From the wheeling and dealings of trade period, to our AFLW team playing four games in 15 days, there’s no doubt football now consumes every inch of the calendar.

For our men’s program it’s been a busy and productive off-season in which we have added to both our playing list, coaching department and high-performance team.

Next month we are excited to welcome Murray Davis to the Club in a newly created role of Coaching Director.

Murray comes to us fresh off a premiership with the Brisbane Lions where he has spent the past 13 years in a variety of assistant coaching roles, and he will offer great support to Nicksy and the rest of our coaching group.

Credit must go to our list management team and the recruiting staff who have just wrapped up the trade period with three quality additions to the playing list.

Melbourne Premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen brings leadership and 176 games’ experience to our Club, while Giants teammates Isaac Cumming and James Peatling will add pace and class to our midfield and behind the ball.

Pleasingly we were able to secure the three quality players while preserving our first-round draft pick which is currently Pick No.4, and next year our draft hand includes our first round, three third rounds and two fourth round selections, so we are well placed heading into the future.

After a hectic schedule in recent weeks, our AFLW team is nearing the pointy end of the season and charging towards finals. I’m told that one more win guarantees us a finals berth which would be yet another great achievement so hopefully we can maintain momentum.

Our players and high-performance team did a great job navigating what was a condensed part of the fixture, and perhaps no one emerged from that as strongly as Ebony Marinoff whose current form is as good as anything we’ve seen across the men’s or women’s competition in recent years.

Noffy has embraced her new role of co-captain, along with Sarah Allan, and last week’s performance when she had 41 disposals, 12 clearances and 17 tackles in the win over GWS was simply outstanding.

Every team we’ve played so far this season bar one, is currently inside the top eight, and with top-of-the-table North Melbourne in Indigenous Round to come next weekend, we have a great indication of where we are at heading closer to finals.

The recent Club Champion evening gave us the chance to reflect on the season and recognise some outstanding individual performances, and a special shout out must go to Ben Keays and Jordan Dawson who shared the Malcolm Blight Medal, as well as Reilly O’Brien who won the Crows Foundation Award.

Reilly also received national recognition on Brownlow Medal night when he received the AFL’s Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award for his commitment to delivering resilience training to thousands of school students across the state via our Open Parachute program.

He’s a great ambassador for our Club, as well as the amazing work our Crows Foundation team does, so congratulations all round!

Unfortunately at this time of year, we also say goodbye to others which is an unfortunate part of the industry. From a playing perspective we farewell Ned McHenry, Elliott Himmelberg, Lachlan Gollant, Will Hamill and Patrick Parnell, and thank them for their contribution over several seasons and wish them well for the future.

Nominations are now open for our Member Engagement Panel and it provides an opportunity for you to share feedback directly with the Board and senior management, as well as help shape the Club’s future.

We are looking to fill the 10-person panel with a cross-section of our membership base and starting from today, you can submit your application or find out more information, click here.

Thanks again for all your support.

Regards, Tim.