MFC AGM and Members' Information Night
Thursday February 4, 2010
Melbourne Football Club president Jim Stynes tonight officially announced the Melbourne Football Club's net profit of $587,183 at the 2009 Annual General Meeting, held in front of over 600 members at the MCG.
The night also incorporated the club’s Members’ Information Night, at which the crowd heard presentations from Stynes, coach Dean Bailey and CEO Cameron Schwab.
The club also allocated the remaining guernsey numbers to the Demons' new recruits, and handed out guernsey numbers to some of its emerging players.
Liam Jurrah will wear guernsey No. 24, taking over from another high flying forward in Russell Robertson. Defender Matthew Warnock will now wear the No. 1 guernsey made famous by the likes of Denis Cordner, Garry Baker and Steven O'Dwyer, while new recruit and former Brisbane Lion, Joel Macdonald, will wear No. 28.
Of the new draftees, Jordan Gysberts, taken with selection 11 in the National Draft, will wear the No. 5. This was presented to him by crowd favourite, David Schwarz.
Number 1 pick Tom Scully and Number 2 pick Jack Trengove received their allocated guernsey numbers - No. 9 and No. 31 - by David Neitz and Ron Barassi respectively, accompanied by Brian Dixon.
The club presented Life Memberships to current players Cameron Bruce and Brad Green, as well as past players Paul Wheatley and Matthew Whelan, all of whom completed 10 years of senior playing service at the end of 2009.
Special recognition was also given to dual Best and Fairest and premiership player Stuart Spencer, who was awarded his retrospective 1956 Best and Fairest Trophy. This was the second of his Best and Fairest victories, the first also coming in a premiership year in 1955. A trophy was not awarded at the time.
The club also saw no change to its board of directors, after Karen Hayes was appointed unopposed for her fourth year as a Melbourne board member.
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Melbourne Football Club
becomes an MCC Sporting Section again
At an announcement made at the MCG on April 1, 2009 the Melbourne Football Club once again became a Sporting Section of the Melbourne Cricket Club.
“This very important and historic agreement recognises a grand sporting tradition that is central to the competition and goes back to the very foundation of the game itself, said MCC president David Meiklejohn.
“Appropriately, given its importance, the creation of this agreement has been many months in the making.”
The core objective of the agreement between the two organisations is to establish a close relationship for the benefit of the two clubs. The Melbourne Football Club, whilst remaining a separate legal entity, will become a Sporting Section of the MCC.
The agreement includes:
- MFC’s use of the MCC name and logo as an MCC Sporting Section.
- MFC’s administrative occupancy at the MCG.
- MCC support of the MFC in relation to:
- Facilities
- Administration, business and commercial assistance and opportunities
- Financial
- Social and cultural
- Qualification for MCC Playing membership as per the club’s guidelines.
Melbourne Football Club president Jim Stynes said: “The two clubs share much heritage and there is great symbolism in relation to this agreement. The way forward is very much about mutuality and support for our respective goals and objectives in coming years – and hopefully decades.
As football took hold in the 1850s and beyond, the relationship between the MCC and MFC also developed to such an extent that the football club became an MCC Sporting Section in 1889. The two clubs separated in 1980.
The Melbourne Football Club now joins a range of sporting activities affiliated with the MCC, including cricket, baseball, bowls, croquet, golf, hockey, lacrosse, real tennis, shooting, squash and tennis.
Today, the two presidents signed a document symbolising the renewed connection between the two entities. The wording of the document is as follows:
The relationship between the Melbourne Cricket Club and the Melbourne Football Club is as old as the game itself. Our clubs share both heritage and heroes, sparked by the spirit of Tom Wills in 1858 as he sought a means of keeping his Melbourne cricketers fit during the winter months. A game was born, and so was the Melbourne Football Club.
If the MCG is ‘the paddock that grew’, we cultivated it together, through hope and hardship, with characters and colour, and with a shared heart that always beats true.
Let it be known that, on this day, the clubs again unite for the greater good, and with a spirit of mutuality and reciprocity.