Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett penned the following letter to members.
Hi there Hawkers,
Well everything is back in full swing.
The full playing group resumed training yesterday for the start of the next lap in our history.
The coach tells me all the players are in good shape after the longest break they have had in years.
That occurs when you do not play in finals!
Our new CEO Justin Reeves has well and truly got his feet under his new desk, well in fact not quite. He has been spending a lot of time walking around our facility at Mulgrave, meeting and getting to know our staff.
He is impressed with what he has inherited and the quality of our people. Of course, everything is still in front of him.
The Board met last night and discussed all matters associated with the club and signed off on our accounts for the football financial year which concluded at the end of October.
I am happy to report the club made a surplus for the year of $2.1m which was a tremendous effort given we did not play in the finals series.
Read: Hawthorn announce financial result
Equally important was the fact that our external auditors KPMG said the excellence of the preparatory work on the club’s financials lead to the cleanest audit report they have prepared for the club in years.
Credit for that goes to Tim Silvers, Anoop Singh, Hugh Hogan and their team.
We discussed recently how the club can better service and connect with our family in WA, NSW, SA, Queensland and the Northern Territory. You are all important to us so please if you have ideas please get in touch by Twitter or email jeffk@hawthornfc.com.au
I will get back to all interstate members in the new year when we have something concrete to deliver.
To our Tasmanian friends I am letting you know that I will be coming to Hobart on the 30th of this month to introduce our new CEO, Justin Reeves, to the Premier and opposition leader.
If any of our Tasmanian members would like to meet Justin, please join us at the Customs House Waterfront Hotel at 1 Murray Street in the front bar at 4pm next Thursday for an hour before we must fly back to Melbourne.
Time will not allow us to get to Launceston on this visit, but we are planning a trip there in the new year.
On Friday we have the AFL draft and Monday the Rookie draft therefore up to six new players could be joining our ranks in the next week. They will represent our future, so, an exciting time for the club.
Finally, the administration and Board are finalising our vision and strategy for the club’s future.
We hope to release it at the AGM at Hawthorn Town Hall on Thursday the 14th of December. I hope many of you will be there to join us for the evening.
For now, stay well, and happy. Thanks again for signing on for 2018 and good luck in your endeavours to sign up one new member each.
So onwards and upwards.
Jeff Kennett
