AGM | Kate Roffey

so with all that said and done and the technicalities around the agm itself out of the way i get now to present a president's address and as part of that president's address i really want to go back and reflect on the year that was 2021 quite an extraordinary year for the melbourne football club okay to get you all to cast your minds back to the start of our afl season when our afl women's team felt just short of making the grand final we lost to adelaide in adelaide in our semi-final um each year so far we've come so close to actually making the grand dance with our women's team we won our semi against gws in 2020 but because of covert unfortunately we didn't even play a final series so that was very disappointing our women have had a fantastic start to 2022 i think one of the standout things for us is the couple of games that the women have played in the last two weeks against brisbane and north melbourne they were gutty gritsy really hard fought wins and i think that has shown just where our team are in terms of their development they're working together as a as a group and their desire to really want to take that next step and raise an afl premiership cup can i think in particular mixed in here and our coaching team we know that um all our coaches all head coaches are critical parts of the success of our teams and of building really strong and resilient cultures within our teams i know talking to our fabulous captain uh daisy pierce when we were discussing whether or not she would play on um post her her recent injury and she said i will stay if mixed in here stays that is the regard with which mick has held as a head coach of women's afl uh there were many clubs that came after mick and tried to poach him from melbourne but we're very very pleased that mick is here as our head coach of our afl program going forward we have a couple of tough weeks ahead of us we will make the top four uh that is a given at the moment for our women's afw program whether or not we can make the top two depends on a couple of critical games in freo this week and next week at casey so i'm sure i'll see many of you out there at casey cheering the women on and let's hope that we get that top two finish it does give us an advantage going into the finals so the best of luck to our afl women's program afl men really what do i need to say about the 2020 one season for our afl man it really speaks for itself i think it signaled not just a changing of attitude as this club in winning our first premiership in 57 years but it also signaled a maturity of the club and i think that's really something that you talk about when you go on a journey like the melbourne football club has been on we talk about a premiership year and i always say that's the wrong term to use because for us at the melbourne football club as many of you will know this has been a premiership decade it has taken a long time to go back and rebuild this club but that is what we've done and it has put us in a fantastic position not only in 2020 2021 but going forward i have to say people often ask you know how happy are you to have been the president that was in situ when we won our first premiership flag in 57 years and i say that's fantastic but i have to admit that i am even happier to be the president who lost two things in 2022 two things that i think week 2021 sorry two things that i think we desperately needed to lose as a club and that was the so-called norm smith curse and the tag tagline of long-suffering melbourne supporters i hope that they are two things that disappeared the day we lifted that premiership cup up at optus stadium this is a new club it's got a new culture it's got a new attitude and it's a very very exciting future and i know that our ceo gary peart will talk a little bit more about that when he stands up and speaks after the premiership when i did some media the next morning and a journalist said what does it feel like to be back at the epicentre of the afl universe and i said well really it just feels like where melbourne football club should be but of course when you get to the center of the afl unicef universe you become the hunted and this is where we are now we are now the team we are now the club that everybody else is hunting down and what that means is we need to be tougher we need to be more resilient we need to be more unified than ever and i know you as our members really do feel that need to actually get behind our club and our team we had a few up and down years coming into 2021 we made finals we dropped back down the ladder we just missed finals but as a club we always knew where we were going and what sort of journey that we were on and how difficult it is at times to reach the pinnacle we have got there we got there by making tough calls we made tough calls all across the organization and i know that was something that was spoken about at the footy update and in the members brief we have to keep evolving we have to keep moving forward we have to keep challenging ourselves we have to keep better keep getting better if we don't do that we won't keep winning and we need to keep improving at all levels we know that we have our players our men and women who represent this club so proudly we know every time they go out onto the field they put it all on the line to win the games for this club but they would be the first i know to say and you've heard them speaking in the media about this all the time they would not be holding up a premiership cup if it wasn't for the coaching and support staff that are around them and i thank all our coaching and support staff who together have been such a critical part of leading this club to great success it would of course be remiss of me not to in particular acknowledge and thank our head coach simon goodwin um he's the coach of the year his premiership coast but what is most important is that he is a genuinely good person he's a magnificent leader of this club and i say that as a leader of the whole club not just our men's program i think all of you would agree more than anyone else woody's been a key driver of the team first club first culture that we see displayed so strongly on end off the field um we saw for example maxi gorn during the grand final so don't put me back in the middle because jacko is killing them um recognising that we need to win as a team we need to do what we need to do to win as a team it's not about each individual best performance after the game down on the field chris petraka came up and said let's have a photo of the cup and i said track where's your norm smith's medal we were all mortified he might have lost it and he said i've tucked it inside my shirt because i just want to have my medal on display like everybody else to be part of the team that is the culture that has been built in this club that is the culture that is displayed by everybody at this club and we don't need to tell people what to say when they stand up in the media we don't need to tell players what they need to say that is how they feel and i think our whole club is about caring for our peoples first and simon really is someone knowing simon well his empathy his genuine concern and care for the players is something that makes goody i think a standout amongst head coaches it's the reason that players respond to him so well it's the reason that players go out and play their hearts out for their head coach every single game because he cares about them as people first players second and that's something that they respect and it's something that really i think sets us apart from other clubs i know um on behalf of simon i think um i would like to thank all of you out there who've been in the touch in touch with the club to provide some really positive feedback and support following some media coverage which i think um we quite clearly pointed out in our club statement was both incorrect and misleading um that's very disappointing um and i know most of you out there have responded to the club and said you equally feel disappointed to see that sort of thing being printed in the media but i think overwhelmingly um those messages clearly said very clearly said goody we are all a hundred percent behind you so i have specifically said to simon on behalf i'm sure of everybody out there who's listening today or perhaps watching this at some later time just keep doing what you're doing goody and i'm sure if it means you bring us another afl premiership flag in 2022 back home here at the mcg from which um we're coming to you today then we will all be very happy about that so i thank you simon i think simon support staff around him and most certainly i think the men who bought home that shiny premiership cup that you can see in the image behind me