Kate Roffey | 2022 AFLW Best & Fairest

thanks everyone this is always um as you well know one of my favorite nights of the year and i get to spend a bit of time with our fabulous women who play afl for the melbourne football club and acknowledge the fantastic year that we have had we had a great year a fabulous year and i know that our players are sitting there thinking it wasn't as good as it could have been and to some feeling a bit disappointed and that's fair we spoke again in the change rooms on in adelaide it seems to be a bit of a theme so let's not do it again next season girls but we spoke again in the change rooms about the fact that we didn't quite get there this year we made the grand final we gave it as good a a hit as we could and speaking to the coaches one of the first things i said i think when jane i walked up and gave a hug and said it's jane did they do what you asked them to as coaches because i always say to our players when i'm chatting away i say if if you do what your coaches tell you to do and you don't win that's their fault if you do you do what the coaches tell you to do and you don't win that's their fault but if you do what they tell you to do and you don't win you just got beaten on the day by a better team and that's what happened adelaide are a cracking side we know that they are a very mature and they're a very experienced side but we were not in any way proud not proud of the way that our women went out and played for the melbourne football club a few things we talked about this i was talking to the fabulous maddie guy we were having a chat yesterday and i said the what ifs the what ifs in the game we all think about it my coach always said you'll sit there and you'll think about what if maddie said what if the ball had a bounce i said uncontrollable cross it off your list of what ifs because that's just bad luck what if the handball had just gone to hand instead of just missed the player running through a little bit of poor execution but again a bit of bad luck but what if i could have run harder what if my hands were stronger in the marking contest what if i could get my arms free in the tackle we talked about those things and said they're the little things that i call the extraordinary efforts things they're the discretionary effort things that maddie said i can work on some of that stuff in the off season i can work on that myself because that is the only thing that is making the difference now between a team like adelaide who are very experienced have been there and done that they're a very very well skilled very well drilled squad and if we're sitting there thinking i was just talking to days about this if we're sitting there thinking that our chance to win the premiership is the expansion season that's coming up and the fact that adelaide might lose a lot of players we're not in the right now that's not what we're thinking because we're not in the right mindset then because we can beat any team on a day when we turn up to play and we give it our best we beat brisbane like that and for mine they're actually a better team than adelaide across the board we can do that but we've got to focus on what we need to do to lift just that little bit more but having said that the game that was played on saturday by all of you was exceptional you did what the coaches asked you to do and a little bit of luck with a couple of snaps a little bit of luck with a couple of handballs and the result might have been different but we can't dwell on that either because we go forward and we're resilient we get up and we bounce back the upside is that we have a very short period of time now in which to do that everyone was talking to me on the field and they said we go again next year and i said now we go again this year because the next afl season will start in august and so you get that chance to go again and we get the chance to put our hands up to be premiers again and that's what we're going to aim to do because this team is good enough to do that so if you're sitting there players and thinking you feel disappointed or that we feel disappointed and i do i feel disappointed but i don't feel disappointed in you and nobody in this room feels disappointed in you we feel disappointed for you because you're a team that deserves to have a premiership and i'm going to make a commitment to do the little things that i can do as a president to make it better for you and purdy i'm sure will sit there and make a commitment to the little things that he can do as ceo to make it better for you and all you need to do is that little bit of commitment to make those little things that make the difference lift you above any team in the competition whether adelaide lose players or not so we are all here to celebrate the success of our season that has just been and i don't want anyone to think for any minute that it wasn't a highly successful team we made an aflw grand final we made it against the odds you guys have had to train at different grounds while bosch's paddock is being fixed you have to work and try and get yourself to casey on times which is not a short drive to get to training in the afternoons we seem somehow to end up having to play every top team in the competition we don't seem to get a game against geelong or the gold coast any year i'm not sure why at their home ground as someone said and we get the joy of playing on that biscuit tin that they call norwood oval so it has been a very very difficult season for you and you have come through and you have done every single person in this room proud we could not be happier that you are the players that play for the melbourne football club that pull on the red and blue for us every week and we're here to celebrate that tonight i know the first thing that you will all say if you are the recipient of any one of these awards is that the individual accolades don't really matter because we're here to win as a team and that's a great thing because i can tell you the person who feels worst in the afl at the moment is marcus montempelli because he was the best player on a team that didn't win the premiership and that doesn't give you any joy but tonight in reflecting on what you've done and what you've contributed if you they are the recipient of an award just take a moment to think that this is actually voted on by the people who know this is voted on by people internal to our club and they have selected you for that award because they see in you that you are doing those little things that i talk about the discretionary effort things so be proud of that award because it's very important if you haven't won one of those awards tonight that doesn't mean that you aren't working hard and that doesn't mean that you're not putting in the discretionary effort things and you know what there's an opportunity to pick one up next year as well so be proud if you are a recipient or not tonight be equally as proud if you aren't and use that as something to drive you on for next year because we are resilient at the melbourne football club we have been through the toughest of times but we are the only club that is both a men's premiership cup holder and a women's grand finalist at the same time we are the we are the only club and i checked with purdy the other day i said we must surely be the only club ever in the history of the afl to have the reigning men's coach of the year and the reigning women's coach of the year at the same time [Applause] and we actually happened to be the melbourne based club that had the first player to play 50 games first victorian player to play 50 games in the aflw and that was the fabulous libby burch [Applause] karen paxman the cyborg i don't know how paxy does doesn't paxi played 50 games for us against brisbane paxy um in our prelim and of course mick brought up his 50th game coaching for us in the grand final that's not an easy thing to do because you think of a season it's six or eight games a season so this is the equivalent of men playing 150 games so they are not in substantial milestones and we thank you for representing our club so well to the staff and in particular mick and your coaching team you are brilliant i remember talking to days i think last year it was days when we were coming back from adelaide and i said daisy you're going to stay will you play on she said i will if you can get mick to stay and so that was one of the key things that we we worked on mick is that you are held in such high regard obviously not just by the players here but by the coaches around the league and the other clubs we thank you for your contribution it is very hard as daisy said when she announced your coach of the year awards it's not quite the same as being a million dollar coach of a men's program here mick we know that but we thank you and and jane tam pete um shay everybody else who's involved in the program as well i know how much it means to the women to have you here and to play for them and certainly to us as a club we know that we've got the best in charge with you games to the very very special group that are here tonight in our players parents i've probably spent more time i think with with you in the last three days um as a playing group than we have in the last couple of years because of covet and one of the greatest joys of all those functions is being able to have met your parents and spend time chatting to them i've said it before but i'll say it again thank you so much for letting us have your daughters as part of the melbourne football club it is it is not an insubstantial commitment that you have made to get your children to this level of being able to play at the elite level of sport as many early hours we know and it's many a cost as they go through and i know you will be delighted to have seen them out on the field on saturday playing in a grand final and cheering them on so many of you made it over to adelaide and we thank you for being there and for being part of our melbourne football club family you're very important to us a particular shout out to goldie's parents who are here from ireland i think they must have they must have made i think the longest journey um in the history to get here and watch their daughter play and we really do um appreciate the fact that you are over here and watching um their daughter play her um first game live which is um very exciting um so welcome to you and also to all our players sponsors to our sponsors to our fabulous demon army who are here year in and year out they never never let us down it's such a joy to all have you as part of the melbourne football club family we couldn't do it without you and i know that anytime i spoke to any of our women they were so grateful to have you as part of our journey so enjoy tonight i know it's difficult at times because you think of the saturday result that this is a night for you to celebrate the success of last year and as i said we can look forward to next year and and bigger and better things we are good enough to do this and we will get it done thank you everyone enjoy your knife and let's go you mighty demons [Applause]