Yep might have typed it after a couple of reds.
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I was in the east west club in the early 90's when i lived east side. Long serving president was called David McC. Then i moved west and thought maybe there will be a west-west club i could join. But alas there wasn't.
He specifically spoke about some of these issues:
- he referred to Bevo as a great coach and mentor to the young boys.
- he spoke about his difficulties being a parent and hearing people say negative things about his son. He says it is hard to sit in the crowd and enjoy the game - this was in notable contrast to Royal, who said he loves going to watch games with Steve Wallis and analyse what they would have done better. He also made a comment about Contessa being a very vocal runner for his under 12s team.
Hi all - attended the Player Sponsors event last night. Was really a great night. Here's a bit of a run down for Woofers :)
Format :
Was at Flemington Racecourse, it was a great venue really open and airy with loads of natural light. The new grandstand I believe. Provided a beautiful backdrop of the racecourse and the city.
Had drinks in the foyer with all the players in attendance, then migrated to seats when Luke Darcy the MC came on and started SHOOSHING everyone. Ha, it was his goto for the night I was cracking up everytime he shooshed us in the room (he did it at least 5 times).
Agenda :
As mentioned Luke Darcy was the MC, did a welcome etc and mentioned how good it was to have everyone in the same room.
Then Ameet got up and spoke, pretty brief spoke about the financial result as a positive but pretty cookie cutter.
After Ameet Luke welcomed up the Chief Operating Officer Sue Clark and she gave the room a rundown of the new facility. This included some slides with some images and data.
The total cost of build was ~77 million with ~64 million of that being sourced externally.
The highlight of the presentation was the animated fly through of the new facility. Suffice to say it's absolutely incredible and I noted with interest the players were all really interested as you'd expect.
There will be a function space that overlooks the ground and the city and it will seat around 450 people. So a function like last night may be there in the future.
After Sue we had our first of three panels with players.
First group of four was Josh Bruce, Cody Weightman, Hayden Crozier and Aaron Naughton.
Pretty standard questions, Bruce said he was going well, Crozier spoke about his trip to the US with a few others including Naughts, Cody went to Iceland to see the Northern Lights which was an interesting story.
Darcy did ask Naughton a question re his position, and said something like "Can you tell me why you aren't playing CHB; some of the supporters and members of the board think you should be"... His answer was he rather be kicking 5 than making 10 spoils and thanked Bevo for making the move !
Think we broke for mains then.
After mains there was some presentations to long term player sponsors (20 years I believe) then the second player panel.
This had Marcus Bontempelli, Taylor Duryea, Caleb Daniel and Ed Richards.
Bont spoke brilliantly as per normal. Taylor was very good he certainly is a good team man and is very cognisant of his role and was talking about ways you can contribute to the team outside of the normal. I found him to be very good.
Caleb relayed the story of the 21 finals campaign after a crowd sourced question. Was really interesting to hear the restrictions that had which are well noted. Probably more extreme than I thought, as in things like waiting for the air to clear in buffets in Qld hotels.
Ed Richards was a highlight, he has a great personality and was quite funny. Mentioned that Liam Jones was a good educator and had already taught the backline group some things which was nice to hear.
Luke also asked him about his great uncle Lou - and he said something like I don't know how many of you know your great uncles but I didn't see him much with a big Ed smile was amusing.
We broke again for Dessert I think.
Then we had some more presentations for long term sponsors, have to say I found this part of the night really inspirational. To see people who care so much for the club that they've been involved at this level for so long was inspiring to me. They got a lovely gift presented on stage by their player and a photo taken.
A gentleman was sitting on my table got a 30 year recognition. He's a lovely man spent a long time chatting with him.
Then we had the third panel which was Rory Lobb, Jedd Busslinger and Liam Jones. Was some quickfire questions that they had to answer without much thinking time.
Rory was pretty amusing, when he couldn't answer he exclaimed to Darcy "i left school at 14 mate what do you want from me!" which was quite funny.
The big buss (which seems to be the nickname) seems a really good kid, pretty laid back and funny. Liam Jones seems like a really good guy and quite wise so he will be a good get.
Here are some snaps from the night.
https://i.postimg.cc/02KXkK0w/PXL-20...-074056460.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/XYMHpNsD/PXL-20...-074141458.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/tRMmGNWb/PXL-20...-082308811.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/sxqnP3sx/PXL-20...-091556483.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/8cjKr78x/PXL-20...-100740477.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/NMNCM1n1/PXL-20...-102452694.jpg
Thanks GG for posting
GG this was a great coverage. Much appreciated. It makes you proud of our unique Club
Thanks for sharing - sounds like a great night.
Thanks GG, great read and photos.
By the way Gg which player are you sponsoring? Did you have a good discussion with him?
Oh I forgot that bit. It's Marra. Yes had a great discussion with him B4L. Got to know him reasonably well over the last few functions. He's a great kid.
He ran us through the story of his new tattoo. It's really quite an amazing work of art.
Hopefully he shares the story with the broader supporter base at some point, it has some beautiful images on it that mean a lot to him.
He scoffed a couple of desserts, another player and I (maybe the new #3) were ribbing him about it. He mentioned he had a body scan today so he could get away with it !
He looks very lean and fit.