Geelong will end a long-running tradition of training away from prying eyes in a bid to improve membership figures.
Club brass believe achieving a target of 50,000 members is needed to keep up with the AFL’s biggest markets and hopes opening up more training sessions to the public at Simonds Stadium will help the club achieve the goal.
“We are trying to work out ways to engage with our supporters and members,” football manager Steve Hocking told News Corp.
“The other thing that we’re doing is hitting Scotty (coach Chris Scott) up for 2015 and trying to have more open training sessions.
“Again, a free opportunity for people to come along and be part of the team and engage with the players and coaching staff.
“So we’ll continue to find ways of trying to make it affordable.”
Geelong has backed away from a proposed plan to charge non-members $5 entry to open sessions after receiving significant backlash to the idea.
The Cats managed 44,000 members during last season’s 17-5, third placed finish and the club has already locked up 30,000 for 2015, the first time it has achieved the mark before Christmas.
“Our membership last year reached 44,000 and while this was a record for our club, it is lagging behind the leading clubs who are all now selling more than 60,000 memberships,” he said.
“We are putting a huge amount of work into this. Unless we can close the gap between our membership and these other clubs, our capacity to compete will be eroded.
“We need to grow our membership to more than 50,000 and even to 60,000 to sure that we remain competitive.”
In other Geelong news, coach Chris Scott has said injured youngsters Daniel Menzel and Nathan Vardy remain part of the club’s long-term future.
Both aged just 23, Menzel has already undergone four knee reconstructions while Vardy has sustained serious knee and hip injuries in recent seasons.
“We’re thinking long-term with them,” Scott told AFL.com.au of the pair.
“We’re not thinking, let’s try to squeeze 30 games out of these two boys and then cast them aside. We’re still optimistic they can have five-, eight- or nine-year careers with us.”
According to Scott, Menzel’s rehab is currently further along than Vardy’s, but both players are on track in their recoveries.
Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images.
