More members need to attend the Adelaide Football Club’s AGM and Club Members Annual Meeting

It’s Fringe Festival time in Adelaide. There are so many entertaining acts, but few match the theatre of the Adelaide Football Club’s AGM and Club Members Annual Meeting, writes Graham Cornes.

It’s March. It’s Fringe Festival time in Adelaide. There are so many entertaining acts, but few match the theatre of the Adelaide Football Club’s AGM and Club Members Annual Meeting.

The AGM itself, as with most corporate meetings, is a fairly dry event. Attended by the incumbent board members, invited life members of the club and a virtual AFL representative who was beamed in, it’s over quickly.

Presentation of the minutes, financial statements, updates on the Thebarton development, results of the recent member ballot and questions. There were no questions. So it was off to the 2025 Club Members Annual Meeting.

Normally it’s held in one of the function rooms at Adelaide Oval, but they were all booked out, so it was away to the adjacent, newly redeveloped tennis centre. They didn’t need a big room. For a club that is under so much scrutiny and faces a seemingly endless barrage of criticism from within (and without) its 75,000-strong membership group, so few of those members bothered to attend.

Crows players Jordan Dawson and Ebony Marinoff marking the official commencement of construction on the Club’s new $100m headquarters. Picture: Brett Hartwig

A quick, cursory count revealed 25 at the most. The staff, board members and business partners outnumbered the members who attended. That indicates one of two things – either the members are happy with the way the club is being run, or they are indifferent.

More should attend; they don’t know what they are missing out on. Chairman John Olsen and chief executive Tim Silvers both addressed the meeting.

Olsen didn’t sugar-coat the 2024 season. “There’s a lot to like about our football club, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.”

He spoke of the frustration and the disappointment of the AFL team not meeting expectations; in glowing terms of the AFLW team reaching its third preliminary final; then a special mention of Ebony Marinoff’s stunning season.

He spoke of Adelaide’s “AFL audited 75,000 members as distinct from what other clubs put out” – a biting swipe at other clubs’ inflated membership figures. He didn’t mention any names but the room knew who he was referring to.

Then, of course, came an update on the Thebarton project. Finally it has “been realised”, despite the budget blowing out from $85 million to $100 million, three rounds of community consultation and frustrating resistance from a minority group of naysayers.

Interestingly, supporter donations, contracted and promised, already account for $11 million of the project. Despite the constant intervention of protesters, the club “has not compromised” on the building and the facilities that they are delivering. He concluded to an approving round of applause.

Neil Balme speaks at the Memorial Service for Walter Miller OAM at Norwood Oval. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Silvers didn’t deviate from the pre-season script: “all our energy and attention is on round 1”.

It’s been a constant theme all summer. One can’t help but feel the importance of that round 1 match against St Kilda is being blown out of all proportion. The pressure to win is mounting.

Yes, a good start is vital to team confidence and morale, but a loss will not signal the end. As Silvers warned: “No one knows what the footy gods have planned for us – the bounce of the ball, an umpiring decision.”

Still, the Crows should improve. Recruiting and drafting has been positive. The squad is healthy. “The list is intact,” said Silvers, referencing the avoidance of any serious pre-season injuries.

The coaching panel has been bolstered by the appointment of Murray Davis from Brisbane, who brings 13 years of the reigning premier’s intellectual property and systems.

The football credentials of the board, so often criticised for its lack of football experience, have been bolstered by the appointment of James Gallagher, a former Crows player and St Kilda list manager, and Neil Balme. Neil Balme – who has had success at every club with which he has been associated!

He has been the club’s major acquisition. He held the room in his thrall as he expounded football philosophies. He’s new, he hasn’t sussed it out yet, but he will watch, and listen, and he will make a difference.

“Everyone knows the question but who knows the answer?” he posed. He spoke of the simplicity of elite performance and the multiplying effect when everybody buys in and commits.

It’s doubtful he was thinking of Aristotle but the famous quote came to mind: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. A big man with a magnetic presence.

Then came the entertaining part – questions from the members in the audience. The staggering point about this part of the evening was that, despite the years of mediocrity and constant criticism from the members about list management and recruiting, there was not one question about those issues.

There was a question about why the colours of the club and its emblem are not embedded in the constitution. Good point.

Con Markou, who stood unsuccessfully for the recent board election railed against the “un-Australian” television coverage that will see four of Adelaide’s Saturday afternoon games telecast in delay. Another good point, as the game is taken further away from South Australia’s grassroots supporters.

Another member spoke of the NFL team, the Green Bay Packers’, ownership model (Photo by Patrick McDermott.

Another member spoke of the NFL team, the Green Bay Packers’, ownership model. Matthew Nicks had visited the Packers, an enormously successful franchise, during the off-season. The interesting point of the discussion was the ownership model of the club. It’s owned by supporters who hold shares – none greater that four percent. Could it work with an AFL club? It’s doubtful, but it’s an interesting concept.

Then came Chris Schacht, the former politician. He is an anticipated feature of these evenings, constantly railing about the composition of the Crows board and the lack of member input.

It’s an ongoing debate about board-appointed members who bring diversity of talent, or popularly-elected members.

The best point he did make, apart from welcoming Balme, was to ask why a representative of the AFL which holds the balance of power and veto over the Adelaide Football Club board, was not in attendance at the meeting. Why indeed?

However, the highlight of the evening was when inaugural board member of the Adelaide Football Club, Adrian Sutter, who has served the club in many different roles, rose to speak.

He’s had his health issues in recent years and doesn’t move as quickly as when he had to counter the SANFL’s best full forwards, but he still has a special presence. You know he’s a good man.

In the wake of the discussion about the $100 million development in Thebarton with the best, state-of-the-art facilities, he regaled the audience of the first meeting of the Adelaide Football Club interim board. “In case I don’t come again”, he began, he then told of the first meeting of the club’s interim board on October 15, 1990. In Max Basheer’s office. “We had nothing”, he said. “No pens, no paper, no office, no staff and no money.”

The club’s first purchase was the infamous ATCO hut, the club’s first office. Total cost, $46,119. Today it’s $100 million!

The juxtaposition is a stark, permanent reminder of from where the club has come. He continued for several minutes then sat down to a standing ovation – and the tears of those who know and love him.

The Adelaide Football Club, by necessity, competes in a corporate world, but at its essence are grassroots football supporters. A pity more members didn’t go to that meeting.