The following is a letter to members and supporters from chairman Ben Buckley. 

As 2020 draws to a close I wanted to write to you and wish you and your families the very best for the Christmas and New Year period.  2020 has certainly presented many unprecedented challenges for all of us and as we look to 2021, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, commitment and passion for our footy club.

Since announcing the appointment of David Noble as our senior coach, we have been inundated with positive feedback and messages of support from our members and fans, which we are truly grateful for and are very happy to receive.

David has hit the ground running and our team is taking shape ahead of season 2021. Our new recruits have made a seamless transition to Arden St and have trained hard up to the Christmas break. We have also pleasantly welcomed several of our senior players back to training, despite not being expected until the new year.

David’s selection was a result of an extensive selection process in which our panel, assisted by Paul Roos, looked for candidates that showed excellent attributes in the areas of leadership & culture, the development of talent and teams, management of players & coaches, communication and game plan and technical execution. We wanted someone that was people and development focused, who could build a high-performing team, displayed decision quality and execution and who would build collaborative relationships, as well as resilience in themselves and others.

David’s appointment has been met with great optimism and excitement and rightly so. After a difficult year, we identified many areas of improvement and have acted swiftly and decisively to bring in high-quality people and those who excel in their chosen field. 

This started last year with the appointment of Scott Clayton as head of player personnel and then John Blakey as senior assistant coach. We continued with the announcement that Paul Roos would be joining the club in a multi-faceted role aimed at providing support to not only the new coach, but to all areas of the football department and the wider club. Paul’s guidance and knowledge was invaluable on the coaching panel and we’re confident he will help us set up our club up for success in the coming years.

Recently we announced Heath Younie and Jordan Russell as assistant coaches, thus finalising our coaching team. 

We are committed to adding people with great character and elite skills to our organisation and know they will help lead us in the right direction on and off the field. We want to attract the best and we want to be the best.

Off the field we have successfully navigated the turbulence created by the COVID pandemic and for this I’d like to thank our hard-working management team and a very collegial and passionate board who had to roll up their sleeves and get more involved given the circumstances.  In the most challenging year financially for the whole of the AFL and through the hard work of the Executive team and the Board, we were able to post a small profit and continue to pay down debt, to the extent by the end of next year we should be debt free.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board and acknowledge their hard work, to Paul Dwyer who chaired both our Finance & Audit Committee and the Arden Precinct Committee and whose significant business and financial acumen have been pivotal to our off-field results this year, Brady Scanlon who sat on both of the aforementioned committees and whose foresight and drive particularly in relation to the Arden Precinct work has been extremely valuable, to Sonja Hood who has made a big impact in her first year as a Board Member, has been very hands on with our work in the community and has provided invaluable stewardship through local and state government with the Arden project. Glenn Archer continued to be a passionate and tireless contributor for us this year as we completely restructured the football program, that wil set us up for the years ahead, and we welcomed back life member and highly regarded medical officer, Harry Unglik, in an official capacity as a Director.  Harry will be invaluable in assisting us with our high performance and medical programs and will also help drive our mental health strategy.

And finally, I want to publicly thank Julie Laycock for her nine terrific years of unconditional work and governance. Julie's contribution, from marketing strategy to working on the Integrity Committee and other various governance projects, has been critical to the success of the club.

I would also like to pay tribute to our tireless and outstanding executive team under the leadership of Ben Amarfio.  This year has thrown up challenges and hurdles like no other and to Ben, Brady Rawlings, Chris Simmonds, Heath O’Loughlin, Sam Bingley, Cam McLeod, Laura Kane, Meg Lauritz and Scott Wood, your commitment and sacrifice has been a testament to your passion for the club and your desire to make us better and more competitive into the future.  

That thanks and applause also goes to the rest of the hard working staff and volunteers who showed so much Shinboner Spirit throughout the year, to get us through an incredibly difficult period.

Thanks also to our loyal and generous partners such as Mazda, Spirit of Tasmania, Hello Solar and other sponsors and coterie members and, above all, our dedicated members whose unwavering support helped us to get through this most challenging of financial years.

And last of all I would like to thank our incredible playing groups of the AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW teams.  While we might not have got the results we wanted, the resilience of our players has been fabulous to watch and I am sure they will make us all proud during the 2021 seasons.

The year ahead is exciting and full of opportunity. With time, patience, hard work and the stability we now have off the field, we can all be optimistic about the years to come.

In addition to the excitement we have for the football seasons we have coming in 2021, we will also start construction on a new $7 million addition to our already superb facility, adding more space for our AFLW team and The Huddle and providing the ability to host more matches at our spiritual home. We will continue to work with the Victorian Planning Authority on the Arden Urban Renewal Precinct plans and look to grow our footprint further to service the needs of our community and our club for many years into the future.

Thank you as always for your loyalty and support and I would like to wish you all a wonderful, safe and, above all, healthy festive season for you and your loved ones.

I look forward to seeing you at the footy next season.

Go Roos!

Ben Buckley.