AFL AGMs: Board elections and other happenings from around the league
Geelong has given an insight into the illness which impacted at least six players during its heavy preliminary final loss. Find out just how bad it was.
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Geelong has detailed the severity of the virus that ripped through the playing group on the eve of the preliminary final clash against Melbourne.
Cats football manager Simon Lloyd confirmed six players were struck down with illness, with the Demons going on to record an 83-point victory.
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“From our end … we don’t make excuses, but based on facts, and I think we do owe people facts, the morning of the game we had a severe viral illness through the group where six players were impacted, and it was pretty tough,” Lloyd said during question time at Monday night’s AGM.
“But these are the types of things you need to deal with week to week, and for us, we came up against a Melbourne Football Club who had been playing some incredible football for a period of time.
“For us, you are basically trying to get to the start line to be in a position to challenge, which we were come season’s end, but we didn’t get there.
“Congratulations to Melbourne who are a deserving winner, you need everything going right for you and unfortunately we didn’t.”
The Cats also confirmed during the AGM that it had appointed former Brisbane head physio Luke Licht for season 2022 following a disappointing year on the injury front last season.
Licht has been a key part of the Lions’ successful management of players and their fitness in recent seasons, and has been a significant player in the revamped career of former Cat Lincoln McCarthy.
Soft tissue issues plagued Geelong in 2021, with the three hamstring injuries to boom recruit Jeremy Cameron a lowlight for the year.
New Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking said Geelong had made a concerted effort to bring in new talent across the football program, but particularly in its medical and fitness departments.
“We have gone as deep as (hiring) four new physios into our men’s program,” Hocking said.
“Within this forum I am happy to discuss the fact that we have had some issues over recent years as far as management of players with injuries, so we have addressed that through our medical team.
“We have a new doctor as well but we have also gone really deep into development and we have recruited the likes of Matthew Egan to head up development … and Shannon Byrnes and Eddie Betts.
“Harry Taylor will start in January and will have all the medical and fitness (teams) reporting into him. We are looking forward to all of those individuals contributing to a really engaged environment and also developing our future players.
“Clearly we have gone to the draft this year and we will continue to do that next year and beyond because we need to refresh our list and reset so we are still able to challenge moving forward.”
‘A finals football club’: Can Dons reach ambitious goal?
—Jay Clark
Essendon wants to win at least one premiership and grow its membership base to 125,000 as part of an ambitious five-year strategic plan.
After emerging from the devastating supplements scandal, the Bombers on Wednesday night released their vision to win at least one flag in each of the men’s and women’s teams by the end of 2026.
It was confirmed at the annual general meeting captain Dyson Heppell will lead Essendon for a sixth season next year, while president Paul Brasher and director Melissa Green were also re-elected.
The Bombers have enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in the past 18 months, re-signing stars Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish and Jake Stringer. Exciting youngsters Nik Cox, Harry Jones and Archie Perkins have also emerged.
Last year’s finals appearance kicked-off an exciting new era for the club following the disastrous injections program which culminated in 34 players being banned for a season in 2016.
The club has not won a final since 2004, but chief executive Xavier Campbell said its growing supporter base could look forward to the drought ending as the club’s main purpose was to “win premierships”.
Campbell said the Bombers had built an “identifiable game style” under Ben Rutten and were on track to win their first premiership cup since 2000.
“We are building a team that is hardworking, dependable and disciplined,” Campbell said.
“We want to be a finals football club. Every team, every year.
“Our target is, by the end of this period in 2026, is that every team has won at least one premiership.”
However, Campbell said the team would still face significant challenges on the field in 2022. Special events are planned for the club’s 150th year.
“We need to continue to evolve. We are a developing group,” he said.
“We will be a younger list again in 2022, but we only see that as an opportunity.”
Off the field, Essendon has set aggressive targets to become “the most commercially valuable brand in Australian sport”, based on membership, sponsorship, corporate networks and retail sales.
It includes an aim to generate more than $4 million a year in an independent investment portfolio and commercialisation of its Tullamarine headquarters.
The red and black also want to be the top-rated club for attendance, broadcast, digital and social media and apparel sales.
“We have got great foundations but over the next five years we will build upon this,” Campbell said.
The Bombers are developing The Hangar and its Windy Hill home to help house its AFLW team which will enter the top competition at the end of next year.
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