Partnerships Report

Business & Events

Shona MacInnes General Manager, Business & Projects

Occasionally you can be unlucky and buy a car that turns out to be a lemon. The fi rst few outings it runs like a dream then the faults creep in. It starts, stops, starts again, pauses, chokes into life and then fi nally conks out. 2021 was a lemon. We launched the season with high hopes in the Member’s Dining Room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was great to see everyone back together after an empty 2020. There was a buzz of expectation in anticipation of a ‘normal’ year. 285 people witnessed Certifi cates of Merit carried over from 2020 presented to Kylie Da Fonte (MHSOB), Stephen Manning (Ormond), Terry Symons (Parkdale Vultures), Scott Williams (Caulfi eld Grammarians), Phil Skeggs (Ivanhoe AFC), John Pilkington (VAFA Tribunal) and John Robinson (VAFA). The 2021 awardees were Richard Simon (Ormond), Mick O’Leary (Therry Penola) and Gerry Westmore (Uni Blues). Each of the recipients displayed either outstanding service to their club or the VAFA. Peter Nash and Michael Hazell were awarded with much deserved Life Memberships of the VAFA and MC, Natalie Edwards, interviewed special guest speaker, young Australian Test Cricketer, Will Pucovski. Planning and bookings were well underway for the Big V Club Luncheon, the William Buck Finals Lunch and the VAFA Awards Night, before Covid-19 claimed more scalps and all three major events had to be abandoned. Our Community Partners in 2021 were Breast Cancer Network Australia, Tackle Your Feelings, Thick & Thin and TAC Towards Zero. The PLAY4BCNA Round on May 8 was embraced by 23 of our clubs who variously held lunches, afternoon teas, wore pink socks and raised over $28,000. It’s a fantastic start to our offi cial partnership and we hope to build on this in 2022. Unfortunately, our Mental Health Awareness and TAC Rounds were compromised, although the Tackle Your Feelings Program, which we launched this year, provided much needed support for the clubs who participated in it. Further detail of the program can be found in the Club Development Report. We thank Adam Kirkwood–Scott for expertly guiding the Commercial/Media Sub-committee through another diffi cult year. Business for our apparel suppliers, CGR, StarSub and TLA did pick up and it was good to see our players out on the ground in some new gear. We thank these suppliers, and Sherrin, for their continued support of the VAFA and our clubs. The on-line store is now ‘pay up front’ which has dispensed with the old ineffi cient system of invoicing. Next year we are planning a full calendar for events, including a Season Launch Gala to celebrate the 130th year of the VAFA.

We have already said goodbye to the lemon that was season 2021, and invested in a brand-new vehicle - polished, reliable and humming, ready to start a year with all the trimmings that make the VAFA the place we love.

Media & Communications

With the new year came newfound enthusiasm for what VAFA Media could achieve and, while the season was cut short, it gave us the chance to trial new initiatives to engage the VAFA community while driving audience growth across all platforms.

Live Streaming

Following the success of last year’s ‘VAFA Throwback’ live stream series and the strategic aim to promote the competition as widely as possible, a weekly live stream was introduced. This gave VAFA Media the opportunity to broadcast games from Premier Men’s and Women’s through to Division 4, often highlighting key rivalries, club milestones and celebrations. With the weekly radio broadcast, it eff ectively doubled VAFA Media’s live weekend coverage. Kicking off with the Old Melburnians and Caulfi eld Grammarians 100-year centenary match, the stream covered the MUWFC vs Fitzroy women’s pride match, Mazenod’s Foundation Day, Hawthorn AFC’s Wings celebration, Emmaus St Leo’s Breast Cancer Awareness match and West Brunswick’s Westival, among others. The live stream also provided more opportunities for young commentators to learn and hone their craft, with every game streamed with at least two callers. In particular, I’d like to thank Josh Heriot and Mitch Dyer who led the matchday commentary most weeks, along with Joe Pignataro, Blair Morton, Tom Flanagan, and Dane Roy.

VAFA Radio

After agreeing to a three-year partnership extension, VAFA Media built upon its relationship with RSN 927 with the weekly matchday broadcast on RSN Carnival. The VAFA Podcast was also broadcast mid-week on Carnival, while pre-round advertisements were released every Friday on RSN 927. The Mecwacare Match of the Day continues to reign supreme as one of the most important VAFA Media assets, with a onehour pre-game program followed by match coverage and a half hour post-game show. It allows interviews with club personnel, light-hearted segments, and additional promotion of VAFA and club sponsors. The integration of VAFA sponsors was a key focus as we created a pool of 30-60-second advertisements, as well as the Man of the Match Award which was sponsored by Base Compression. The partnership with RSN has allowed expansion into other key areas, in particular additional podcasts (highlights packages from MOTD) and heightened social media coverage with the increased production of audio tiles. I’d like to give sincerest thanks to Joe Pignataro (RSN) who leads the coverage from both a production and hosting perspective and works creatively with me to ensure the best product each week. Brian Waldron has been outstanding yet again on the VAFA Podcast, while our commentators are the best in the business: Simon Petch, Joe Pignataro, Tom Flanagan, Josh Heriot and Andrew Holmes.

Awards Night Broadcasts

With the cancellation of the in-person Awards Nights due to ongoing State Government restrictions, VAFA Media produced two three-hour Awards Shows on RSN Carnival. Over two incredible nights on 15 September (D1-4, U19s & U23s) and 22 September (Prem-PC, MVPs, Umpires & Rising Stars) the VAFA recognised all winners and conducted interviews with 16 B&F winners + two MVPs, two Rising Stars and the Umpire of the Year. The awards programs were a fantastic way to conclude the playing aspect of the 2021 season, and I thank everyone who took part in assisting with the coverage, particularly Joe Pignataro, RSN and VAFA Media volunteers.

Amateur Footballer Record

Due to the fi nancial strain caused by COVID, clubs were surveyed ahead of the season and the decision was made to move the AF Record to a digital-only edition in 2021. The decision saved $50,000 in printing costs and improved the reporting process for partner advertisements. While the VAFA is no longer printing the record on a weekly basis, we continue to design in a format which makes its printable for clubs or individuals who wish to do so. The VAFA Media team reached an all-time high with every section of senior men’s and women’s covered by scribes, each of whom do an outstanding amount of work that is of the utmost importance to the ongoing coverage of the Association. Nick Armistead Head of Media

VAFA Website

The website is the most important asset in the VAFA Media arsenal and drives an incredible amount of traffi c throughout the year. Prior to the cancellation of the season, the website was on track to break through the 5 million page views barrier for the fi rst time. This is based largely on higher rates of men’s and women’s content and increased social media followers on all platforms. Improvements were made throughout 2020 to cater for the increased traffi c and allow for greater usability. While these changes have helped (including redirecting all fi xtures, results, and ladders to the SportsTG website), VAFA Media is currently working on a completely new website for 2022. One of the improvements made at the end of 2020 was a new advertising program for sponsor banners and tiles which has proved an amazing success. With a greater ability to control the rotation of sponsor ads, the new system has allowed VAFA sponsors a 150-300% increase on agreed ad impressions.

Other

Providing informative and creative content across all platforms is the modus operandi of VAFA Media and, along with the items listed above, 2021 has seen a continuation of the Newsletter, two successful VAFA Media Days in March, highlights videos, more social engagement, and far greater promotion and re-sharing of club content.

Partnerships

Brett Connell Chief Executive Offi cer Lana Ryan Media, Marketing & Events Co-ordinator

We welcomed 2021 with open arms after an extended off season, eagerly awaiting the fi rst bounce of Round 1. It was a promising start to the year with an innovative digital website advertising program, new businesses signing sponsorship agreements and fresh media assets to employ, we were hopeful for an abundant year in the sponsorship space. After restrictions and lockdowns were announced and what began as cancelled rounds eventually led to the abandonment of the entire season, we once again were forced to improvise and focus on how to deliver on our agreements in this all too familiar environment.

Despite issues and limitations with fi nals activations, branding and promotions, our digital and social media platforms enabled us to continue working with partners and ensure the best possible outcomes. We would especially like to thank our Premium Partner William Buck Accountants and Advisors for their ongoing support, loyalty and generosity over the past two years with a special thanks to Lindsay Holloway, Jasmine Gribble and the rest of the William Buck team.

We would also like to thank Zac Vlahandonis, Sam Duncan, Jason Bird and Jonathan Ioannou from VAFA’s Major Partner, Holmesglen. After an impressive six years, our partnership continues to strengthen, one of the highlights being the relationship between students, VAFA HQ and clubs via the internship and Applied Learning programs. These unique opportunities provide benefi ts to all stakeholders and we intend to continually develop and improve these initiatives and relationships. To Jo Dougherty and Michele Lewis from Mecwacare, it has been a diffi cult few years for both the sporting and aged care sectors. We appreciate and value your support and look forward to continuing and building on this promising relationship into 2022. We would like to also thank Ruth Hall from Community Bank Malvern East for your generous support to VAFA HQ as well as numerous clubs within our community. It has undoubtedly been a turbulent time within the fi tness industry, with recent lockdowns severely impacting the viability of our partners at Anytime Fitness. To owner Simon Olive, we sincerely value our ongoing relationship and look forward to working with you in the coming years with better times still to come.

In light of events in the past two years, we have extended our apparel supplier contracts for a further 12 months which will now conclude at the end 2022. Thank you to Patrick Prendergast from CGR Sportswear, Jeremy Heff ernan from Starsub and Jason Jacoby from TLA. In addition, thank you to Andrew Oppy from OrthoSport Victoria, Andrew Shenker from Victor Sports, Chris Michaels from Sherrin, Kim Littlejohn and Martin Gaul from Club Warehouse, William Balme and Simon Hogan from Thick & Thin, Kristen Pilatti from BCNA and the departing Nick Walsh from Tackle Your Feelings. At the commencement of a reinvigorated 2021 season, we also saw new businesses sign on as VAFA sponsors. Concave Boots kicked off with us at the start of the year with numerous promotional opportunities, giveaways as well as generous prize packages distributed at our two VAFA Media Days in March. Thank you to Andrew Theodosi for engaging in our competition and we eagerly anticipate our 2022 campaign. BASE Compression joined us in March as the VAFA’s offi cial compression partner and has soared in popularity within our community. Our most exciting development is the newly created BASE Ambassador program, which involved players and umpires to trial, review and promote compression products. To Roger Hawke and Amanda Morrison, we appreciate your support and look to grow and expand upon this exciting partnership venture moving forward. Our newest beverage partner, Club Connect, signed on this season and created promising club connections and distribution channels. Unfortunately, the cancellation of the VAFA Finals Series severely impacted our plans. However, we have already begun planning for 2022 and look forward to working collaboratively with Tim Clarke and Rebecca May and thank them for their commitment and loyalty despite this unpredictable year.