and Summary:
* Really solid year from the club. Encouraging. Great effort from all our supporters to support the FTF. They know what it is for and understand its objectives. Still hard work to go but a encouraging result.
* Pleased to reduce our debt by $1m. As a general rule we said we would pay down debt and invest in our footy dept. on a dollar for dollar basis. So far $2.8m pledged. Due to the some of the donations we won't receive that as a lump sum but paid over a term. So it's allowed us to retire $1m of debt and given us the ability to now transfer the surface of Punt Rd Oval which will be a huge asset for our players and the Club.
* KB said getting Malcolm Speed onto the RFC Board has been a coup. Benny said it's been a nice orderly transition. We set up a nominations committee and Speed and Walsh have joined the board. On Speed - if you can handle the Indians then you should be able to handle the Richmond footy club (laughs). KB joked that you'll find RFC Board a lot tougher than the ICC.
* Gale up in Sydney for the draft. We've got 3 picks. The recruiting dept. has spent hours pouring over the draftees. They'll make a very good decision. We'll need a little bit of luck as well as you do. Really important night for the Club.
* Yeah it's hard to get rid of that (poor recruiting of Fiora/Tambling) tag but in fairness all clubs have had misses. That's all in the past as far as we are concerned. It's been well documented that our football and recruiting dept. wasn't well resourced while other clubs were. More systems and IT helps take the guesswork out of it. So the last couple of years we've invested in our recruiting dept. We've now got 3 full time recruiters under Francis Jackson; Blair Hartley has come on board from Port Adelaide to look after our list management and study existing clubs lists as opposed to the kids. We think it's paying dividends already. It's not an exact science and you need a bit of luck also but we're comfortable with the progress we are making.
* Pick 15 - specific need or best player available? Too be honest KB it's a bit of both. The best player we believe will be at pick 15 will also address our deficiency on our list. That player needs to drop so we need a bit of luck as well.
* GWS having 11 of the first 14 picks means it's uncertain. Some may say it's easier because GWS have to take into account the profile of their new list. There's differing versions and we'll find out tonight.
* Benny said he only knew a little about the draftees on offer (KB mentioned Ellis, Docherty, Haynes, Crozier). With his role as CEO he doesn't get too involved with the details of the draftees. He backs the recruiting dept. to make the right decisions. Pretty confident we'll get two solid players with picks 15 and 26 inside the first round. Benny said he guesses his instructions is to not stuff it up lol.
* We're on track with the 3-0-75 plan. Just under 48k members last year and he believes we'll exceed 50k this year. We don't exist for our members; we exist because of our members - we have really lifted ourselves in that department with the way we communicate with our members (the frequency and quality) and he believes the Club has been very transparent with our plans. Our members and supporters have been extremely loyal. Benny believes our membership levels can grow and if we can play finals and make 2-3 finals series over the next few years then that will provide upside. As far as the 0 in the 3-0-75 we are making inroads there as well.
* KB said he spoke to Greg Miller the other day and Miller reckons with 50k members and no finals then 75k with finals is gettable. Gale replied that if you look at the raw data we have a huge latent support base which has rarely be activated over the past 20 years. We are a side that has underperformed for a very long time now but he's confident that with a football programs that's competitive and going places then we give ourselves a red hot chance. We had the 4th largest average attendance in 2011 and we finished 13th. He repeated he's confident if we can provide a competitive outfit that's thereabouts similar to what Collingwood has done over the past 6-7 years then no doubt those sort of numbers are no beyond us.
* The guys are heading over to the University of Arizona in Tuscon where we have a strategic alliance with Athletes Performance. High conditioning centre for American sports. It'll be fantastic. Some corporate supporters are going along for the trip and to subsidise it.
* Fantastic to see the boys turn up to Punt Rd and the ME Bank Centre and have the oval available all summer is a benefit too.
* Tonight is about adding new players and addressing depth in our list.
* Wouldn't have thought Fevola is in our plans. We have a accomplished forward and 2010 Coleman medallist in Jack Riewoldt who played a bit sore in 2011 plus Vickery and Griffiths. Wishes Fev all the best. We did take Cuz and he arrived as a wreck and left as better person which shows the redemptive powers of a football club but Benny doesn't believe Fev is for us.
