Events Thread

[GVGjr]

Awesome lineup

Listening to Hawk, Choco and Liberatore now. Very privileged. Doug just said he and Dippa could speak 6 languages between them and none of them were English. The classics

[bornadog]

Listening to Hawk, Choco and Liberatore now. Very privileged. Doug just said he and Dippa could speak 6 languages between them and none of them were English. The classics

Tom Libba or Tony?

[GVGjr]

Tom Libba or Tony?

No current day players so Tony. He's a fantastic speaker. Next up West, Cooney and Contessa.

[GVGjr]

Looks like Cooney no showed.

[Bulldog4life]

Looks like Cooney no showed.

He must be at an Essendon function.

[Grantysghost]

Looks like Cooney no showed.

He's trolling for sure.

[GVGjr]

I think I might have missed an announcement earlier in the night that Cooney couldn't make it. They announced a few people couldn't make the night due to Covid and illness.

[EasternWest]

I think I might have missed an announcement earlier in the night that Cooney couldn't make it. They announced a few people couldn't make the night due to Covid and illness.

I bet he finished the phone call with: "I still get paid, right?"

[hujsh]

Second event he no showed to. Why even book him.

[GVGjr]

It's a well run night and despite some challenges with the microphones it was an informative session.

The President talked a lot about her experiences as a Bulldogs supporter and how she now misses sitting with her family now that she has more corporate functions to attend. She confirmed we are in a strong financial position and that we navigated through the challenging covid years.
Both KWW and Bains talked about the membership numbers and the redevelopment of the Whitten Oval and the new facility at Skinner reserve. We definitely have a good board and leadership in place.

The first of the interviews was fantastic, Kevin Hillier does a sensational job in being the MC and interviewing the legends.
Doug talked about what he is doing now and the strongest and best memories he had from his time with the club.
Breaking Ted Whitten's game record was one of the highlights and he let it be known that he considered retiring on the same number of games as Ted, that's how much he loved Ted, until he got a telegraph (remember them?) from Ted wishing him a good game and telling him to push on. Sensational stuff.
West, Libba and Royal were also a part of that special game.
Doug talked about his first (or one of his first) game(s) being against the club he supported as a kid in North Melbourne and eventually being pitted against his idol Keith Greig.
He talked about 85 and really did provide a terrific overview of his footy career. It was lighthearted but had a strong message in it.
Hawk talked about the players he likes watching now and went through a few names before declaring that Tom Liberatore is the gauge of this team and that when he is up so is the team. He made it clear he wasn't saying that just because Tony was there and he regards Tom as a special talent.

Royal is doing well with a building company and he is a director of coaching at Beaumaris and talked about how the club is doing well.
He loved his time with us and talked about when he came to the club being a Bulldogs supporter and then how most weeks he was tagged as a player until Tony McGuinness arrived at the club.
He said you would run to the centre at the start of the game and look around to see which player was going to be targeted by the opposition and more often than not it was Tony Mac. He made a couple of good natured comments about taggers knowing he was sitting alongside of the best of them all. He really enjoys getting to the footy and catching up with some old mates.
Choc talked about how proud he was when we won in 2016 (they all did) and how is jealous of them in a nice way.
You can still tell he has a competitive fire about him.

Tony Liberatore stole the show from my perspective. He first up called out Sue Alberti for her contribution to the club and you can sense a special bond between them. He talked about how he has a first aid business that's doing well and that he has been copping some comments from people about the photo alongside of Tom yesterday where people are asking if he has shrunk.
He's still playing over 50's footy every 2nd week because he just loves it. He also talked about the pride he has with Tom's achievements.
There were some mentions of a special bond he had with Garry Hocking and they were both invited to their last games and some funny comments about his rivalry with Paul Kelly that resulted in the doing a commercial together.

I'll add some more probably tomorrow about Scott West and Adam Contessa. Both really provided a great overview of their careers.

[josie]

Great summary Gvgjr. An enjoyable night and agree Hillier does a great job as MC.

Cooney might have covid so don’t be too harsh on him folks.

A delight to briefly chat to a few bulldogs legends.I got to thank Susan Alberti for all the great work she has done for the club and that gave me a thrill. As an aside I loved her duck blue winter coat - absolutely stunning.

It struck me when the past players were sharing what they are up to nowadays that it’s only quite recent that majority of good players make good money from their contracts, hence most past players are working well into their mature years as a necessity.

Got oh so close to winning a life size bulldog statue - another person on same table won it, so that was fun!

[jazzadogs]

One thing from KWW that I found interesting was that both our AFL and AFLW sides are the most watched on TV. She also said that we have grown our fanbase (I assume different numbers to memberships) by 30% in the past 13 months - the Bazlenka effect?

I thought she spoke well, and attended the event with her family - she gets knocked a bit on here but I don't have an issue with a background president.

G's summary was pretty spot on. West and Contessa both spoke strongly about the impact of the media saturation on young men's mental health and ability to enjoy their time in football - they have young boys potentially playing in an under 12s grand final next week, so I'm sure they're looking to the future. Contessa said Westys boy is the best in the comp.

[GVGjr]

Part 2

Scott West talked about coming to the club as a 15yo who had always barracked for Essendon. He was overwhelmed by being able to be able to train alongside of footballers he admired. He said he loved training and what a privilege it was to be able to be paid to get fit. He was one of the first to arrive at training and one of the last to leave. He talked about training in very difficult conditions at the Skinner reserve and how it tested players and for him playing on all different grounds through his career really tested him.
He referred to playing at Waverly Park as that shit hole and I got the impression he really enjoyed playing Optus Oval. Etihad was a challenge for him later in his career because it was a quicker ground.
He also talked about being able to play against some of the best in the business including Hird, Ratten, Voss and Buckley.
99 was the year that he really regretted he said many people talk about 97 but for him 99 was a big missed opportunity running into West Coast and then Brisbane up there.

He said he wished he could have learned to enjoy his football more particularly later in his career. Despite being at the club a long time he said it flew by. He talked about his pride of seeing Rhylee play a few times and he has a younger boy who's a talented player as well.

Adam Contessa was very informative. He has a son that plays against West's younger boy and he is a runner for that team.
He talks about how when an opposition player kicked a goal how everyone at the club knew who that goal was kicked against and nowadays with a team defense he's often left trying to work out who the opponent was for the player who just kicked a goal
He sold an events business a few months before Covid hit which was a stroke of good luck and he has been working in Road Traffic control for a few years. He's currently doing a project somewhere near Geelong.

All in all it was another very good night and we even had Naomi Ferres from our AFLW team get up and speak for a few minutes.

If anyone here lives out in the East I would recommend joining the East West club. These nights are something that brings the supporters a bit closer to the club we love. To have the President, the CEO and 5 legends talking to us along with a 3 course meal and a number of activities including raffles and silent auctions in what is a very good venue is great value for the supporters.

[GVGjr]

One thing from KWW that I found interesting was that both our AFL and AFLW sides are the most watched on TV. She also said that we have grown our fanbase (I assume different numbers to memberships) by 30% in the past 13 months - the Bazlenka effect?

I thought she spoke well, and attended the event with her family - she gets knocked a bit on here but I don't have an issue with a background president.

G's summary was pretty spot on. West and Contessa both spoke strongly about the impact of the media saturation on young men's mental health and ability to enjoy their time in football - they have young boys potentially playing in an under 12s grand final next week, so I'm sure they're looking to the future. Contessa said Westys boy is the best in the comp.

Just on Kylie, I think the knocks on her is that she isn't as visible to our supporters as many would like to see and based on last night there is some merit in that observation. She was impressive and informative last night and I would really like to see her getting a bit closer to the rank and file supporters more than just corporate's. Now this might be hard for her to manage with her schedule but she could make a more positive impression on all of our supporters.

[Grantysghost]

Just on Kylie, I think the knocks on her is that she isn't as visible to our supporters as many would like to see and based on last night there is some merit in that observation. She was impressive and informative last night and I would really like to see her getting a bit closer to the the rank and file supporters more than just corporate's. Now this might be hard for her to manage with her schedule but she could make a more positive impression on all of our supporters.

Nail -> head.

Do they check your suburb passport at the door of this event? Seems like the best one of the year now!

I've worked in the east for 25 years so that should count ;P