Dear Members,

We write to you today in what is uncharted territory for the Melbourne Football Club and the wider AFL community.

On Friday night, we received confirmation from the AFL that our AFL and AFLW games would go ahead, but without our loyal members and supporters in attendance for the foreseeable future.

Whilst disappointing, the health and safety of our players, staff and supporters must come first. This has always been our number one priority, which is why we support the AFL’s decision to continue the competition without crowds in attendance.

Earlier this week, we put in place stringent strategies to protect our people from the spread of COVID-19. These measures included separating our staff and players into four different locations and implementing working from home arrangements, where possible, to best safeguard our people. We also asked our staff and players to make significant lifestyle changes to ensure that our teams remain as healthy as they can amidst the current pandemic. We are confident our measures are as good as any. They will give us the best chance of keeping our people safe, and will enable us as a Club to continue to perform at a high level.

So, 2020 is going to be a season of extreme challenges; many that we have never faced before as a Club. This will test us but, in many ways, it will cement our unity. We are well placed to perform, and plan on being in a strong position when our members and supporters can re-join us at the MCG, once deemed safe to do so.

It goes without saying this is an unheralded situation for the AFL community as a whole and we will need our collective resilience, agility and support to successfully navigate our way through these extraordinary circumstances.

As you are aware, an enormous amount of work has gone into our Club to set ourselves up to challenge for the ultimate prize in the coming years. What will be so very important during these times is your continued loyalty, support and commitment to the Club and the players we all love. What we would like to ask is for you to maintain your loyalty, to support us like never before and to retain your membership, while encouraging others to do so. The harsh reality is that we really need your support during this time of significant financial challenge.

In saying that, we firmly believe the Melbourne faithful will stick together through this. Whilst physically we will be separated for a period of time, we will work on ways to remain close as a community in a digital form, and our media team are looking at exploring other exciting avenues to keep us all connected. The bond between our players and our members is strong and is critical to our Club. The players thrive off your passion, so please keep that coming.

Everyone at the Club will play their role and together we will get through this. Our board, staff and players are all working incredibly hard to make the best out of this situation. Our membership team will continue to operate during normal business hours and are available to answer your questions. We do ask that you please have a level of patience and understanding when dealing with the membership team during these unique circumstances.

Thank you again for your support as a member. We will continue to update you regularly as more information comes to hand.

On behalf of everyone at the Club, including all our players and staff, please take care of yourselves and those around you and we look forward to having you back at our games shortly.

Go Dees!