Year 11 student Gajan Thiyagarajah recently spent a week taking part in the Club’s world class work experience program. This is his diary.
Twenty four fresh-faced teenagers huddling around the doors of the Demon Shop on a freezing, windy Monday morning. Not the most exciting tourist attraction for visitors of the MCG, but these were the humble beginnings of the second 2011 Melbourne Football Club Work Experience group.
From schools across the state we were students from years 10-12 that had applied online to take part in the state-of-the-art program, the only one of its kind across the football clubs in Victoria.
Many of us managed to go wayward on our way to the elusive meeting place beneath Brunton Avenue but once we had checked in with security we made our way into the inner sanctum of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and towards the MFC boardroom.
Our initial morning was occupied with induction and introduction tasks, including a series of videos which new members of the club are shown, delineating the history and culture of the club. We each declared our football allegiances, and surprisingly our numbers were made up of a majority that supported teams other than the Demons!
Shortly we were joined by the CEO Cameron Schwab, who spoke to us about the various employment and workings of a football club that go unnoticed on the outside. It’s often easy to lose motivation in school or the other tasks we occupy ourselves with but Cam’s inspiring, driving words made me realise the importance of filling any organisation with the capable, inventive people.
A daily highlight of the program was definitely lunch in the Hugh Trumble Cafe, eagerly anticipated as stomachs started to rumble towards the end of the morning. Afterwards we took part in the MCG tour, a rite of passage for all new employees of the club. Our first day concluded with us being unleashed upon the National Sports Museum, which proved to be a lot of fun.
On the second day we started to really migrate into the areas which make a football club tick.
Media training was the order of the day, which involved learning about the responsibilities of the department within a club. We looked at the highly discussed and very current Tom Scully saga, as well as the way important figures such as coaches are involved the club’s interaction with media outlets, before an informal but personal tour of AAMI Park.
We then met former trainees of the SportsReady program, who gave us a very important and informative rundown on a highly recognised pathway for jobs into sport.
After lunch, we were then extremely honoured to be able to join David Neitz for a Q&A session in the boardroom. As we sat on the edge of our seats Neita answered all of our questions without reservation, no matter how strange, as we hung off his every word. Very interestingly he happened to know the total number of scoring shots he’d taken throughout his career; an agonising 999!
We were then given the responsibility of assessing and critiquing the Melbourne FC merchandise store, and coming up with our own methods to sell red and blue merchandise to the faithful.
Wednesday was the day we had each been most looking forward to; time to slip on the trackies and head out to Gosch’s Paddock for a light training session with Josh Mahoney. We worked on basic skills, each showing our respective football wares (or lack thereof), as the Demons trained in the background.
As the rain came down we headed inside, where we worked on tactical and administrative areas such as list management, team selection, opposition analysis and physical conditioning with the heads of those departments at the club. We each had interests in varying fields, and were able to learn something new and contribute something unique to the discussions.
Scott West and Dean Bailey also joined us to run through some mock press conferences, which gave us the opportunity to embrace our inner journalist and unleash the hard hitting questions on two respected football authorities.
Finally on Thursday we started to sink our teeth into the administrative and marketing departments of a football club. We engaged in group discussions involving ways to help promote the public face of the club to attract new supporters and members from various demographics.
With the promise of something boring to come after lunch, we returned to the boardroom from where began the 2011 MFC Work Experience Mega Quiz, which had us sprinting across Yarra Park in a thrilling finish to a very informative, enjoyable and beneficial week.
The relationships that we formed will hold us each in great stead for the future, and it was a testament to our group that we functioned so well together, despite coming from varying backgrounds and barracking for different football teams!
Good luck to us all for the future and I know that this great week will provide a platform for each of us going forward.
The Melbourne Football Club’s industry-leading work experience program will be back in 2012. Keep an eye on melbournefc.com.au in February for details.
Twenty four fresh-faced teenagers huddling around the doors of the Demon Shop on a freezing, windy Monday morning. Not the most exciting tourist attraction for visitors of the MCG, but these were the humble beginnings of the second 2011 Melbourne Football Club Work Experience group.
From schools across the state we were students from years 10-12 that had applied online to take part in the state-of-the-art program, the only one of its kind across the football clubs in Victoria.
Many of us managed to go wayward on our way to the elusive meeting place beneath Brunton Avenue but once we had checked in with security we made our way into the inner sanctum of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and towards the MFC boardroom.
Our initial morning was occupied with induction and introduction tasks, including a series of videos which new members of the club are shown, delineating the history and culture of the club. We each declared our football allegiances, and surprisingly our numbers were made up of a majority that supported teams other than the Demons!
Shortly we were joined by the CEO Cameron Schwab, who spoke to us about the various employment and workings of a football club that go unnoticed on the outside. It’s often easy to lose motivation in school or the other tasks we occupy ourselves with but Cam’s inspiring, driving words made me realise the importance of filling any organisation with the capable, inventive people.
A daily highlight of the program was definitely lunch in the Hugh Trumble Cafe, eagerly anticipated as stomachs started to rumble towards the end of the morning. Afterwards we took part in the MCG tour, a rite of passage for all new employees of the club. Our first day concluded with us being unleashed upon the National Sports Museum, which proved to be a lot of fun.
On the second day we started to really migrate into the areas which make a football club tick.
Media training was the order of the day, which involved learning about the responsibilities of the department within a club. We looked at the highly discussed and very current Tom Scully saga, as well as the way important figures such as coaches are involved the club’s interaction with media outlets, before an informal but personal tour of AAMI Park.
We then met former trainees of the SportsReady program, who gave us a very important and informative rundown on a highly recognised pathway for jobs into sport.
After lunch, we were then extremely honoured to be able to join David Neitz for a Q&A session in the boardroom. As we sat on the edge of our seats Neita answered all of our questions without reservation, no matter how strange, as we hung off his every word. Very interestingly he happened to know the total number of scoring shots he’d taken throughout his career; an agonising 999!
We were then given the responsibility of assessing and critiquing the Melbourne FC merchandise store, and coming up with our own methods to sell red and blue merchandise to the faithful.
Wednesday was the day we had each been most looking forward to; time to slip on the trackies and head out to Gosch’s Paddock for a light training session with Josh Mahoney. We worked on basic skills, each showing our respective football wares (or lack thereof), as the Demons trained in the background.
As the rain came down we headed inside, where we worked on tactical and administrative areas such as list management, team selection, opposition analysis and physical conditioning with the heads of those departments at the club. We each had interests in varying fields, and were able to learn something new and contribute something unique to the discussions.
Scott West and Dean Bailey also joined us to run through some mock press conferences, which gave us the opportunity to embrace our inner journalist and unleash the hard hitting questions on two respected football authorities.
Finally on Thursday we started to sink our teeth into the administrative and marketing departments of a football club. We engaged in group discussions involving ways to help promote the public face of the club to attract new supporters and members from various demographics.
With the promise of something boring to come after lunch, we returned to the boardroom from where began the 2011 MFC Work Experience Mega Quiz, which had us sprinting across Yarra Park in a thrilling finish to a very informative, enjoyable and beneficial week.
The relationships that we formed will hold us each in great stead for the future, and it was a testament to our group that we functioned so well together, despite coming from varying backgrounds and barracking for different football teams!
Good luck to us all for the future and I know that this great week will provide a platform for each of us going forward.
The Melbourne Football Club’s industry-leading work experience program will be back in 2012. Keep an eye on melbournefc.com.au in February for details.
