We have quickly arrived at the mid-point of our season, although it feels like only yesterday we were turning up to watch our first pre-season match.
The bye week gives everyone involved with the Club a chance to sit back and briefly reflect on what has been achieved to date but more importantly to plan our run towards September.
Coaches and players returned to training today after enjoying some well-earned days off to refresh and ready themselves for the second half of the season. We are in a solid position at 8-4 although abundantly aware that there is a great deal of hard work ahead if we are to first qualify and then mount a serious challenge at the business end.
Just as encouraging has been the form of our SANFL team which is embedded in the top five and benefiting from our healthy playing list. To that end, I should recognise our high performance and medical staff, who along with the dedication of the players, are providing the coaches with plenty of choice (and selection headaches!).
Although the players have been away, it has been far from a quiet week. As you would now know, we were privileged to be one of only eight clubs granted entry in the AFL’s National Women’s League which kicks off early next year. It was an historic moment for sport in this country and one that brings great responsibility for each of those clubs who must now ensure there is a clear and well defined pathway for young girls and women to fulfil their potential and achieve their footballing dreams.
We have quickly moved from celebrating being South Australia’s sole representative in the new league to full-scale planning mode with the need to identify talent, find coaching and administration staff and in conjunction with our partners AFLNT, put in place the required structures, support systems and commercial models to ensure we are up and running at 100% as soon as possible.
Our aim is to assemble a team that is competitive and proudly represents the Crows, while playing home games in Adelaide, Darwin and possibly Alice Springs. We hope to have appointed a Senior Coach within the next month or so and we will be working closely with the AFL to secure our marquee players, who will be announced in July.
You will hear plenty more about this as we make a series of other announcements in the days and weeks ahead. I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the overwhelmingly positive response to the news. The emails, tweets, notes and posts congratulating the Club and expressing support for the new league underscored why this was so important to the AFL and the Adelaide Football Club.
This week’s other big news was about you! We were very pleased to announce that we have broken our all-time membership record with our tally now nudging 64,000 and counting. You have heard me say it many times before but your enthusiasm and commitment is phenomenal and greatly appreciated by everyone at the Club. We are blessed to have a supporter base oozing passion and loyalty! The number of 11-game members who have access to every Crows home game at Adelaide Oval is once again amongst the AFL’s best.
Since moving to the rejuvenated city stadium, our home match attendances have been at the forefront of the League and the ‘sold out’ sign is regularly being put up at the ticket office. I expect this to again be the case for our upcoming home matches against North Melbourne and Collingwood.
With the stadium full, we will continue to develop new and different types of membership packages for those who are unable to attend our matches but are passionate about the Club. Our vision is to ‘Bring People Together To Achieve Great Things’ and to this end we are driven on a daily basis to genuinely and meaningfully engage with each of our 600,000-plus fans scattered across Australia and abroad.
Enjoy your weekend and here’s hoping for another big win against the Kangaroos at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night!
Andrew Fagan
