MELBOURNE has announced six new life members at its annual general meeting on Wednesday night.
The winners were …
Stephen Bickford: Past director and player (he played 15 matches from 1980-81). He was awarded life membership for overall contribution to the club.
Lynda Carroll: Former club historian and volunteer with more than 15 years combined service to the club. She also wrote her PHD thesis on the cultural history of the Melbourne Football Club.
Aaron Davey: A much loved player, who played 178 matches and kicked 174 goals from 2004-13, Davey won Melbourne’s best and fairest in 2009.
Lynden Dunn: One of Melbourne’s longest serving players from its 2015 list, Dunn was recently named vice-captain for this season.
Alan Johnson: A dual best and fairest winner and former star Demon of the 1980s, Johnson was inducted into the Melbourne Hall of Fame last year.
Clyde Laidlaw: A four-time premiership player in Melbourne’s golden era, Laidlaw was inducted into the MFC Hall of Fame last year.
Meanwhile, the club also announced the Gordon Lockhart Volunteer of the Year Award, which was awarded to Suzanne Considine.
The award was handed over by James Lockhart. The award was instituted in honour of his late father, Gordon, who was a long time and stalwart volunteer, and whose efforts have been continued by the entire family. Julie, Beth, Lauren and James all maintain a strong interest and involvement in the club, to assisting at functions, and James’ match day role in the rooms.
Considine came from a Richmond supporting family but quickly adopted Melbourne when she married John and started going to go with the family.
She accompanied her son to look after him when he wanted to start sitting in the cheer squad and has now been a member of the cheer squad for 15 years.
Working full-time as a pharmacist, in her spare time she sews banner and flags, knits red and blue jumpers for little kids, spruiks the Demon Army on social media plus anything else the club needs.
She puts in around 400 hours a season, plus game days where she arrives at the ground two hours before the gates even open to organise the banner. She has been a key part of the reinvigoration and growth of the Demon Army.
