Over summer and throughout the pre-season period we talked about what success would look like in 2016. We talked about unity, about looking for the evidence of growth (or ‘green shoots’) and about effort.
We would hope that even at zero and four, members would agree that those aspects mentioned above were all on show. There were noticeable ‘green shoots’ in terms of the way we were playing and the emergence of several new Carlton players, even though the final result(s) didn’t go our way.
Since then, and with six of the past seven weeks producing wins, that same growth is still pleasing and is a tremendous boost for the players’ self-belief. And it’s been terrific to see the enthusiastic, rowdy response from our crowds.
Obviously the more games we can get into our younger group the better – but they need to be injury free and ready.
A key point that needs to be reiterated is that we still have a very long way to go. We still need to keep developing, and we still have work to do over the next few years in terms of building the positional depth on our list. As I’ve said publicly a couple of times, while Brendon appropriately refers to ‘the journey’, the reality is that we haven’t ‘arrived yet’. In fact, we’ve barely left the station! That said, I’m sure given all the feedback we receive that everyone is proud of the way they’re going about it.
Off the field, our biggest fundraising event of the year – the 2016 Gala Ball – is looming during the (bye) break on 17 June, at Crown. All members are very welcome.
We expect more than 800 Bluebaggers (including the entire playing group) to turn out amid an array of colours, Brazilian dancers and feather boas, as we theme the night ahead of the ’16 Olympics. So we invite you to quite literally join the party.
We also await the AFL’s call on which clubs will be awarded licences to field teams in next year’s newly-established women’s competition for 2017 and beyond. We’re told an announcement is expected around the middle of June. We remain very hopeful that the AFL will see our capacity and willingness to help grow the game – and indeed grow our club’s leadership in equality and grant us one of those inaugural licences.
A quick reflection too on the recently-convened Hall of Fame evening at The Athenaeum Theatre on Collins Street. It was a wonderful occasion and fitting that Scott Camporeale, Mil Hanna, Ian Robertson, Sergio Silvagni and the late Jack Wrout should be honoured in such a way.
Just as importantly, the Hall of Fame night provided an opportunity for us to invite and extend our thanks to a number of loyal members (40+ years) who would have marvelled at the likes of ‘Robbo’ and ‘Serge’ throughout their playing days.
In our Community space we’re also growing and are excited by our involvement in a number of projects. We’re progressing our partnership with Our Watch and the Luke Batty Foundation in developing a program that focuses on the prevention of family violence in multicultural communities (#CarltonRespects). Our school(s) program (Sound Mind, Sound Body) continues to build, and our activities in the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round (including the acknowledgement to Sir Doug Nicholls) all create greater inclusion and underline our diversity.
To those members of many years, and as always to all those who have taken up their memberships in the years since, I assure you that everyone, including our coaches and players, very much values your loyalty and support.
Go Blues!
Regards,
Steven Trigg
