Frank Hayter & Max James: Retired member-elected Directors

Today's headlines

• PTV: Primus Speaks
  Sat, Jul 31, 10
• Wins Help Primus' Cause
  Sat, Jul 31, 10
• Late Surge Stuns Hawks
  Sat, Jul 31, 10

Today's videos

• Rd18 Press Conference: Port
  Sat, Jul 31, 10
• PTV: Primus Round 18 2010 Press Conference
  Sat, Jul 31, 10
• Port v Haw: Match Summary
  Sat, Jul 31, 10

The Port Adelaide Football Club’s Annual General Meeting was held from 7pm upstairs at The Port Club on Monday 17 December. Here are some of the highlights of proceedings...

• Around 300 members were in attendance
  
  
• Four retiring Directors, Max James, Frank Hayter, Ted Byrt and Robert Hoey, were generously thanked for their service by President Greg Boulton and each made a farewell speech.
  
  
• Max James recounted arriving at the club in January 1970, and said he had had a very enjoyable time on the Board, learned a lot, and said the two highlights of his time at the club were the drought-breaking 1977 premiership and the AFL premiership in 2004.
  
  
• Ted Byrt said it had been an incredible journey and said he had to pinch himself when he was asked to be on the club’s AFL Board in 1994. Recounted coming to the mound at Alberton Oval as a youngster and collecting beer bottles after the game. He said the journey had just begun for the club and was confident under Greg Boulton, John James, and Mark Williams there was a great future ahead and looked forward to watching from the outer.
  
  
• Greg Boulton told of Frank Hayter being invited by Bruce Weber in 1986 to join a business committee when the club almost went broke. He said that business committee helped turn the club around. Frank said the club had had great coaches, welcomed new directors, said the Outback Odysseys had been sensational, and said he had taken more than he had been able to give to our great club.
  
  
• Robert Hoey recalled being at the Board meeting in the late 80s when they changed the club’s constitution to read that the club was to play in the highest competition in the land. He shared the emotions of the “frantic, hectic and not pleasant” days around 1990 as the club attempted to join the AFL. Mentioned the members and referred to them as the Port Adelaide family who kept driving the club towards the AFL. He said the club ran out of money in its attempt to join back then but it had held it in good stead for entry the second time around. Talked about the pride in seeing players go from teenagers to successful men and footballers through the club’s time in the AFL. Thinks Mark Williams is well on the way to a dynasty at the Port Adelaide Football Club. Thinks there is a great foundation for the future of the club over the next ten years. Re-enforced his opinion that Darryl Wakelin and Anthony Toop would make excellent Board members for the club. Complimented CEOs Brian Cunningham, John James, Presidents John Swain, Bruce Weber, and Greg Boulton (who he said it had been an honour to work with), and his fellow directors. He said the members in the room, with the players, “are the Port Adelaide Football Club”. He said: “It has been an honour and pleasure to serve as one of your foundation Directors”.
  
  
• The results of the 2007 Board elections were announced by the Returning Officer. The votes were Darryl Wakelin 3,259, Anthony Toop 2,851, Nick Williamson 557, David Caluccio 153. Greg Boulton said congratulations and that an election was very healthy for the club.
  
  
• Chief Executive John James gave an overview of the 2007 season and looked ahead to the planning for 2008, particularly from an off-field perspective. John said the club knew its competitive edge was developing players. “We do run the best football academy in the country and will continue to invest in it.” John emphasised the significance of the club’s 20% growth in corporate revenue for the second year running. He spoke about the significance he and the club’s administration had put on learning more about what the members’ wanted, having had breakfast on a regular basis with random members throughout the year and asked members to complete a number of surveys. He said the club needed to increase membership numbers and attendance, citing that the club was about 11th in the AFL as far as number of supporters and converted more of its supporters to members than any club other than the Kangaroos. This showed the club needed to grow its supporter base. He thought membership and attendance would be helped by a better fixture and some of the club’s new strategies from what it had learned from its members. John said the club needed to invest in its recruiting division and said 28-year-old recruiting manager Blair Hartley was “showing the others up”. He talked about the necessary development to the club’s facilities having received $2.5m from the federal government during 2007 and work being done for more from the state government and other sources. John mentioned the club’s focus on continuing to invest in its football department. He talked about the need for the club to continue to beat the odds and punch above its weight in all facets of the business.
  
  
• Mark Williams was in a bright and fun mood throughout the night! He officially announced Dom Cassisi and Kane Cornes being added to the leadership group replacing Darryl Wakelin and Josh Mahoney, citing it would be good for Dom and Kane’s development but hard to replace the wise heads of Darryl and Josh. Spoke about the necessity to resource the football area which should have a direct correlation to success and spoke of new positions for Development Manager Daniel Healy, and Adam Hewitt who the club sought out from the AIS for his input from a sports science perspective. He acknowledged the retiring Board members saying they were always welcome at the club. He talked about the great achievements of the team in 2007 particularly after the mid-season break (crediting his coaches for changing things), and how proud he was the club won by small margins more than any other team, showing we hang in there. He said “the two games down in Tassie and Geelong were two of the great games of all time and to experience those in adjoining weeks was a great thrill and fantastic for our players”. He said the draw was very tough in 2008 but the club intended to provide another exciting side. He said it was important the side was built with some stronger players, lamenting that Nick Lower and Matt Thomas were injured when Michael Wilson went out of the side in 2007. He warned there’d be ups-and-downs, inconsistencies, but there were exciting times ahead and there were no limits on the team. Talked of the importance of the leadership program. Credited John James and the Commercial Operations team, along with Peter Rohde for his work signing players. Said it was a big issue getting more people to games, talking about how good the atmosphere was in the 07 finals and how much it turned the players and him on!
  
  
• John James inducted Allan Scott and Chad Cornes as Life Members of the club. Allan Scott had been awarded his Life Membership earlier in the year when he was in Adelaide, while Chad was there to receive his. Chad said: “It's a great honour, who would have thought it ten years ago!? It has been awesome, I couldn’t have asked to come to a better club. I’ve had great coaches - Choco leading the way there of course, I owe him a lot, and Phil Walsh as well. More importantly I’ve made some great friends that I’ll have forever now... and hopefully I’ve got a few years left.”
  
  
• Football Administration Manager David Hutton introduced the six new players to the club – Matt Lobbe, Marlon Motlop, Matthew Westhoff, Mitchell Farmer, Nick Salter and Daniel Boyle. Mark Williams also said a few words about them in characteristic fashion. The highlights of Mark’s comments were saying Lobbe had outstanding running ability and would take a few years but the club looked forward to building a forward line around him. He said he had seen Motlop’s skills at the draft camp and told Blair Hartley “not to worry about anything else, just pick him”. Enjoyed how good it was to have two Westhoffs who no-one had heard of a year ago, then revealed he had been so happy with the first three picks he was ready to go home from the draft after that. But went on to say Mitchell Farmer was rated around 30 by the club but he had slipped to pick 49 so it was a bonus for the club and compared him to Jacob Surjan. He was strong in his praise for Nick Salter, mentioning he should have been a contender for us to select him on the senior list. Daniel Boyle’s strengths according to Mark are his speed, strength, kicking and he has a man’s body already.
  
  
• Matt Lobbe was interviewed by David Hutton, mentioning how he’d realised how determined and driven everyone is since arriving, noticing the ‘we exist to win premierships’ sign. He said it was a really good club to be at for that reason along with the focus on learning and development.
  
  
• All the questions from members (barring one about Bianco) revolved around the process for Grand Final ticketing, with John James promising to answer the concerns in more detail by adding information on the club’s website of what had been learnt from the process in 2007 and how it will be better the next time the club gets the chance to sell grand final tickets to its members.
  
  
• 30 minutes of complimentary drinks for the members’ who attended!