There has been a lot of change at our club over the last 12 month.
We have a new board with energy and enthusiasm.
We have a new coaching panel with determination and ambition, and a new group of talented young players who did us proud last week. In Craig McCrae we have an outstanding leader who has transformed our football program.
And our women’s teams continue to enrich our club and have performed magnificently.
For all that has changed - one thing has not.
That is the shared history we have as Collingwood supporters, and the passion that connects our club to a special place in people’s hearts.
Last week, Elsie Rose, beloved wife of arguably Collingwood’s greatest champion, Bob Rose, died at age 95.
Her son, Peter - wrote of Elsie this week - “Few of us can match her courage or her goodness. Her disdain for cruelty and injustice was an example for everyone …. How fortunate we were to have known her.”
Vale Elsie – you and Bob live on in the values of our club.
And we embrace our shared history in its entirety. The good, as well as the parts of our history that demand we Do Better.
Last Tuesday was the international day for the elimination of racism.
It was also the day we received the 12-month review of the work recommended by the Do Better report delivered to the club in 2020.
One of the recommendations was to have the authors of the first report come back to monitor our work and hold us accountable to our commitments.
I want to commend the previous board for commissioning the Do Better report.
And I want to commend the club – at every level – for their commitment to Do Better – and to be open to measurement and accountability.
I am very pleased that the 12- month report shows we are heading in the right direction.
The review has noted that the club has made ‘significant and genuine progress’ on many of the recommendations.
The review also noted that while substantial work is underway, real cultural change takes time, dedication and persistence.
The review also acknowledges that elements of the work program, such as the Expert Group and the Truth Telling process are unique and leading in the sector.
The 12-month review has looked at the Club’s program of work, including:
- • establishment of the Expert Advisory Group,
- • implementing the Do Better values throughout the Club,
- • creating a sub-committee to oversee the work,
- • new policy including a whistleblower policy,
- • appointment of a GM of Social Impact and Policy,
- • an audit and updating of employment policies,
- • development of a framework for tackling complaints,
- • ongoing training and,
- • the establishment of a Truth Telling process to deal with past harms.
As President, I have had the opportunity to discuss and hear from our Expert Advisory Panel, our staff and our players about the work that this report demanded of our organisation.
I thank Jodie Sizer and Helen Szoke, Co-Chairs of the Expert Group on Anti-Racism for their leadership of our expert panel and Jodie in particular for leading the momentum in our club.
And I am seeing that work embraced throughout the club.
It has been driven not only by the expert panel, the board and the executive, – but from the ground up – by our players and our staff as we pursue our common goal of eliminating racism, prejudice and inequality.
This builds on the existing work, particularly the clubs Barrawarn Program and our reconciliation action plan commitments.
Our club wants to play an active role in addressing racism in our industry and in or community.
We want to be leaders and change agents for a better, safer and more respectful community.
This work we are doing is work for all us, for every club, for the AFL and for communities across the nation.
There is no final siren on the issue of fighting racism.
Change takes time, and I want to reaffirm my commitment as president to the do better report and all its recommendations.
I was elected promising to make our club better, stronger, even more competitive. Back to where we belong.
I see the Do Better work not as an added extra.
It is essential to our club being a high performing club – on and off the field.
Our senior coach made me aware of a quote from the coach of last year’s NFL Superbowl winners, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bruce Arians attributed the team’s success in large part to the culture that had been built around the racial and gender diversity of his coaching staff.
“To hear voices in a staff meeting that aren’t the same, don’t look alike, but they all have input, you get better output,” he says.
A club that embraces diversity is a better club, a stronger club – a more competitive club.
Everyone that comes to our club should be able to flourish and achieve their best in a safe environment.
It is also essential to the Collingwood of Bob and Elsie rose – courage, goodness, a rejection of cruelty and injustice.
We can do better, we will do better.
