WB Game Day V Gold Coast Suns R5 2021

[jeemak]

A few things I reckon:

- People avoiding public transport still due to Covid etc
- The start of local footy season
- The process in getting the tickets for the matches can be a hassle
- The game day experience as a few have mentioned with all the music/flashing lights etc

Not bad points E'Dawg. The first two probably haven't been considered too much around here as yet.

[G-Mo77]

Poor result. Should have been 24k plus
I wonder what might have turned some people away

Not sure. For me personally it's the treatment of members post COVID. We went through harder times than this and always seem to reward our members even if it was something small. This year after donating close to 3k in a season I knew I couldn't attend I got a sticker 3 months late. I don't know, I'd like to go and watch footy again but driving back and forth through traffic, finding and paying for a park, buying food etc seems too much considering the club only thinks I'm worth 1 lousy sticker. I got more from Melbourne United in 1 game when I rocked up and watches them play here in Bendigo. Lots will disagree but I find it pretty sad and it's put me off a lot.

The ticketing can just go and get stuffed as well. I understand I can't have my own seat, that's fine. I'm not real keen on paying more for an inferior seat though. The booking fee is an absolute rort!

[1eyedog]

The absolute assault on your senses, and efforts to stop spontaneous, collective engagement with the game has got out of control. Not satisfied with stripping the joy and anticipation of game day through bullshit ticketing they now want to ruin your ability to even converse with the people around you.

There’s just no restraint shown. It’s like a novice guitarist using all their pedals at once, amp turned up to 10. Any criticism is hand waved away as being “family friendly” “for the kids” and a whole host of absolute wankery.

No music between goals was a relief,

Thank goodness we’re having our best start since 1946. Otherwise I think I’d be really grumpy by now.

Who needs music when you've got the Gold Coast drummer? I do not condone violence of any type and this is what I kept reminding myself of throughout most of the game.

[merantau]

I absolutely agree with all posters regards the awfulness of the "fan experience". The experience is the game itself. We don't need the razzamatazz. The noise is deafening. Imagine trying to take a telephone call re a family emergency or such like? You couldn't. You can barely hear a message on your phone. The introduction of the players one-by-one is excruciating. If it must be done, do it in groups - "Let's hear it for the Bulldog's defenders!" etc.
A replay of some game highlights is all that is needed.

Re the game. There were two absolute howlers that gifted GC goals. Apart from that I thought they played very well in the 3rd and at full strength they will win a fair few games. They made very few unforced errors during the game, kick well, move the ball quickly and run hard.
They just didn't get enough use of the ball due to our midfield dominance particularly in the first half and the last. I thought our defence worked very well together to shut them down when the ball got inside defensive 50. Crozier had a very good first game back. All defeders played well with Dale playing his best game this year.

[Grantysghost]

I still haven't received my membership.

Wow that's terrible. Very poor.

That's completely the clubs fault and I'd be giving them strong feedback if I were you.

Re the ticketing, that's just a fact of Covid life unfortunately. It's tough on some for sure, but I do balance that with how lucky we are to be able to attend at all in comparison to others so ok to cop it.

Going to the VFL yesterday and then onto the AFL with very little restriction was just sensational.

Re reward for last season I somewhat agree.

I'm not sure what to expect but some individual recognition of members loyalty during 2020 wouldn't hurt. Especially considering the club actually made a profit on the back of many of our donations.

I remember the Victory once had an inaugural members wall at a game with all the names of people who were first year members.

Went down well, people were getting photos, looking for their names etc. Surely we can do something?

Hard with some many people not to make it too tokenistic I guess but something would be nice.

[Grantysghost]

That’s about the only one that’s not at blast your ears out doof doof level.

Haha true it's like chapel st on a Saturday night. I prefer it not to be there but accept it. It's part of all sports aleague, nrl, nbl etc. VFL was nice for the old school vibes

[comrade]

Not sure. For me personally it's the treatment of members post COVID. We went through harder times than this and always seem to reward our members even if it was something small. This year after donating close to 3k in a season I knew I couldn't attend I got a sticker 3 months late. I don't know, I'd like to go and watch footy again but driving back and forth through traffic, finding and paying for a park, buying food etc seems too much considering the club only thinks I'm worth 1 lousy sticker. I got more from Melbourne United in 1 game when I rocked up and watches them play here in Bendigo. Lots will disagree but I find it pretty sad and it's put me off a lot.

The ticketing can just go and get stuffed as well. I understand I can't have my own seat, that's fine. I'm not real keen on paying more for an inferior seat though. The booking fee is an absolute rort!

This is a genuine question: what would you have liked to have received from the club as a reward/gesture of appreciation after last year?

[AshMac]

Not sure. For me personally it's the treatment of members post COVID. We went through harder times than this and always seem to reward our members even if it was something small. This year after donating close to 3k in a season I knew I couldn't attend I got a sticker 3 months late. I don't know, I'd like to go and watch footy again but driving back and forth through traffic, finding and paying for a park, buying food etc seems too much considering the club only thinks I'm worth 1 lousy sticker. I got more from Melbourne United in 1 game when I rocked up and watches them play here in Bendigo. Lots will disagree but I find it pretty sad and it's put me off a lot.

The ticketing can just go and get stuffed as well. I understand I can't have my own seat, that's fine. I'm not real keen on paying more for an inferior seat though. The booking fee is an absolute rort!

Agree with all your points G-Moz. I’ve been a 10 year AFL member (35 year dogs member), just snuck into 2016 GF. There was a chance my dad - 50 year member, rarely missed a Melbourne based game in that time - could have missed out. I realised at that time what being a “member of the AFL” meant to the league. Different narrative last year when the corporate sponsors couldn’t prop the league up and the members were needed. Still - even now, nothing really showing any appreciation.

As for the club - same deal tbh. This year in particular has been pretty pathetic. I don’t need a scarf a every year but something that indicated they appreciated us wouldn’t go astray. I spoke w the head of member “something” about 8 years ago - voiced all this directly to him (work meeting) and was assured there is a lot in the works yada yada - nothing. It seems again, the focus is on new members rather than existing.

As for ticket booking fee on a site which is the only way to reserve (not buy) a ticket - it’s disgraceful!

[1eyedog]

This is a genuine question: what would you have liked to have received from the club as a reward/gesture of appreciation after last year?

I'd like Dinner with the Bont followed by reds at Bevo's.

[kruder]

How did people view Young's game? Was at a wedding last night didn't get to see it, have my fingers crossed he can cement himself its probably the area where we are most thin.

[Hotdog60]

He wasn't as prominent as last week. He seemed on the small screen to be making position to receive a few times and either wasn't seen or over looked. I would rate it as average but I wouldn't drop him this week against GWS.

[G-Mo77]

This is a genuine question: what would you have liked to have received from the club as a reward/gesture of appreciation after last year?

For starters actually sending something to me. I'm not that hard to please, even a small gesture of sending me one scarf or hat instead of emailing me something with $20 voucher typed on it would be a good start. A small token can go a long way, we didn't even get a token at all. Everything seems so inpersonal and robotic this season, I feel we've lost touch with our supporter base and that seems to be reflected in our poor membership figures. Like I said in my post. I felt more appreciated in 1 game at Melbourne United in Bendigo than I have this year after almost 2 decades of being a member at a football club.

Dinner with a player and drinks with the coach sounds perfect 1eye. Haha

[Mantis]

At the start of the game if you’d have given me a 10 goal win I’d have taken it and moved on.

The first half was very good, but we slipped a bit in intensity and execution after the main break and suffered from that. Sweet spending lots of time in the 3rd qtr meant we went small in the front half and we didn’t connect well and made some poor decisions and then got caught out on the counter, but we kicked 2.5 to 6.1 in the 3rd so things could’ve been quite different if the conversion rates were equalised. To the credit of GC they played some good footy in the 2nd half with precision (and risky) ball movement, but also had some luck with some lucky breaks. Would’ve been nice to kick straighter than 4.7 in the last, but as we know our goal kicking isn’t something we can rely on yet.

We’re still a work in progress, but banking wins & percentage has us in an extremely strong position as we work our way towards a tough stretch of games where we will we find out a fair bit more about this group.

[merantau]

Young must be persevered with IMO. He was used in the ruck as well as in defence. He was not prominent but neither was he a liability. He has size, he can mark and he has pace and agility. A definite keeper as we have put a fair bit into him over four years and the pay off time has come.

[comrade]

For starters actually sending something to me. I'm not that hard to please, even a small gesture of sending me one scarf or hat instead of emailing me something with $20 voucher typed on it would be a good start. A small token can go a long way, we didn't even get a token at all. Everything seems so inpersonal and robotic this season, I feel we've lost touch with our supporter base and that seems to be reflected in our poor membership figures. Like I said in my post. I felt more appreciated in 1 game at Melbourne United in Bendigo than I have this year after almost 2 decades of being a member at a football club.

Dinner with a player and drinks with the coach sounds perfect 1eye. Haha

That's all fair enough, the organisation focus does seem to be on attracting new members rather than accomodating the die hards.

What did Melbourne United do for you in Bendigo?