CEO Justin Reeves has penned the following letter to members...

Dear members,

The momentum for an exciting 2021 is really building. The club has made some significant announcements this week which I hope has made our members proud to be a part of the Hawthorn family.

Firstly, Hawthorn's vision to provide a world-class sporting destination for the entire community has taken a significant step forward today with the Federal Government making a $15 million investment into the Kennedy Community Centre. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Hon Michael McCormack MP and Federal Treasurer, Hon Josh Frydenberg MP announced the Government's contribution this morning at the future site of the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley Village. On behalf of the club I'd like to thank the Federal Government for their support of the Kennedy Community Centre. 

The Kennedy Community Centre will provide not only a home for our club and our members, but also provide the local and broader community with much-needed facilities, including the AFLW and community pavilion and oval. The pavilion will span three levels, with over 500 seats, community and elite changerooms, a function centre, flexible education spaces and broadcast facilities.

The AFLW and Community Oval and Pavilion will become the home ground of Hawthorn’s future AFLW team. Our licence into the AFLW competition is something which we continue to push for and are lobbying the AFL to provide us with a licence for the 2022 season.

Our commitment to furthering women’s participation in AFL was re-affirmed this week as we announced that all positions within our VFLW coaching structure will be held by women. This move makes Hawthorn the first AFL club in VFLW/AFLW history to field an all-female coaching panel. 

The history-making coaching line-up features women with both significant football and coaching experience. With only one female head coach across the entire AFLW competition and five across the VFLW, there is a significant gap in the development pathways available to female coaches.

By implementing an all-female coaching panel in a high performance environment we are creating a visible and realistic pathway for women to reach the highest level of playing and coaching. Our club is passionate about creating opportunities to further women’s participation in the AFL, this coaching panel is one way we are kicking down the door to these opportunities so the next generation can walk through.

I would like to thank our VFLW Senior Coach Bec Goddard for being a passionate driver of this initiative and for helping our club to continue to display brave and bold leadership.

We also finalised our list this week to prepare for Draft on December 9th. It is never easy to farewell players. Matthew Walker and Harry Jones are wonderful young men and we thank them for their commitment to the brown and gold over their time with us. We wish them all the very best in the future and they will always be welcome at Hawthorn.

On the 31st of October we closed out our financial year and, due in large part to the steadfast support of our loyal members and sponsors, we were able to record a small surplus for the year. Finalising our financial year is a significant task, made even more difficult by the circumstances of 2020. I would like to publicly thank our finance team, led by Tim Silvers, Hugh Hogan and Maddie Owens for their tireless work in finalising the 2020-2021 financial year and for their outstanding leadership and sound decision making throughout the many challenges of the year.

To finish I’d like to say thank you to our members. This year, despite all its challenges, our members stood by us and I am so pleased to see so many of our members back on board for 2021. Your support allows us to continue to think big and be ambitious in our plans for the future and means we can take steps like we did this week. We do not take your unwavering support and trust in us for granted. The future is very exciting at Hawthorn.

Go Hawks!

 
Justin Reeves
Chief Executive Officer
Hawthorn Football Club