Season Launch - 2016

[bornadog]

Bevo's speech here

[Twodogs]

I can't remember either, but I am sure it will be in writing somewhere today.

* It was great this year the club invited AFL CEO Gillon along as well as the state treasurer Tim Pallas a doggies fan.

* At our table we had Lachie Hunter, who really didn't want to talk to many, but we kept firing questions at him. Nothing really to report, other than the usual can't wait to get out there. I discussed with him the high possessions he has been racking up. He said he has the freedom to move up and down the wing which has helped him.

We were wondering why he sat on the other side of the table on his own, and a few ladies were trying to get him to sit closer. After proceedings had started, his sisters joined him at the table. Most of the night he was missing from our table.

* At the next table was The Bont and one young fella, about 14 years old sat next to him and was very excited.

* Stringer popped over a few times to talk to Lachie and we got him to have a photo with us. I called him Jesse, and he just said yea call me what you want.

* Walked past the media table but TD wasn't there, FDOTM was busy chatting and the discussion looked intense, so I didn't stop.

* Bevo's speech was based on the camp on the Sunshine Coast and a walk he took through the bush, where he came across a spider weaving it's web. He related the weaving of the web with the club, the players the game plan etc. I am sure the video will be available on the club website and it is worth listening to.

Overall not really a lot to report, but I do urge WOOFERS, if you get the chance to put this night in your diary every year. As Peter said, this time of the year we are all Optimistic, all the players are in the best 22 and we are on top of the ladder and we will win every game.

That was a strange analogy.

I must have been somewhere. Even the media table was crammed full. A couple of years ago I counted five at the table, last year there were three or four empty chairs but last night there were none.

[bornadog]

The big announcement were 4 new sponsorships to the value of 2.2 mil and membership is up 23%. The sponsorships were all companies I'd heard associated with us before, White King, Slater and Gordon, a state govt authority and can't remember the other-they may have been a new sponsor.

White King, Worksafe, Slaters and Allied Express.

[bornadog]

I should have mentioned the AFL has committed we will play one game in Ballarat in 2017 and then more from 2018.

More news here that I missed: From The Age.

The Western Bulldogs' season launch on Tuesday night was an understated affair, with president, chief executive and coach all addressing a record crowd without buying into the hype around their club.

Then a song was played, the lyrics of which had been reworked by the players. It was called Western Bulldogs - Taking Over.

Footballers and music have long made for a treacherous marriage - see the 1981 compilation Footy Favourites, or Stephen Kernahan's post-1987-premiership version of Stand By Your Man. The Bulldogs' foray into songwriting won't win any ARIAs, but it will stand as another example of a coach who is prepared to do things his own way.

Luke Beveridge introduced to the crowd of 1000 "some very talented, musically-minded friends of mine", who with their Moorabbin band Randy Moon Unit had penned "a handful of catchy songs". Beveridge knew them from his days coaching St Bede's-Mentone in the amateurs, and on the Bulldogs' Sunshine Coast pre-season camp in February he set the players the task of reworking one of their numbers, "Retro Rollers", into a song for the Dogs.

Michael "Mouse" Wintle was joined on Tuesday night by his bassist brother Paul ("Ratboy") and Jono Kane, who Beveridge said spent "hours and hours" producing the song with Mouse. The result, played to a backdrop of on-field highlights, is an infectious number that's set to get a run around at Bulldogs' games, full of "battering bones and rattling cages" and imploring the faithful to "get up, get up, get up for the weekend".

Its maiden public airing followed a classically Beveridge address in which the second-year coach relayed a story from that Mooloolaba camp of his path being blocked by a magnificent web containing a golden orb spider as he walked a national park track at night. To reach his car he had to destroy something that to a mature spider was akin to us achieving an undergraduate degree.

"We're weaving something here," Beveridge said of the Bulldogs. "We only really get one shot at this web to catch the biggest prey. It has to be intricate, so that every cross-weave is close to the next, so that every strand works together, and not in isolation.

"There have been recent new beginnings. We've made a pretty good start. But the web is not strong enough yet.

"And there'll be things that are out of our control, like some bozo walking through the hinterland destroying things. No spider weaves a perfect web, and all AFL clubs make mistakes. (We need) the determination of the golden orb spider, brushing over things we cannot control, not allowing things to compromise our progress and our purpose."

That progress was highlighted by chief executive David Stevenson, who announced four new sponsorship deals worth $2.2 million and membership that's tracking in record territory - up 23 percent, or 5500, on this time last year and about to hit 30,000.

"We are not an AFL club - we are the Western Bulldogs Football Club with a team that plays in the AFL, the VFL and the women's competition," Stevenson said, a theme of inclusiveness that was picked up by president Peter Gordon in petitioning the AFL to grant the Bulldogs' women's team not only one of the eight licences for next year's historic competition, but the honour of the first game against fellow women's football pioneer Melbourne.

With league boss Gillon McLachlan in attendance, Gordon announced that the club has a written commitment from the AFL, subject to construction of a grandstand at Eureka Stadium, to play the first of its Ballarat home games next season and at least two each year from 2018-21.

Gordon described 2015 as a "resurgent" season and "an unforgettable year with many great memories", but emphasised that it's in the past. "The next chapter of our history is about to be written, the next ride is about to begin. What will it contain?

"Enjoy this year. Let's hope the ride continues the trajectory of 2015. Give our club your best. Be a strong part of the history we are about to write, of the next chapter of this fantastic club."

Gordon stopped short of declaring that the Western Bulldogs are taking over, but the crowd was already singing along.

[LostDoggy]

Makes me want to put my game day jumper on and bust through some walls at home!!!

[AndrewP6]

White King, Worksafe, Slaters and Allied Express.

They were announced as "new" sponsorships?

[Twodogs]

They were announced as "new" sponsorships?

New sponsorships. I take it as those companies recommitting/extending their comipmitments.

[comrade]

The spider web story was awesome. Can see why Bevo and Bob make a great team.

[Twodogs]

The spider web story was awesome. Can see why Bevo and Bob make a great team.

I couldn't stop thinking about it on the way home. Sat on the train wondering a thousand things from whether it was the same spider that span next nights web to whether the point was the spider or the web to the organisational structure of a football club.

[Sedat]

It's only words but it makes a nice change from the utterly bland musings from the previous coach, such as "we need to be more resilient", "we need to crack in", and "we need to roll the sleeves up and get back to work on Monday". A leader needs to inspire those he is in charge of (through words and actions) and Bevo certainly does that.

[Twodogs]

It's only words but it makes a nice change from the utterly bland musings from the previous coach, such as "we need to be more resilient", "we need to crack in", and "we need to roll the sleeves up and get back to work on Monday". A leader needs to inspire those he is in charge of (through words and actions) and Bevo certainly does that.

Yep. If I heard another bland bout of bullshit from McCartney about resilience or cracking in I may well have gone postal and not been responsible for my actions.

[Remi Moses]

I reckon bevo loves national geographic
Besides the sport, it's the only decent thing Foxtel has

[SonofScray]

Interested to hear the song!

[bornadog]

Interested to hear the song!

I would have thought the club website would have it up, but it is not there.