Strategy CEO Thread - Jennifer Watt - Started Jan 2023

[Sphynx]

If we do get get the NT as a zone we can't half arse it, we don't give two ****s about tassie and have never really invested in junior footy in tasmania

Sonja is going to have to lobby her ass off in this regard.

There's no way we can fund a legitimate crack at it without some form of external investment.

Its way too big and comparable (if not worse) than a Northern Academy and they use their clubs local base, staffing, resourcing, coaching and recruitment. Brisbane and Sydney spend millions on theirs per year.

The likes of Collingwood, Melbourne and Essendon have got virtually nothing out of the rural areas and as far as I can see, invested virtually nothing in them. They've prioritized their suburban Victorian zones.

It might have to come by way of the NT Government. As in we receive $500k per game in Darwin as well as $1-$2m per annum for setup of development pathways there.

We also don't reep the full benefit of it like a Northern Academy. If the next Shaun Burgoyne or Cyril Rioli emerges from our development pathways and investment, we won't get access.

So the club can't just piss money down the drain. There has to be a balance. It's the reason why the Northern Clubs throw a hissy fit and threaten to pull money from their academies. We should be the same.

I'm waiting to have it confirmed to me today, but I believe the other NGA's from the Melbourne clubs in the NT were shut like ours were with Tasmania due to Covid restrictions. There's been no noise out of them since Covid.

No other side operates their NGA in a different state, we did with Tasmania, but it's Tasmania, it's a 45 minute flight from Melbourne with nothing like the cultural and development hurdles of NT. It had some issues, but AFL TAS had rock solid pathways in place to work with.

We are likely going to have to setup an NT based office/group of staff of some description. Talent ID in the Territory will be a full time job and is probably completely untapped to an extent.

I guess our one major advantage is we have some past players already involved in coaching with decades of experience at the local level in the NT like Matt Campbell and Shannon Motlop who might be ideal to head this up from a talent ID and coaching/development perspective.

Matt Campbell already has a major development roll in Central Aus.

 

[The Warlord]

Mindful of the time I can take out of my day running my own business to properly answer this question , but off the top of my head we have:

• Extensive marketing team
• Content and video team
• Database of 100k potential customers
• Business owners through the North Network
• Hospitality events like NMCF breakfast etc

So maybe you look at, let's say, a digital agency offering content and media buying services. You partner with an owner of a digital agency ideally who supports the club. Let's say you go 50/50. You create a subsidiary of his company, so "Kanga Digital," but he absorbs the day-to-day - staff, invoicing, etc.

They run the day-to-day of the biz. What's in it for them is access to our network, government influence for tenders, access to our content machine which we outsource to the business, access to our board members' advisory, events etc.

So now you have a digital agency which takes very little in terms of setup, a motivated operator, a product to market. This is an asset you build, generates cash distributions etc.

This is the first of a catalogue of businesses you build out, just a low-risk start.

Excuse the example of the product/service we would be best offering. Just a 2-minute idea. There are a million. Key is to keep them capital and time light and monetising our assets and building out a system we can replicate across other industries.

People are doing this every day Australia-wide, building businesses from very little with a lot less competitive advantages than we would have.

Other clubs are not doing it because its easy to just put their massive amounts of cash into 5-10% yield driving investments. Gotta think outside the box and get the right people on board.

We could also buy things cheaply on Temu, but set up a fancy website to make those tatty things look classy innit, then sell them at a big old mark up.

 

[The Warlord]

Sonja is going to have to lobby her ass off in this regard.

There's no way we can fund a legitimate crack at it without some form of external investment

Reckon we may well have thought that bit through, especially given who is running the decision at the AFL.

 

[GoRoos2023]

We could also buy things cheaply on Temu, but set up a fancy website to make those tatty things look classy innit, then sell them at a big old mark up.

That comes across a bit disrespectful I went to effort to answer your question properly.

But yeah there are ways to make money outside of afl or government distribution lots of folks are doing it.

 

[Sillygit]

I'll never forget hearing a Carlton supporter at one of our Home games at Marvel years ago. The big screen showed that our next Home game was 4 weeks away and the guy laughed as he said......''I'm watching my boys play every week in Melbourne for the next 6 weeks and you lot gotta wait a month for your next Home game here Ha!''

I've heard other versions of that from other opposition supporters when the next Home game info pops up on the big screen.

The thing that sh!ts me the most about it is that theres no rebuttal to it. You just have to take it.

It's embarrassing.

no rebuttal?

"go f*ck yourself you nonce"

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

I'll never forget hearing a Carlton supporter at one of our Home games at Marvel years ago. The big screen showed that our next Home game was 4 weeks away and the guy laughed as he said......''I'm watching my boys play every week in Melbourne for the next 6 weeks and you lot gotta wait a month for your next Home game here Ha!''

I've heard other versions of that from other opposition supporters when the next Home game info pops up on the big screen.

The thing that sh!ts me the most about it is that theres no rebuttal to it. You just have to take it.

It's embarrassing.

This four game stretch we’re in R14-17 would be the longest stretch of Melbourne games in a decade.

The whole situation is diabolical.

 

[Chadwiko]

I'll never take our club for granted, especially as someone who grew up supporting us interstate. The ability to take my kids to see us play and go to Arden St and watch us train is special.

I am starting to wonder, however, what the end-game is in terms of achieving long-term sustainability as a Melbourne-based club.

We've been selling games for nearly 25 years. Originally it was explained to us that it was a by-product of getting such a raw deal at Docklands in terms of the money we make and the minimum crowds we require to break-even when the stadium was brand-new and the original tenant clubs signed their deals. We just had to wait until the AFL took ownership in 2020 to hopefully see those circumstances change.

Then 2020 came and went and because we were all distracted by the pandemic and the lack of AFL games in Melbourne I don't think many of us really paid much attention to the situation.

Now we're in 2024 and our CEO is publicly saying we still need to sell home-games for financial viability?!

Look, I understand that we're a small/boutique club compared to others in Melbourne, but if we still can't afford to stand on our own two feet as a Melbourne-based club then we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand and ignore it, because that's a massive concern.

If we're going to be continuing to sell our home-games, then there's three simple questions I'd like to see the CEO address;

1. How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?
2. Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?
3. If not, why?

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Sonja is going to have to lobby her ass off in this regard.

There's no way we can fund a legitimate crack at it without some form of external investment.

Its way too big and comparable (if not worse) than a Northern Academy and they use their clubs local base, staffing, resourcing, coaching and recruitment. Brisbane and Sydney spend millions on theirs per year.

The likes of Collingwood, Melbourne and Essendon have got virtually nothing out of the rural areas and as far as I can see, invested virtually nothing in them. They've prioritized their suburban Victorian zones.

It might have to come by way of the NT Government. As in we receive $500k per game in Darwin as well as $1-$2m per annum for setup of development pathways there.

We also don't reep the full benefit of it like a Northern Academy. If the next Shaun Burgoyne or Cyril Rioli emerges from our development pathways and investment, we won't get access.

So the club can't just piss money down the drain. There has to be a balance. It's the reason why the Northern Clubs throw a hissy fit and threaten to pull money from their academies. We should be the same.

I'm waiting to have it confirmed to me today, but I believe the other NGA's from the Melbourne clubs in the NT were shut like ours were with Tasmania due to Covid restrictions. There's been no noise out of them since Covid.

No other side operates their NGA in a different state, we did with Tasmania, but it's Tasmania, it's a 45 minute flight from Melbourne with nothing like the cultural and development hurdles of NT. It had some issues, but AFL TAS had rock solid pathways in place to work with.

We are likely going to have to setup an NT based office/group of staff of some description. Talent ID in the Territory will be a full time job and is probably completely untapped to an extent.

I guess our one major advantage is we have some past players already involved in coaching with decades of experience at the local level in the NT like Matt Campbell and Shannon Motlop who might be ideal to head this up from a talent ID and coaching/development perspective.

Matt Campbell already has a major development roll in Central Aus.

If all that were to come to pass, the club would be obliged to show support and become an ally of the NT indigenous communities particularly on issues that affect them and that would be seen as woke and would result in a few melts around here.

 

[Cunnington Cartel]

I'll never take our club for granted, especially as someone who grew up supporting us interstate. The ability to take my kids to see us play and go to Arden St and watch us train is special.

I am starting to wonder, however, what the end-game is in terms of achieving long-term sustainability as a Melbourne-based club.

We've been selling games for nearly 25 years. Originally it was explained to us that it was a by-product of getting such a raw deal at Docklands in terms of the money we make and the minimum crowds we require to break-even when the stadium was brand-new and the original tenant clubs signed their deals. We just had to wait until the AFL took ownership in 2020 to hopefully see those circumstances change.

Then 2020 came and went and because we were all distracted by the pandemic and the lack of AFL games in Melbourne I don't think many of us really paid much attention to the situation.

Now we're in 2024 and our CEO is publicly saying we still need to sell home-games for financial viability?!

Look, I understand that we're a small/boutique club compared to others in Melbourne, but if we still can't afford to stand on our own two feet as a Melbourne-based club then we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand and ignore it, because that's a massive concern.

If we're going to be continuing to sell our home-games, then there's three simple questions I'd like to see the CEO address;

1. How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?
2. Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?
3. If not, why?

I agree, it is a massive concern. It’s also disappointing that members and supporters had to hear about this for the first through the media, as it’s something that many supporters and members have been speculating about since the 19th license became a topic of conversation.

 

[My Left Foote]

Mindful of the time I can take out of my day running my own business to properly answer this question , but off the top of my head we have:

• Extensive marketing team
• Content and video team
• Database of 100k potential customers
• Business owners through the North Network
• Hospitality events like NMCF breakfast etc

So maybe you look at, let's say, a digital agency offering content and media buying services. You partner with an owner of a digital agency ideally who supports the club. Let's say you go 50/50. You create a subsidiary of his company, so "Kanga Digital," but he absorbs the day-to-day - staff, invoicing, etc.

They run the day-to-day of the biz. What's in it for them is access to our network, government influence for tenders, access to our content machine which we outsource to the business, access to our board members' advisory, events etc.

So now you have a digital agency which takes very little in terms of setup, a motivated operator, a product to market. This is an asset you build, generates cash distributions etc.

This is the first of a catalogue of businesses you build out, just a low-risk start.

Excuse the example of the product/service we would be best offering. Just a 2-minute idea. There are a million. Key is to keep them capital and time light and monetising our assets and building out a system we can replicate across other industries.

People are doing this every day Australia-wide, building businesses from very little with a lot less competitive advantages than we would have.

Other clubs are not doing it because its easy to just put their massive amounts of cash into 5-10% yield driving investments. Gotta think outside the box and get the right people on board.

I want to run an idea by you… two words… Kanga… Kasino.

 

[Sphynx]

I'll never take our club for granted, especially as someone who grew up supporting us interstate. The ability to take my kids to see us play and go to Arden St and watch us train is special.

I am starting to wonder, however, what the end-game is in terms of achieving long-term sustainability as a Melbourne-based club.

We've been selling games for nearly 25 years. Originally it was explained to us that it was a by-product of getting such a raw deal at Docklands in terms of the money we make and the minimum crowds we require to break-even when the stadium was brand-new and the original tenant clubs signed their deals. We just had to wait until the AFL took ownership in 2020 to hopefully see those circumstances change.

Then 2020 came and went and because we were all distracted by the pandemic and the lack of AFL games in Melbourne I don't think many of us really paid much attention to the situation.

Now we're in 2024 and our CEO is publicly saying we still need to sell home-games for financial viability?!

Look, I understand that we're a small/boutique club compared to others in Melbourne, but if we still can't afford to stand on our own two feet as a Melbourne-based club then we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand and ignore it, because that's a massive concern.

If we're going to be continuing to sell our home-games, then there's three simple questions I'd like to see the CEO address;

1. How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?
2. Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?
3. If not, why?

I agree with the above.

A good litmus test around this news in Melbourne today was pretty much exclusively along the line sof.

"The first step in relocating North to Darwin, Northern Kangaroos, Kangaroo logo etc".


Seriously.

The supporters are ****ing tired, most of us don't have another GC saga in us.

 

[My Left Foote]

I'll never take our club for granted, especially as someone who grew up supporting us interstate. The ability to take my kids to see us play and go to Arden St and watch us train is special.

I am starting to wonder, however, what the end-game is in terms of achieving long-term sustainability as a Melbourne-based club.

We've been selling games for nearly 25 years. Originally it was explained to us that it was a by-product of getting such a raw deal at Docklands in terms of the money we make and the minimum crowds we require to break-even when the stadium was brand-new and the original tenant clubs signed their deals. We just had to wait until the AFL took ownership in 2020 to hopefully see those circumstances change.

Then 2020 came and went and because we were all distracted by the pandemic and the lack of AFL games in Melbourne I don't think many of us really paid much attention to the situation.

Now we're in 2024 and our CEO is publicly saying we still need to sell home-games for financial viability?!

Look, I understand that we're a small/boutique club compared to others in Melbourne, but if we still can't afford to stand on our own two feet as a Melbourne-based club then we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand and ignore it, because that's a massive concern.

If we're going to be continuing to sell our home-games, then there's three simple questions I'd like to see the CEO address;

1. How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?
2. Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?
3. If not, why?

I think we just relocate to Darwin, re-brand as the North-ern Territory Kangaroos and sell 11 home games to Melbourne each year.

 

[GoRoos2023]

I want to run an idea by you… two words… Kanga… Kasino.

Only club in the history of sport that couldn’t make money from gambling

 

[My Left Foote]

I'll never take our club for granted, especially as someone who grew up supporting us interstate. The ability to take my kids to see us play and go to Arden St and watch us train is special.

I am starting to wonder, however, what the end-game is in terms of achieving long-term sustainability as a Melbourne-based club.

We've been selling games for nearly 25 years. Originally it was explained to us that it was a by-product of getting such a raw deal at Docklands in terms of the money we make and the minimum crowds we require to break-even when the stadium was brand-new and the original tenant clubs signed their deals. We just had to wait until the AFL took ownership in 2020 to hopefully see those circumstances change.

Then 2020 came and went and because we were all distracted by the pandemic and the lack of AFL games in Melbourne I don't think many of us really paid much attention to the situation.

Now we're in 2024 and our CEO is publicly saying we still need to sell home-games for financial viability?!

Look, I understand that we're a small/boutique club compared to others in Melbourne, but if we still can't afford to stand on our own two feet as a Melbourne-based club then we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand and ignore it, because that's a massive concern.

If we're going to be continuing to sell our home-games, then there's three simple questions I'd like to see the CEO address;

1. How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?
2. Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?
3. If not, why?

I think the next 5 years are critical for the future of the club, if we can become successful on field, regularly playing finals and hopefully win a premiership then we should be able to increase our membership to say 60K and regularly get 30K to home games and hopefully only have to sell 1 or 2 games.

If we don't get this right then I'm not sure what the future holds because I can't see how we (club, players, members, supporters) survive another 5 years like the last 5.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

I agree with the above.

A good litmus test around this news in Melbourne today was pretty much exclusively along the line sof.

"The first step in relocating North to Darwin, Northern Kangaroos, Kangaroo logo etc".


Seriously.

The supporters are ****ing tired, most of us don't have another GC saga in us.

Sick of management types who take the easy option at the expense of supporters.

 

[Only Forwards]

I'll have a crack for you

How many games do we have to sell, and how long is this likely to be necessary for?

Minimum 3 likely all 4 games. It is doubtful that we will replace Hobart with a like for like place. Optimistically 2 of the 4 would be driving distance from Melbourne.

Is there a realistic and achievable plan to work towards this no longer being necessary?

No. We have been in Hobart for 12 years currently. In that time we have increased rather than decreased the amount of games there.

The reality of the situation is every year within the AFL it is an arms race. We need more income than we can gather in Melbourne to compete with other clubs. The way we make money is football. The way that we make more money is to take that football and play it where governments will pay us to play it.

We have next to zero collateral to trade our way out of our predicament in the short to medium term. We are in a cycle We have played horrendously poor football which leads to us getting poorly fixtured which limits our exposure. Limited exposure means that generating revenue is harder. Poor revenue means less to spend on things like development and talent pathways. less talent and development leads to poor football. And around we go.

We are not the only ones in this boat and some of the others in the "dependant on other places" boat have been considerably more successful than us in the last 2 decades.

Last point on this specific question is we can't plan on hope. We hope the wheel turns and that our team upside sees us have 90s style success. If this eventuates we can re-evaluate where we are and how we make hay while the sun is shining.

1. If not, why?

About a million reasons.

other more successful clubs have to sell games. Why would we need to plan to return games to Melbourne when we can take easier options and kick that can down the road to the next admin.


As an aside

People talking about us moving to Darwin need to look at the map a bit better. of that NGA zone stuff. They won't be taking Darwin off GC.

Also if we are 19 teams there will be more money in 20 than there will be in maintaining that number or decreasing. By the 2030s there will be 20 teams. TV rights means the club will endure. The challenge for the admin will be whether we can actually put together and keep together a team that can take out the whole thing when we so clearly one of the have nots.

Lastly if the club wants to really play all its games in Melbourne the lobbying we need to be doing is for a Boutique venue to be built in Melbourne for about 20k people to play all the premier AFLW games at.

Then that venue could see usage in the AFL one day a weekend. And any team selling low draw games interstate would be using it. All of them.

 

[Sphynx]

I'll have a crack for you


Minimum 3 likely all 4 games. It is doubtful that we will replace Hobart with a like for like place. Optimistically 2 of the 4 would be driving distance from Melbourne.

No. We have been in Hobart for 12 years currently. In that time we have increased rather than decreased the amount of games there.

The reality of the situation is every year within the AFL it is an arms race. We need more income than we can gather in Melbourne to compete with other clubs. The way we make money is football. The way that we make more money is to take that football and play it where governments will pay us to play it.

We have next to zero collateral to trade our way out of our predicament in the short to medium term. We are in a cycle We have played horrendously poor football which leads to us getting poorly fixtured which limits our exposure. Limited exposure means that generating revenue is harder. Poor revenue means less to spend on things like development and talent pathways. less talent and development leads to poor football. And around we go.

We are not the only ones in this boat and some of the others in the "dependant on other places" boat have been considerably more successful than us in the last 2 decades.

Last point on this specific question is we can't plan on hope. We hope the wheel turns and that our team upside sees us have 90s style success. If this eventuates we can re-evaluate where we are and how we make hay while the sun is shining.



About a million reasons.

other more successful clubs have to sell games. Why would we need to plan to return games to Melbourne when we can take easier options and kick that can down the road to the next admin.


As an aside

People talking about us moving to Darwin need to look at the map a bit better. of that NGA zone stuff. They won't be taking Darwin off GC.

Also if we are 19 teams there will be more money in 20 than there will be in maintaining that number or decreasing. By the 2030s there will be 20 teams. TV rights means the club will endure. The challenge for the admin will be whether we can actually put together and keep together a team that can take out the whole thing when we so clearly one of the have nots.

Lastly if the club wants to really play all its games in Melbourne the lobbying we need to be doing is for a Boutique venue to be built in Melbourne for about 20k people to play all the premier AFLW games at.

Then that venue could see usage in the AFL one day a weekend. And any team selling low draw games interstate would be using it. All of them.

If Darwin isn't included we should simply refuse it.

Most of the 4 Melbourne clubs aren't actively investing in those NGA's for costs reasons, so North would be expected to invest in and run all 4?

For a population 1/4 the size of Werribee across a geographical region 4 x the size of Italy?

 

[Only Forwards]

If Darwin isn't included we should simply refuse it.

Most of the 4 Melbourne clubs aren't actively investing in those NGA's for costs reasons, so North would be expected to invest in and run all 4?

For a population 1/4 the size of Werribee across a geographical region 4 x the size of Italy?

We couldn't invest properly in Tassie and we are going to invest properly in the NT? Even if Darwin is included it is kinda madness.

I mean we could invest and we could spend money on trying to get a talent path way through there and then any actual decent footballer that comes through there we wouldn't have access to anyway.

We would be better off doing Werribee to the absolute best of our ability.

 

[Sphynx]

We couldn't invest properly in Tassie and we are going to invest properly in the NT? Even if Darwin is included it is kinda madness.

I mean we could invest and we could spend money on trying to get a talent path way through there and then any actual decent footballer that comes through there we wouldn't have access to anyway.

We would be better off doing Werribee to the absolute best of our ability.

I agree.

The AFL should just carve up a bit more of the Dogs zone and give us Bacchus Marsh and Melton and give us Lara out of the Cats zone and be done with it.

The Dogs can get Sunbury off Essendon and Essendon gets Kyneton off of Richmond as a Domino effect.

 

[Shinboner1]

I agree.

The AFL should just carve up a bit more of the Dogs zone and give us Bacchus Marsh and Melton and give us Lara out of the Cats zone and be done with it.

The Dogs can get Sunbury off Essendon and Essendon gets Kyneton off of Richmond as a Domino effect.

What's the point when you don't get exclusive rights to the kids coming from these regions?

 

[Sphynx]

What's the point when you don't get exclusive rights to the kids coming from these regions?

You do if they aren't picked inside the first 20.

It's going back to the same threshold when St Kilda landed Owens and Windhager.

West Coast would have got Lance Collard last year.

The Dogs would have got Luamon Lual.

Adelaide would have got Isaac Keeler.

That's last year alone.

 

[tales129]

Add to this that ****wit tom Morris has stated that Carlton want Bendigo as their area for an academy.

We should be pushing hard for northern vic. It just makes more sense

 

[Harris 10]

Academies are for the tip.

 

[Devington]

The AFL should be running all the academies. It's literally that simple. But they won't, because then certain AFL lovechildren wouldn't have extra access to talent.

 

[Chadwiko]

Lastly if the club wants to really play all its games in Melbourne the lobbying we need to be doing is for a Boutique venue to be built in Melbourne for about 20k people to play all the premier AFLW games at.

Bulldogs are beating us to this, unfortunately.

But I agree; with the new Metro Tunnel station and the new Arden precinct, it makes an incredible amount of sense for Arden St to be developed into a 20-25k~ capacity boutique stadium that can host events, AFLW, VFLW, and VFL games on the regular.