Dear Hawthorn members and supporters,

Firstly, I would like to express my appreciation at the support I received from a huge number of members in person and via email during the recent election process. Your messages of support have been fantastic and have given me a true sense of confidence as I set about discharging my duties as your next President. It goes without saying that I am truly honoured and indeed humbled in achieving the distinction of leading our great Club. You need only look at the list of past presidents to understand the stature of great men who have previously led Hawthorn Football Club.

Which brings me to our immediate past-President. I would like to personally thank Jeff for the wonderful contribution he has made to Hawthorn Football Club. He left the Club in better shape than when he joined the Board and that is all one can ask. Thank you Jeff for all your hard work. Also a special thanks must go to Bruce Growcott who has held the financial tiller of the Club for thirteen or so years. A fantastic job Bruce - well done!

And so to the future.

As I said to the members who were present at the AGM last week, we will leave no stone unturned in seeking to be at the forefront of the AFL competition. We will have the courage to be different and must be better prepared and smarter than our opposition. To this end, a number of our coaches have travelled overseas this summer visiting various elite sporting clubs both in Europe and the US with the aim of learning new methods and innovations that can hopefully be translated into the way we go about our preparation and training. You never know, there just might be another game-style innovation like Clarko’s Cluster in the wings.

Off the field we will also continue to seek new business opportunities to keep us ahead of the pack. As a Club we must continue to maintain our position as one of the competition’s financially independent clubs. That means we need to ensure we have consistent and sustainable income streams that are not dependent on our football performance.

In short, we will never rest on our laurels both on the field and off in exploiting new methods in seeking to be the dominant club in the AFL.

I also told the members at the AGM that under my reign as President there will be no excuses coming out of Hawthorn Football Club for our performance either on the field or off. We will support our people to be the best they can be - we will encourage them to develop all their skills to the maximum of their abilities. In this way we are confident that we can attract the best people to our Club.

However, there are no excuses and we will accept nothing less than the best from our Board directors, staff, coaches and players. We will, in this way, be unrelenting and uncompromising in our hunger for success.

So dear members and supporters of the Hawks, have a safe and happy Christmas - encourage all your friends, family and people you meet to join our great Club so they too can enjoy the ride in 2012 and beyond, and we hopefully can shoot through the 60,000 member mark. We have a plan focussed on securing our 11th premiership so be on board with us as we climb the mountain!

See you at the ’G for Round 1 next year against the Magpies.

Always Hawthorn,

Andrew Newbold
President