Member Council Update - May 2023

[The Wheel]

Hi all

I zoomed into meeting from sunny Gold Coast, here are the highlights;

Tony opened meeting and said last 3 weeks have been disappointing, a few reasons inc. injuries, etc but Quietly confident about Sunday with Jake and Shoe back.

Recruitment - new Recruitment Nanager to be annouced soon but will be changes to squad and recruits coming in. Still looking for 30th player, depending on what’s required based on injuries etc. eg forward injury last week. NB the squad was inherited from Des.

Tony is very happy for culture across the club, some have moved on as a result. Blacktown will be still involved in 2024 and club is looking for continuity in that relationship but Sea Eagles have more responsibility for recruiting, coaching etc and is working well so far.

Discussing USA opportunity next week with NRL.

Membership is going very well - 15700 a new record. 2024 packages are being reviewed along with inclusions, watch this space for some exciting changes annouced later in year. Issues with pack distribution should be resolved, this year a new supplier (most AFl clubs use) was engaged and there were some teething issues. NB there are 1500 brand new members (never been member before) in Fulton Stand. Shows watch decent facilities can do.

Sea Eagle Foundation will be relaunching shortly, streamlined so watch this space in coming months.

Great improvement in social media engagement - Freddy doing great job, been promoted and additional resource started this week so more to come. Cuzzo noted a lot better/easier access to coaches/players has assisted in coverage compared to previous seasons.

A few other exciting thing’s discussed which I can’t share at moment due to NDA in place and things not confirmed. @global Eagle m

In case I missed something Mitch who was in the room can fill in the blanks.

TW

 

[Brookie Bob]

"NB there are 1500 brand new members (never been member before) in Fulton Stand. Shows watch decent facilities can do."

Based on the demographics of the northern beaches - true.

Imagine what a complete covered stadium with modern facilities would do for membership.

 

[The Wheel]

FYI for South East Qld and Northern NSW fans/members I raised the option of having a membership category targeted at that Region.

Tooves is starting part time in Pathways role and will be gradually moving to full time. The net will be cast wider going forward when looking at pathways. Also the U16 dev squad made up of local players (coach by the Ox) was undefeated so plenty of prospects in local league comp - a lot of locals (eg Jacob Preston at Dogs) ended up at othe club’s pathways eg mostly South’s or Roosters as they couldn’t see opportunity at Manly, which was a shame.

 

[Mitch]

Hi all

I zoomed into meeting from sunny Gold Coast, here are the highlights;

Tony opened meeting and said last 3 weeks have been disappointing, a few reasons inc. injuries, etc but Quietly confident about Sunday with Jake and Shoe back.

Recruitment - new Recruitment Nanager to be annouced soon but will be changes to squad and recruits coming in. Still looking for 30th player, depending on what’s required based on injuries etc. eg forward injury last week. NB the squad was inherited from Des.

Tony is very happy for culture across the club, some have moved on as a result. Blacktown will be still involved in 2024 and club is looking for continuity in that relationship but Sea Eagles have more responsibility for recruiting, coaching etc and is working well so far.

Discussing USA opportunity next week with NRL.

Membership is going very well - 15700 a new record. 2024 packages are being reviewed along with inclusions, watch this space for some exciting changes annouced later in year. Issues with pack distribution should be resolved, this year a new supplier (most AFl clubs use) was engaged and there were some teething issues. NB there are 1500 brand new members (never been member before) in Fulton Stand. Shows watch decent facilities can do.

Sea Eagle Foundation will be relaunching shortly, streamlined so watch this space in coming months.

Great improvement in social media engagement - Freddy doing great job, been promoted and additional resource started this week so more to come. Cuzzo noted a lot better/easier access to coaches/players has assisted in coverage compared to previous seasons.

A few other exciting thing’s discussed which I can’t share at moment due to NDA in place and things not confirmed. @global Eagle m

In case I missed something Mitch who was in the room can fill in the blanks.

TW

Pretty much bang on, @The Wheel

Also pretty clear that as a club there is a preference to move away from having the Broncos at Magic Round (home game at Brookie works out to be more lucrative than what we end up with, plus the clear disadvantage we have from a home ground perspective).

Yet to be determined if we’ll head to Mudgee in 2024, with negotiations ongoing. Again from a commercial perspective it isn’t hugely positive when looking at the overall bottom line.

From a recruitment perspective the club are working to do what they can to ensure the local junior leagues are stronger (lost ground to Rugby Union etc in recent times), however they may also look to other pipelines outside of what we have currently for player recruitment/development in future.

Tony was really good with his time and certainly is not lacking enthusiasm as mentioned in another thread previously. On the contrary he has been given full operational power and you can see he has a strong on field and commercial vision for our future.

 

[JenEagle]

The local touch around here is so so strong and so is soccer and rugby however junior league in the area has almost fallen off a cliff the last ten years.

Oztag is also very weak compared with other regions. We don’t even have teams from the northern beaches that compete at a rep level and there is barely a junior comp.

Touch however is very very strong.

 

[Waz13]

Thanks for the updates @The Wheel and @Mitch. Cheers

 

[NREagle]

Thanks so much @Mitch and @The Wheel for the updates.

Glad there is positivity within the club.

Interesting they stressed the roster was inherited from Des. Let's see what Seibold can do to make it his own.🙂

I'm from northern NSW and would be interested to see what membership options they have for our region. I currently have membership where I can go to one home and one away match (as does the rest of my family - four memberships in total) but financial pressure means it's just a yearly donation to the club as I simply can't afford to travel to Sydney and the only game near us is Magic Round (also financially not an option for me).

BUT I want to keep supporting my club so we rejoin each year.

I really like the way Mestrov is going so far. We needed a strong, positive, thoughful leader who engages with the fans and members and he certainly seems to be that way so far!

Would be nice for the club to send out an email to members about the meetings - obviously not about the in-house stuff - updating the members about progress/changes being made and showing they are doing it in consultation with the Members Council would have to be good PR, at the very least. 🙂

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

FYI for South East Qld and Northern NSW fans/members I raised the option of having a membership category targeted at that Region.

Tooves is starting part time in Pathways role and will be gradually moving to full time. The net will be cast wider going forward when looking at pathways. Also the U16 dev squad made up of local players (coach by the Ox) was undefeated so plenty of prospects in local league comp - a lot of locals (eg Jacob Preston at Dogs) ended up at othe club’s pathways eg South’s or Roosters as they couldn’t see opportunity at Manly, which was a shame.

But but…Bozo (that old so and so) was going to fix all that stuff with the juniors. Or at least one of his sons (down at Nepotism Central) was?

Maybe he meant the Parramatta, Wentworthville, Fairfield and Liverpool juniors?

 

[The Who]

This information is much appreciated.
Re Mudgee: I've been to all three matches and the ground has always been full (it takes up to 10,000) the township is buzzing and the locals are much appreciative of the support from Manly. I'm disappointed if the club treats this country visit purely in money-making terms; it should be viewed as promulgating the sport, potentially gaining new members and opening a pathway for promising regional players to come to Manly. What threatens to diminish interest in the match is the way the team played against Newcastle. Most of the players treated it as a game of touch football and just expected to win.
On an associated point: If anyone with access to club officials can they ask if there is any possibility of re-establishing links to the south island of NZ?

 

[rj90]

Thanks for sharing gents, much appreciated!

 

[Mitch]

This information is much appreciated.
Re Mudgee: I've been to all three matches and the ground has always been full (it takes up to 10,000) the township is buzzing and the locals are much appreciative of the support from Manly. I'm disappointed if the club treats this country visit purely in money-making terms; it should be viewed as promulgating the sport, potentially gaining new members and opening a pathway for promising regional players to come to Manly. What threatens to diminish interest in the match is the way the team played against Newcastle. Most of the players treated it as a game of touch football and just expected to win.
On an associated point: If anyone with access to club officials can they ask if there is any possibility of re-establishing links to the south island of NZ?

I certainly think that there are a huge amount of positives to Mudgee. The club mentioned last night that we picked up 250 new members this year from the game, which is brilliant.

Away from Blacktown, I know there will definitely be some focus on other pipelines for development moving forward. Tony discussed this last night, however one of those topics where not much further can be said at the moment!

 

[Sheikheagle]

This information is much appreciated.
Re Mudgee: I've been to all three matches and the ground has always been full (it takes up to 10,000) the township is buzzing and the locals are much appreciative of the support from Manly. I'm disappointed if the club treats this country visit purely in money-making terms; it should be viewed as promulgating the sport, potentially gaining new members and opening a pathway for promising regional players to come to Manly. What threatens to diminish interest in the match is the way the team played against Newcastle. Most of the players treated it as a game of touch football and just expected to win.
On an associated point: If anyone with access to club officials can they ask if there is any possibility of re-establishing links to the south island of NZ?

Yeah agree Mudgee is a great road trip. Be really disappointed if this was shelved. The locals love it.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

This information is much appreciated.
Re Mudgee: I've been to all three matches and the ground has always been full (it takes up to 10,000) the township is buzzing and the locals are much appreciative of the support from Manly. I'm disappointed if the club treats this country visit purely in money-making terms; it should be viewed as promulgating the sport, potentially gaining new members and opening a pathway for promising regional players to come to Manly. What threatens to diminish interest in the match is the way the team played against Newcastle. Most of the players treated it as a game of touch football and just expected to win.
On an associated point: If anyone with access to club officials can they ask if there is any possibility of re-establishing links to the south island of NZ?

Personally I would prefer if they established strong links with areas like the CC and the North Shore (of Sydney, not Auckland). Less likelihood of Pacifica players getting homesick.

Heck, the current lot from greater western Sydney get homesick - if they’re away from there for more than 10-12 hours.😉

 

[Frogz]

Personally I would prefer if they established strong links with areas like the CC and the North Shore (of Sydney, not Auckland). Less likelihood of Pacifica players getting homesick.

Heck, the current lot from greater western Sydney get homesick - if they’re away from there for more than 10-12 hours.😉

I think Melbourne have beaten us to the punch there, by getting into bed with the Bears.
We have really wasted a lot of time, effort and money on Blacktown, for very little return on investment. IMO.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

I think Melbourne have beaten us to the punch there, by getting into bed with the Bears.
We have really wasted a lot of time, effort and money on Blacktown, for very little return on investment. IMO.

It was always a counter-intuitive strategy.

 

[globaleagle]

Tony discussed this last night, however one of those topics where not much further can be said at the moment!

 

[The Wheel]

You know those NDA thingos 🤐