new era and we're so excited how is it do you reckon that people stick stick so solidly i think it's i think it's part of that thing of you know it's part of that tribal thing and when you go through the really tough times when you come out the other side you just feel like a hundred times better than those who haven't done it it's hard so long to get to the end of the tough i'm fascinated that people stick so firmly yeah in the face of all of that side by side but you get to have a wonderful day like today sure but it's those years ah but i think you're you're from queensland correct and i don't understand no no no well it is no it's the it's the footy family tradition when you grow up in melbourne it's all about particularly when you grow up yeah as well yeah and collingwood we were the pioneers of waiting yeah you know the runners-up because you know i was born in 1960 our last one was 58. i had to wait till i was uh 30 years of age and you know so i stood over of north melbourne there waiting waiting until you were 1970 against even born when we won our last premiership right there you've already found out how important it is for the fans but how important is it today for the players oh absolutely yeah so one of the things that kept driving us as a team and particularly the players was that we weren't playing in front of our crowd and they were so determined to win and bring the cup back so that everybody who was here in lockdown i mean we were still in hard lockdown at that point in time it really was a driving force for them to focus up and make sure that they gave it everything that they could to bring that cup back to melbourne and that cup um she has my beauty i call her she has been everywhere i get asked all the time can you bring it to lunch and that i'm like it's not here it's in regional victoria or it's going to sydney it's all over the place and i get texts and emails and linkedin from people down in warnable and all sorts of things saying thank you so much for giving us the opportunity well it's great to touch that people touch it and i'm standing there and you know grown men are crying because they're touching this you know magnificent it's a pretty hefty big cup but it just means so much as you said nick it means so much to so many people and it's not being dented at all it is been dented a few times since she's been dropped and dented stepped on i love how the melbourne cup they treat you know you're going to wear cotton cups some do but purdy and i said when we're in perth we said we're not having this people can't touch it people have to wear gloves it's the people's cup um it belongs to every supporter of this club it doesn't belong to me it doesn't belong to the players it's their cup so they can pick it up they can have their photos taken with it they're all 13 cups are outside at the moment and that's i think the first time they've ever been publicly displayed like that so we had them down here for a function on friday night and to see them all together there it's just magnificent so if you're outside head down there because you can get your photo taken with all 13 of the premiership cups for a while until the 21 cup comes inside but it's magnificent and so what's going to be the magic moment do you think kate today i think it'll be i think there'll be a few magic moments i'm expecting big things from the crowd and the caleb daniel moment when he um a few pre-choreographed um responses to that but it would definitely be when they get to see the players come down and get their medals again and to hear goody speak he didn't get to speak in perth through rob basil handed the cup over yeah too early so that was the end of it we couldn't get the we couldn't um get it back then but um i think a lot of people will be happy to um hear from goody at last but we've got um all sorts of surprises that i won't um i won't let out of the bag yet but i think people will be astonished at just how much there is of the club and the history of the club and acknowledging our past and looking forward to the future there is tonight with the medals of the players when did they hand them back after this i reckon i reckon harmsee still got his on now yeah they might have to take it off just before they go on the quarter we just hand them back and then get them i reckon yeah i don't i don't think they were pretty um no they were pretty um kept them pretty close to the to the chest um for the certainly the after party and various bits and rightly they should i mean it's a magnificent achievement that they have had and i know our talking to our um players who played in previous premierships and um they're very very happy to say we've got a new group of heroes and we we can look past our our history and our 57-year former premiership players as our heroes now and they're very hasso man and those guys are very happy to say we've done our bit and now thank goodness we've got a new set of heroes for this club to look forward to seeing play in the coming years and of course ron barassi was meant to be here he has covered again yeah so have you been speaking to him or his family yeah we haven't um yeah ronnie's doing he's doing well he's such a great stalwart for the club as you know in the lead up to today he's been doing a lot of media and it's one of those amazing things people go what's it like you know what does it mean to be melbourne and why is it so important i say those names that are synonymous with afl like barassi norm smith robbie flower jim steins those names are melbourne names and people want melbourne to be a good strong club and we would you know dearly love to have ronnie here today but it's not meant to be but we'll make sure that we get him you know suitably engaged in some maybe at the unfurling of the flag next season or something but yeah the cover the covered gods weren't kind to us today and in um giving ronnie covert just when we wanted him here but he'll he'll be back um around next year and we'll be able to hopefully have him at the unfurling side and speaking of that unfurling how do you feel about it being a wednesday game it's been controversial amongst fans yeah absolutely all right what's wednesday oh yeah no big deal we advocated really hard but for friday obviously we wanted um and we but we definitely wanted the grand final replay with the bulldogs to unveil the flag and the option were either don't play the bulldogs and uh unfill it at another time during that round or you play wednesday night and we got a the game our media team have been fantastic and um worked really hard with purdy and the crew to get it as early as we can so i think it's a 7 10 start but it's a wednesday night it's a bit unusual but i'm sure the melbourne faithful will turn up school night oh surely that unfilling of the flag and for football fans in general that don't follow either team what a great start to the season to watch you know absolutely a grand final replay on a wednesday night with a cold refresher absolutely well yeah i like the cold refresher element of it but yeah look i think it's um you know we it was important to us that it was that game and that's when the scheduling was we've you know we've lobbied really hard to get a a really good draw for the start of the season we think we deserve it so absolutely deserve it and how has and how has the fan base reacted has there been i mean certainly i've sort of speak to people on social media and stuff like that [Laughter] yes give something back to the club for once yeah serious for a moment out there yeah serious um yeah so how have the fans reacted i look i think um good on them because we we asked for it for friday for good on them for coming out and you know giving it a bit of bumps as well but it is as it is i mean all three covered it's the way this club has been you know what do you do got this break you've got to fly here or there we go you know what's going to happen next week it is as it is and we just take it in our stride and that's what we've got and we will make the most of it and i'm sure our melbourne fans will will be here and making the most of us but who would miss the opportunity to see the unfurling of that any suggestions for us down at collingwood to do with our board or president we need a new one yeah i think well i don't know i think you're in election now aren't you yeah well they're incredibly difficult things to do and i think hopefully the less you hear about them the the better you're doing i think in that sort of regard so we've got a really um stable and cohesive board i'm very pleased to say that i've just brought on another female onto the board so that's one of the critical things for me is to balance that out so sally freeman's joined us and we're very cohesive we're very stable i mean daisy pierce is where there's a sense of calmness at the club and i think that's really what you want to get yeah you want that yeah calmness poised experience we haven't got that at the minute and i want to keep on hearing from the president if you wouldn't mind yeah particularly this time of year yeah absolutely and look it is important you know that was one of the things when i went to perth i originally wasn't going because we didn't have space and um it was in two minds do you know i felt bad because i couldn't be here like everybody else but um when i canvassed goody and purdy and my board and everyone they said no you represent the club and and that's what you do and that's part of the role and it's a part i love actually i really do love being a representative for this magnificent club with this fantastic culture and you know a brilliant future um it's going to be great for melbourne fans i think we're the second youngest um list on the field each week so wow yeah there's one final one from me i know you've been talking about this game uh the the the grand fun the premiership the building up to this day you've talked about it an awful lot you've probably rewatched it a bunch of times do you you think you'll get choked up at any point today oh absolutely i would still get choked up when i'm holding the cup and i don't see the pass please function and i had players from the 70s coming and asking can we have a photo with you in the cup and to me they're the lifeblood of this yeah club they they're the people who make the club and they come and ask can i have a photo with me i mean that makes me feel like crying because you know they're the ones that i'm like i'm honored to actually be here and have a photo with you but so it's this reciprocal thing we all we all know that we're all part of this um well-oiled machine that we've got going we all know our roles we all play our roles and you know it's it actually makes for a great culture um and i think really a great future for melbourne football club kate are you what's your on your schedule for today you're just gonna oh you've got a bit to do yeah get around do some things and yeah get down there amongst the crowd hopefully as well and um you know just as a note we do have to be a bit careful with um our players and our staff because we we can't risk um covert so we have to keep some distance out there um we're all we're all tested rat tested so um we're covered negative but um yeah we've got to make sure that our players don't risk getting covered otherwise um we're coming into monday they're back at training for our men and our women are already training and don't hesitate to bring the cup up here we'll absolutely absolutely i would say she's good she's a very popular lady that cup and rightly sorry congratulations thank you thank you very much have a great day everyone good on you kate ruffy the president of the melbourne footy club