Daniel Elphick - Corporate Sales Account Manager
Daniel Elphick has been at the Club for more than four years, and in that time has had a diversity of involvement, as well as being an observer on the sidelines of many changes.
I started out in the Membership Department a long time ago, at a very entry level as a Membership Officer. I did that for six months, and then I moved down to the AFL as part of Shared Services. I spent two years down there, and in that time I also came back and did a little bit in Community programs with Debbie Lee for a couple of days a week when Membership was a bit quiet, and then I moved into Corporate Sales.
When I first started at the Club, there was a fair bit of turmoil. In my first year at the Club, I think I had four CEOs, and within six months of me coming, the coach left, then we got a new Board, all within my first little time of being here. That was quite challenging!
I’ve met some pretty interesting people over my time here. I’ve found that people get quite passionate, and I’ve been yelled at for many different things, ranging from how poorly we’ve been going on field, and my suggestions as to how we could fix that. I’ve had to be creative sometimes!
There was one bloke who - when we were travelling poorly - somehow got hold of my private line, and after a bad loss, I used to anticipate a phone call ranging across anything from half an hour to an hour, giving me advice to pass on to the coach.
Moving from Membership to Corporate Sales, Dan is one of a small but dedicated group, all of whom cater for the wide ranging needs of clients, including many passionate Melbourne supporters. In his role, it’s the connections and caring that all count.
It’s my job to sell anything at the Club that comes up in terms of events. We’ve got myself and Terri-Ann and Tom, and we have a list of clients who we look after. It’s our job to sort out what each client wants, to try and fit them in and get events sold.
We’ve become quite busy throughout the year, because we don’t just do football, we also do cricket, and organise golf days and there’s a race day there as well now. Probably the only quiet time we get now is right after Christmas. It’s full on - we go straight from football to cricket.
We sell anything here at the MCG - we sell corporate boxes for any game, so we end up working games, as well as doing functions for the big blockbusters, such as Anzac Day, and this year we’re doing a fair few Collingwood games, because they tend to draw corporate clients.
As well as the corporate suites, we do functions in our own boardroom, and then there’s the fun side of being invited to a lot of lunches and attending a lot of functions where we mingle with our clients and do a bit of relationship building with them.
That can be one of the tougher aspects of the job - making sure that you’re always energetic, and up and about, even when you’re not feeling so great. It’s also about working things out - not everyone’s up for the big long chats, so it’s about identifying who needs a bit more love, and those people who want to ring up and book in and away they go.
Other people want to ring up and have a chat to you about the footy for half an hour. It’s about making sure that you watch the games and know how it’s all travelling, and not just us.
We have clients who aren’t Melbourne supporters, but people who enjoy coming to our functions, or enjoy using our corporate boxes, so making sure you know who people support, and just getting to know them on a more personal level, is vital.
Some of them have known me from my Membership days - some of those in President’s Club know me from then, and I still see a lot of the volunteers out and about, so I think that once you make good connections with people at the footy club, they really get to know you. It makes coming along to the footy a bit of fun - you come along, everyone knows you, and you have a bit of a chat to people.
Not taking yourself too seriously is probably the best idea in footy, and not to take things too personally, because people are so passionate about their footy club. That’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve found working in footy, especially in the business side of it, is that people don’t normally make decisions based on emotions, but people are really emotional about the footy club, and for some people it’s the absolute love of their lives.
While he has been at Melbourne for a while now, Dan can still recall the path he took to get to the Club, and shares his love of the great outdoors during the off season.
I fell into the footy club. I went to university for four years and did a Bachelor of Business, and an Advanced Diploma of Marketing. I got about three-quarters of the way through it and decided that marketing may not be the thing for me. I’ve done a bit of a full circle since!
But back then I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I was looking for a job, and I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. One of my best mates - Marty [Cox] - works here at the Club, and he said that there was an opening coming up, it was only a six month role, come down and try out, you might really enjoy it.
So, I came and did an interview with Jen Watt, who is also still at the Club, and I sit opposite her now! Anyway, I did an interview, and a couple of further interviews later, I ended up with a role here for six months, and I’ve been involved with the Club for over four years now.
I love being here, I love my footy, and I think I’ve swayed. We won’t tell my Mum - we’ll keep it on the down low - but I think she might know already. I grew up as a Hawks supporter, but I found myself at the game last year inadvertently barracking for Melbourne! But - we won’t tell Mum!
I grew up in Upwey. It’s easier to tell people I’m from Ferntree Gully - nobody knows where Upwey is, but at least with Ferntree Gully there’s a road to help them find their way there.
My break from footy pretty much involves selling cricket these days - there’s not much of a break, and it all tends to flow on. But, when I get a break from footy, I like to get outdoors and hang out with my mates, go hiking and surfing, go kayaking - anything outdoors.
I also spend a lot of time attending music festivals and gigs - one of the loves of my life is music. And, of course, I love spending time with my family, especially playing with my little eighteen month-old niece.
Daniel Elphick has been at the Club for more than four years, and in that time has had a diversity of involvement, as well as being an observer on the sidelines of many changes.
I started out in the Membership Department a long time ago, at a very entry level as a Membership Officer. I did that for six months, and then I moved down to the AFL as part of Shared Services. I spent two years down there, and in that time I also came back and did a little bit in Community programs with Debbie Lee for a couple of days a week when Membership was a bit quiet, and then I moved into Corporate Sales.
When I first started at the Club, there was a fair bit of turmoil. In my first year at the Club, I think I had four CEOs, and within six months of me coming, the coach left, then we got a new Board, all within my first little time of being here. That was quite challenging!
I’ve met some pretty interesting people over my time here. I’ve found that people get quite passionate, and I’ve been yelled at for many different things, ranging from how poorly we’ve been going on field, and my suggestions as to how we could fix that. I’ve had to be creative sometimes!
There was one bloke who - when we were travelling poorly - somehow got hold of my private line, and after a bad loss, I used to anticipate a phone call ranging across anything from half an hour to an hour, giving me advice to pass on to the coach.
Moving from Membership to Corporate Sales, Dan is one of a small but dedicated group, all of whom cater for the wide ranging needs of clients, including many passionate Melbourne supporters. In his role, it’s the connections and caring that all count.
It’s my job to sell anything at the Club that comes up in terms of events. We’ve got myself and Terri-Ann and Tom, and we have a list of clients who we look after. It’s our job to sort out what each client wants, to try and fit them in and get events sold.
We’ve become quite busy throughout the year, because we don’t just do football, we also do cricket, and organise golf days and there’s a race day there as well now. Probably the only quiet time we get now is right after Christmas. It’s full on - we go straight from football to cricket.
We sell anything here at the MCG - we sell corporate boxes for any game, so we end up working games, as well as doing functions for the big blockbusters, such as Anzac Day, and this year we’re doing a fair few Collingwood games, because they tend to draw corporate clients.
As well as the corporate suites, we do functions in our own boardroom, and then there’s the fun side of being invited to a lot of lunches and attending a lot of functions where we mingle with our clients and do a bit of relationship building with them.
That can be one of the tougher aspects of the job - making sure that you’re always energetic, and up and about, even when you’re not feeling so great. It’s also about working things out - not everyone’s up for the big long chats, so it’s about identifying who needs a bit more love, and those people who want to ring up and book in and away they go.
Other people want to ring up and have a chat to you about the footy for half an hour. It’s about making sure that you watch the games and know how it’s all travelling, and not just us.
We have clients who aren’t Melbourne supporters, but people who enjoy coming to our functions, or enjoy using our corporate boxes, so making sure you know who people support, and just getting to know them on a more personal level, is vital.
Some of them have known me from my Membership days - some of those in President’s Club know me from then, and I still see a lot of the volunteers out and about, so I think that once you make good connections with people at the footy club, they really get to know you. It makes coming along to the footy a bit of fun - you come along, everyone knows you, and you have a bit of a chat to people.
Not taking yourself too seriously is probably the best idea in footy, and not to take things too personally, because people are so passionate about their footy club. That’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve found working in footy, especially in the business side of it, is that people don’t normally make decisions based on emotions, but people are really emotional about the footy club, and for some people it’s the absolute love of their lives.
While he has been at Melbourne for a while now, Dan can still recall the path he took to get to the Club, and shares his love of the great outdoors during the off season.
I fell into the footy club. I went to university for four years and did a Bachelor of Business, and an Advanced Diploma of Marketing. I got about three-quarters of the way through it and decided that marketing may not be the thing for me. I’ve done a bit of a full circle since!
But back then I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I was looking for a job, and I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. One of my best mates - Marty [Cox] - works here at the Club, and he said that there was an opening coming up, it was only a six month role, come down and try out, you might really enjoy it.
So, I came and did an interview with Jen Watt, who is also still at the Club, and I sit opposite her now! Anyway, I did an interview, and a couple of further interviews later, I ended up with a role here for six months, and I’ve been involved with the Club for over four years now.
I love being here, I love my footy, and I think I’ve swayed. We won’t tell my Mum - we’ll keep it on the down low - but I think she might know already. I grew up as a Hawks supporter, but I found myself at the game last year inadvertently barracking for Melbourne! But - we won’t tell Mum!
I grew up in Upwey. It’s easier to tell people I’m from Ferntree Gully - nobody knows where Upwey is, but at least with Ferntree Gully there’s a road to help them find their way there.
My break from footy pretty much involves selling cricket these days - there’s not much of a break, and it all tends to flow on. But, when I get a break from footy, I like to get outdoors and hang out with my mates, go hiking and surfing, go kayaking - anything outdoors.
I also spend a lot of time attending music festivals and gigs - one of the loves of my life is music. And, of course, I love spending time with my family, especially playing with my little eighteen month-old niece.
