WE'RE ON OUR WAY
By Richmond's CEO, Brendon Gale
The Fighting Tiger - RFC's official magazine
November 2010
Transformation - both on and off the field -was the consistent theme at Tigerland right throughout 2010.
In many ways, the massive redevelopment of the Club's Punt Road headquarters this year mirrored what was happening on the field with our young playing group.
Watching the off-field change - the concrete poured, the foundations put in place, and the construction of the new building meticulously take shape - reminded me of the way our new senior coach Damien Hardwick, and his coaching assistants, were going about their business of creating a winning Tiger team.
It was exciting to see us introduce 12 new players into league football this year, along with Mitch Farmer, who made his Richmond debut, following a brief stint in SA with Port Adelaide.
The efforts of debutants Dustin Martin, David Astbury and Ben Nason, in particular, over the course of the 2010 season, were noteworthy. But the overall value of giving so many young players a taste of AFL football just cannot be underestimated.
We strongly believe the foundations laid by Damien Hardwick and his team in 2010 will reap considerable benefits for the Club in the coming seasons. Similar to the building redevelopment at Punt Road, they are methodically constructing something special with the playing group.
Make no mistake, the road ahead is an extremely tough one, and we acknowledge that we have an enormous amount of work to do, in the most competitive of competitions, in the most competitive era of our code's history. We will prevail, however, and, in time, we'll be big, bold, and the envy of all our rivals!
Early this year, the Club outlined its ambitious vision for building the next era of sustained success at Tigerland. We are an ambitious Club. We are not just here to compete, or make up the numbers - we are here to be the best. Our vision is of football leadership, on and off the field. Our vision is of power and glory.
As I mentioned in The Fighting Tiger season preview edition early this year, in order to realise our vision, we needed to plan meticulously for our future success and make consistently good decisions. Accordingly, back in February we launched the five-year Strategic Plan entitled "Winning Together". In the plan, we set in concrete our Richmond brand - put simply, our way of doing things ...
We will be a UNITED Club and all of us will unite behind our team.
We will be RELENTLESS - in pursuit of excellence in sticking to our plan and never deviating, and in the way we apply ourselves to our goals.
We will be PROUD of our past and what we have achieved, and we will be ambitious about our future and what we plan to achieve.
We will be LEADERS - in terms of our thinking and people and in terms of our relationship with our community.
Our Strategic Plan aims to build the "muscle" of our Club over the next five years, to give us every opportunity to realise our vision. It establishes real goals and real expectations. You will recall that by 2014, we expect to deliver 3-0-75. That is:
* 3 finals appearances (including 1 top 4 finish)
* zero debt
* 75.000 members
We started the journey in 2010, fully aware of the enormity of the task ahead for us, but, at the same time, invigorated by those challenges.
On-field, we saw some very encouraging signs from our young team throughout the season, which augurs well for the future. Off-field, we managed to reach our 2010 membership target of 42,000, which was very pleasing. This was a significant achievement that reflects the loyalty and commitment of our members.
We have also received fantastic support from our co-major partners, Dick Smith and Luxbet.com, as well a: Nissan, Reebok, Lite n' Easy and HOSTPLUS. I would like to thank all of our sponsors for their valued support in 2010.
In 2011, we have an ambitious aim to sign 10,000 members who were not members in 2010. Successful achievement of "Operation 10,000" is critical to our five-year plan of 75.000 members. We need all members to "play your role" in our success and you can do that by becoming involved in the Club's digital membership referral program, which you car read more about on pages 24 and 25.
As I've mentioned before, members are the lifeblood of Tigerland, and we are delighted that so many have placed their trust in the direction we are taking.
We are confident we have the right people, in the right places here at the Club, to ensure that, in time, we adequately repay our members' faith.
This exciting journey that we've started can only lead to sustained success with the strong backing of our members.
We thank you, and look forward to your continued support of the Tigers in 2011.
