Kate Roffey | 20,825 days since a Melbourne FC premiership | Fox Tails 2

Intro on saturday september the 25th the melbourne demons will take on the western bulldogs in the afl grand final not at the traditional grand final home the mcg in melbourne but at optus stadium in perth now in 2016 the western bulldogs broke a long drought to win a flag but it has been a very long time for the demons to win one that's something we really need to know about [Music] hello and welcome to fox task the things we need to know brought to you by swift fox i'm andy bellais and this episode is one that is very close to my heart i'm a passionate demon supporter and have been my whole life here's a fact for you it's been 7 693 days since the melbourne football club last played in a grand final in 2000 and it's been 20 825 days since the demons last won a premiership in 1964. so what does all that history mean for the players the administration and the fans well let's go right to the top to kate roffey the president of the melbourne football club who's in quarantine in perth in preparation for the big day kate roffey welcome to fox tales Kate Roffey thank you thanks for having me don't worry so what does the history of the occasion mean for the club as a whole you're the president you know the administration and the board means a lot to the supporters you know the next game probably means more to the players but what does it mean to the club yeah look this is uh people sort of go a great year but this is something that we've been building for certainly i've been on the board for eight years a bit more than eight years and we've been building this re structuring of the club restructuring of the list restructuring of the culture we've been doing that for eight years so now those of us who've been integrally involved in that are seeing the culmination of all of that work so it's been a long time coming in terms of getting to where we are but we know for our supporters and we're now the club with the the longest drought for a premiership for our supporters for our ronnie barassi's and hasaman's and and david nietzsche's and people who've been around and have played for the club it's so important but it's more than that because i think everyone whether you're a melbourne supporter or not wants the melbourne football club that carries the name of the city that afl was born in and it's the oldest club in the league and certainly one of the oldest professional sports clubs in the world they want melbourne to be strong in a powerful club again for the greater good and i think we really we really feel that neil mitchell said to me when when i did an interview with him last week he said you realize that you're carrying the hopes of all victorians here for a premiership win and it's not about winning the flag for melbourne it's about so much more and we're really aware of that as a club and i certainly as a president and very much aware of the fact that we carry a great history and as i said this behind me is the 1964 flag that was flying at the mcg it is the actual flag that was up above the mcg the day we won our last premiership and i've tracked it down i found the guy who had it got it from his dad who had it sitting in the bottom of a drawer for 40 years and he's given it back to the club and when i touch it i actually you know i feel so proud and almost brings a tear to my eyes because that's the very fabric of the melbourne football club that you can see behind me there before i've heard the stories my dad was sitting behind the goals when ray gavlich ran towards the goals to kick that goal before froggy crompton snapped the one that norm didn't want in the place but um hey kate you're the Kates Role president you know it's not grand final week's grand final fortnight but what's the role of a club president in this period leading up to the grand final yeah look it's funny because a lot of my work that we've done off the field is is done so people say that i was like i can't really do anything now to influence the outcome other than keep i'm in touch with the players i keep in touch with the coaches i let them know that you know we're here that this whole club is behind them that the city of melbourne itself is behind them and and that i believe in them and i've said that ever since i started i i've always gotten since i've started president oh the hard hard done by melbourne supporters or whatever i was like stop stop you know we're not the team as 1972 or 1978 or 1983 or any other year we're the team of 2021 and you've got to believe in your players and so that's really what it is about for me i keep i do every interview that i get asked to do i talk to every person i send every linkedin response that i get i respond to every text message and email because that's part of my job is to make sure everyone knows that we are aware of the club just how important this actually is to a lot more people than the people who play the game or work at this club or who are even members of the club it's really really important culturally for a lot more reasons than that now there's two melbourne-based teams now maybe not as expected as we thought might have been port adelaide playing melbourne in the grand final but now we've got the western bulldogs so what's the pitch why should mutual supporters all the other 16 teams why should they be getting behind the red and blue yeah look i think there is a real sentimentality this was exactly the same when the doggies played sydney and and they broke their premiership trout if you were not a sydney supporter you were behind the dogs and that's because they're the underdogs and yeah we always sort of have a a soft spot for the underdogs and i'll tell you the honest truth i've actually spoken to some um bulldogs supporters who say we still want melbourne to win because as i said it's so important to the game so i think the sentimentality um we've picked up for example the perth crowd because we've done a lot of work over here knowing it was going to be a neutral venue knowing that people want to go to a game and actually support a team we've been doing a lot of promotional stuff over here long before other clubs even thought of being in a grand final much less doing anything about it so our forward thinking we've been working on this for months has captured the market over here so gary lyons who was at the game on friday night i'm unfortunately in quarantine so i wasn't there but he said he reckoned 80 of the crowd was supporting the d's and i don't think that would change much because we've really made the effort to to show that if we're not your first club we're very very happy to have you as a supporter and be your second club so we've been working really hard behind the scenes on that and i think it's paying off it's lovely and you're all Quarantine there in perth but you're in quarantine so it must be difficult we're back here in melbourne what's the past we've got two weeks what is your advice how am i supposed to get through the next two weeks yeah look i'm just filling my day with as many zoom meetings and things for work as i can to try and um to try and get through it is really strange because there really is you know it's a significant gap now we'll have pretty much no football at all which is totally unusual on any given weekend we'll have the brown though of course but it is um you know i'm sort of trying a bit to put it from my mind not that that's working because my phone just keeps constantly going with um messages or requests to do interviews or things but you know we've got two weeks our players will put it from their minds for two or three days now and just have a bit of a a break and then they'll come back and hit that preparation really hard again so i think we just have to do the same and sort of try and put it from our minds for a little bit and and get ourselves cheered up um i have put up on my linkedin actually some photos of people sent me a painted doors and fences and things and it's had i think 20 nearly 25 000 views so far so if you're bored people go out and paint your front door or paint your fence or get your demons colours up um there because you know that support i am sending them on and showing the club and the players and things and it is getting out there they know how much the people at home are actually you know behind them and even though they can't be here um it hasn't stopped them proudly displaying the melbourne colors well wise man once said to me kate ruffy that there are no losers in grand final week because it's just a celebration so hopefully we can all get through that nerves the nerves and just really celebrate and look forward to it because i mean i can't wait i'm i'm i'm on board thanks so much for joining yeah absolutely get those red and blue colors if you're not a if you're not a true demon we're very very happy to have you on board to do your second team wonderful thanks for your time no worries always a pleasure thanks andy that was kate roffey president of the melbourne football club and this has been foxtails the things we need to know brought to you by swift fox make sure you give these videos a like and also check out this week in zach over on our youtube and our linkedin page thanks very much for your company and we hope to see you next time calm the demons [Music] you