MELBOURNE has raised more than $60,000 from Tuesday night’s membership telethon, held in the club’s offices at the MCG.
The club’s players, coaches and administration sold more than 440 memberships, with further memberships expected to sell on Wednesday, based on phone messages.
The ‘red’ team was captained by Lynden Dunn and community manager Debbie Lee, and the ‘blue’ team was led by Shannon Byrnes and player development manager Andrew Nichol.
The players signed up 240 members, with the coaches/administration securing 203. The ‘red’ team just came out on top.
Young gun Jimmy Toumpas also showed he was a star off the field, signing 27 members – the most for the night.
Tough-nut Luke Tapscott showed a softer side on the phones, signing up 18 members, while speedster Sam Blease and big man Mark Jamar combined to add 18.
Max Gawn’s wit and personality gained 17 members and star recruit Bernie Vince also managed 15.
Dunn said the players entered the night attempting to sign as many members as they could.
“We wanted to make sure we got on the phone and rang all the members we wanted to re-sign,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“It was a pretty important night for the footy club, because we wanted to raise $60,000.”
Dunn praised Toumpas’ effort and joked that he had a direct line to Greece.
“He’s rang all of his family members and came home with the goods,” he said.
Not surprisingly, coach Paul Roos topped the memberships from the coaches/administrators section with 14. But he was also joined by former membership officer and now event executive Bridget Hanson, who also sold 14.
Dee TV star Ellie McKenzie (13), sales guru Leon McConville (12) and strategist Rob Halliday (nine) were next best.
Melbourne now has more than 29,000 members and is on track to achieve 32,000 members by round one.
But there are still 7,500 members from 2013 yet to renew for 2014 and the club is eager to have these people back on board this year.
Anyone who joins the club before round one (by 5pm EST Friday March 21) will go into the draw to win the Hyundai i20 courtesy of Melbourne City Hyundai and the club’s major partner AHG.
The club also encourages everyone to join before round one and round two to avoid queues at Melbourne’s season opener against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium and against the West Coast Eagles at the MCG in round two.
