President Jeff Kennett has penned the following letter to members...

Hi Hawkers

Well the season is off to a good start. Two wins under our belt. But there are still 21 games to go and of course anything can happen, so let’s take each game as it comes.

But let me give you a layman’s view of the game against Geelong last Monday.

I arrived at the MCG early to do a couple of radio interviews before the gates had opened so no people in the stands.

It was a wonderful Melbourne autumn day, sunny and warm, and I was struck by how magnificent the MCG surface looked. It reminded me of how fortunate we are to have that stadium in Melbourne but also Australia.

The game itself was all we had come to expect from a Hawthorn Geelong game. Each team having its half quarters. And although half way through the last quarter you might have felt we were going to have a relatively comfortable win, Geelong stormed home and on this occasion, we were victors by a point.

But a win is a win, and the four points ours. The tradition, the standard of competition between the two clubs, the standard of play, not to mention the result was as we have come to expect when we play Geelong.

There were some wonderful future indicators from Jarman Impey and Jaeger O’Meara, while Tom Mitchell delivered his now “normal” 40 plus possessions.

Sadly, the father of the team Shaun Burgoyne pulled a hamstring and will be out for a while.

But to put it in perspective, Silk has just started his 18^th football season. A remarkable effort, and he has played every game since 2014. This injury will end 107 consecutive games.

Since making his club debut in Round 8 in 2010, Shaun has played 186 games of a possible 190 games. He missed one game in 2011, one in 2012 and two games in 2013. An extraordinary effort.

So, he deserves a break. But let’s hope it is a short one, for he continues to be in our best players every time he hits the field.

In other happenings around the club, you might have read we were considering with enthusiasm, the prospect of entering the National Basketball League with a team of our own. Your club executives did a great deal of work on this over the last four months.

In the end we decided against such a move, with the need for the NBL to be differently structured than it is at present for us to enter the competition. We at Hawthorn think the NBL should be a stand-alone entity, with a Board that governs the competition and full and proper financial accountability and transparency.

This is not a criticism of the current operation of the NBL, as basketball has been revived thanks to the financial generosity of Larry Kestleman, who owns the competition. But as Hawthorn is a member based and owned organisation, for us to join the NBL we would want, in your interests, the same level of governance in the NBL that we demand of ourselves.

In short, all assets of the Hawthorn Football Club are owned by you the members, and we as a Board make decisions, some with risks attached, and we must understand these risks and treat your monies more prudently than we do our own.

This decision does not mean we have ruled out entering the NBL competition some time in the future should our suggestions in terms of governance be met.

Of course, we continue to develop the designs for the new Kennedy Community Centre. Hopefully this year will see us cap the land as we must do so before we can commence construction. Also, this year I hope we can complete the design phase of the project.

The fund raising continues to gather momentum, and when we reach a target of cash and pledges we will start construction.

The club is also developing a closer working relationship with our past players. They are the ones on whom our records and history has been built. They are the people we want our current players to know and respect. Not just former premiership players but all those who have worn the brown and gold.

Under the leadership of John Kennedy Jnr, who is President of the Past Players Association, and Jason Burt, our GM of People, Culture and Integrity, the relationship between past and present will become even closer and I hope our past players will feel very welcome at club and Past Players Association events.

Importantly, I hope our current players will come to better understand the contribution and importance of those who have gone before them.

Our membership has now hit 72,661 as I write this letter. Our target for the year is 81,000 so those who have not renewed please do so, and I urge all of us to find new supporters to convert to paid up and passionate members.

Finally, I went to the launch of our Box Hill Hawks VFL team’s season on Tuesday night. The evening was very well attended, and all players received their jumpers from Coach Chris Newman.

The club is in great shape and the players primed for their first game this weekend against Williamstown. It is an away game and is going to be tough, so we wish the team well for the weekend and the season.

As I have said before we are one club with three teams, and next week I am going to call in and see our VFLW team training for the start of their season.

All in all, as always, a lot happening at Hawthorn.

Thank you as always for your support and comments.

May the best team win on Sunday

Stay well

Jeff