President's Update - November 2008

It has been a couple of months since the 2008 football season finished and already Christmas is just around the corner. The year certainly flies around quickly but at least the waiting for the footy to commence again is not too far away.

The 2008 finals campaign was conducted, and congratulations must go to Hawthorn on their success in winning the 2008 AFL premiership cup. A truly committed bunch of young guys playing for each other and their club exceeded against probably one of the shortest priced favorites of all time. Hawthorn built their team over a number of years around youth, and this has rewarded them with the prized trophy in the locker room and the listing in the record books for all the years to come.
Our year will not be remembered with too much pride but it can provide the building block of better things to come for our club and just like Hawthorn we can build from a foundation of youth and develop a winning culture at our club.

As in past years at this time of the year we say farewell to a number of the stalwarts of the Melbourne football family. Names like Neitz, White, Yze and others will no longer be donning the Red and Blue, but we are indebted for their efforts over the years. We will welcome the arrival of the new breed with expectation and interest and watch their development over the lead up to and as the new season commences.

Next season's fixtures have been released and we now know that we will only see Melbourne in Perth once next year, in fact in May when they will play the Eagles at Subiaco on Mothers Day. The Western Demons committee has already commenced planning for this event and we will keep you up to date via this web site and mail outs over the next few months.

Memberships are a major priority for our footy club. No doubt you have all received a lot of communication from the club and from Jim Stynes regarding the challenges before us. We need your support as we clear the debt and rebuild the football club to be the powerhouse that we all want it to be.  Our Western Demons supporters group is recognized as not only being the first interstate supporter group of the club but it is also held in high esteem as providing a great level of support to the club.  I would like to think that our Western Australian supporters would be the first in line to renew their memberships and help the club achieve its membership objective of 30,000 by the start of the 2009 season.  The committee will again be working to assist the club in 2009 on behalf of all of our local supporters, but the club really needs your membership support to help in its lobbying of the AFL to get the best for our club.  More members mean greater power so please join up to assist.

2009 will kick off for the Western Demons with our Annual General Meeting on Sunday 18th January.
The venue is the Italian Club in North Perth and we would love to see you all there on the day.  There will be separate details on the web site and these will also be distributed with the monthly newsletter.
We would also welcome you to nominate to join the committee for 2009 and assist us in giving something back to the club and enjoying some camaraderie with others who want to be part of the Melbourne Football club family.   

We learnt the other day of the passing of Melbourne great Ian Ridley.  For those of us old enough to remember Ian, or "Tiger", as he was affectionately known, was one of the greatest rovers to play for the club.  Ian was small in stature, but tall in skill and courage that saw him play 130 games and contribute 228 goals during his career that spanned the magnificent period, 1954 – 1961.  Ian not only gave to the club as a player but also coached the team for three seasons, served as a committee member and club President during some very difficult periods of the clubs history.  Condolences to the Ridley family - RIP Ian.  They must have needed a great rover for the team above!

As we head into the Festive season may we extend our Western Demons best wishes to all Melbourne followers here in the Western Australia.  We trust yours will be a safe and prosperous period and that the New Year will see our team heading up the ladder for 2009.

Go the Dees

Roger Wingate
President