"MY NAME is Jack and I'm a utility."
That was the cheeky way Jack Higgins introduced himself to more than 100 St Kilda players, officials and administrators on the Bungaree Football Ground on Friday, much to the amusement of the club's entire staff, who know the 22-year-old is a small forward who likes to consider himself more of a midfielder.
No sooner had the laughter subsided that another Jack stepped forward and generated even more laughter. "My name is also Jack and I'm clearly from IT," said St Kilda's IT trainee Jack Fly, while wearing a Saints cap, jeans and glasses. It was a small moment, but it summed up the purpose of the day.
After almost two full years of remote working, hub living and many games played behind closed doors, St Kilda's football department and administration relocated from Moorabbin to Ballarat on Friday to reconnect and reset ahead of a season many hope will return to some form of normalcy, and some haven't given up hope on delivering an elusive second premiership, 56 years after the club's only Grand Final win.
Higgins and Fly were two of nearly 50 people who were involved in a group exercise led by St Kilda's GM of people and culture, Stacey Dowdell. Step forward if you joined the club in the past two years and tell us what you do. It was a simple activity to close the gap between the football department and the administration that exists inside every AFL club. Football clubs are special places, moulded together by many different people from different backgrounds and skillsets. Most people inside clubland believe the tighter the gap, the better the club.
"Footy clubs, at their heart, are places of connection and places where people find a sense of belonging to a purpose which is bigger than just themselves," St Kilda CEO Matt Finnis told AFL.com.au from inside the Bungaree Football Club on Friday.
"Whether you're a country footy team or an AFL team, that's part of the DNA of a footy club. The way COVID has impacted footy clubs everywhere, we're no different to that.
"Our people have been working really hard, but ultimately have missed out on that sense of connection that fuels you. So bringing everyone here today, in a place where we share such a spiritual connection – Danny Frawley's name is on the pavilion of the Bungaree Football Club, the Danny Frawley Centre is at Moorabbin – it was just an opportunity for us to really get back to what drives us and what binds us as people, whether you're a coach; a player; a membership officer; whether you work in finance or you're the president of the footy club."
SAINTS HONOUR 'SPUD' THROUGH ACTION
The Saints are set to open the Danny Frawley Centre for Health and Wellbeing at RSEA Park early next month as part of the next stage of development at Moorabbin, which will provide a world-class facility that caters to both physical and mental health needs of the community.
The last time the club spent time in Bungaree was shortly after the former captain passed in 2019. This time, with Anita Frawley looking on, their daughter Chelsea, who is St Kilda's marketing manager, spoke to the entire football club, along with some of Spud's closest and oldest friends, including David Grant, Kane Taylor and Danny Quinlan.
Former St Kilda midfielder and long-time player development manager, Tony Brown, remains the glue at the club – the man every player confides in – and helped guide the day in the country, while also managing everything that happens behind the scenes when something happens to a player, like it did to Nick Coffield on Friday.
"Danny Frawley was so important for the club and it's the perfect way to honour him. Danny was open about his mental health issues, so there is no more fitting way to honour him than to have a mental health clinic in his honour," St Kilda president Andrew Bassat said.
"There is such a massive issue that is now being recognised and Danny was a leader in recognising its presence in the AFL and in the sports community. It's an issue that's only becoming more problematic and challenging, so we think that St Kilda can lead the way in terms of doing something a bit different to engage people, to educate and hopefully to help deal with the issue."
After launching Spud's Game: Time 2 Talk in round two last season in another initiative designed to tackle mental health issues within the community, the club expects to play the second edition later this year.
'I WANT TO MAKE CHANGE' Anita Frawley's emotional 2021 interview with Damian Barrett
'A UNIQUE CONNECTION'
To mark a special day for St Kilda Football Club, where mental health remained front of mind, the Saints announced a new partnership with online men's health platform, Mosh, which provides clients with a seamless connection to healthcare suppliers, services and products.
"As we sit here talking in the clubrooms of Bungaree, there is a unique connection between Bungaree and St Kilda Football Club. What we're finding at St Kilda Football Club is we're now developing really strong connections with organisations that are about furthering health and, in particular, men's health," Finnis said.
"In a partner like Mosh they are a growing organisation and we want to support and grow their brand and their story, but the partnership is grounded in a shared pursuit of a healthier community and that will only happen if men are prepared to have conversations and seek medical support that they might not have otherwise done."
RATTEN'S SURPRISE ENDING
For the best part of Brett Ratten's time at the helm of the Saints, those in the administration at RSEA Park have become accustomed to working from home, communicating via video calls and hosting Friday night work drinks virtually. Players have lived away from their bayside homes and played away from staff and members for most of the past 24 months.
But on Friday afternoon, members of every department – commercial, membership, communications, marketing, digital, community and people – as well as CEO Matt Finnis, president Andrew Bassat and board members Dean Anderson, Jennifer Douglas and Adam Hilton joined new skipper Jack Steele and the playing list in a sign of what many hope will become the norm again in 2022.
While those from the commercial, finance, membership, marketing and communications teams returned to Melbourne on Friday night, the players headed to Dan Butler's nearby farm to camp for the night.
But not before Ratten pulled an old trick out of his playbook, a move he once used inside the building at RSEA Park when he called the entire administration into a "meeting", while the executive watched on from within a glass-walled conference room, while in an actual meeting.
It didn't take long for everyone to work out what he was up to.
Ratten ran a knockout 'rock, paper, scissors' competition where a member of the football department went head-to-head with someone from the administration, before finishing with a speech that hit all the right notes.
"When you look at what's happened, all our staff are so important. From Georgia on the front desk right through to Matt our CEO, or Andrew as president; everyone is so important and we all play a huge part. If we all play a part, care for each other, support each other to get the best performance we can," Ratten said.
"We might not be as big as some of these other clubs, but what I do know is we care more about our people and what we're trying to do than any other club. That's going to be our legacy in the competition, especially through Danny and this situation, we're going to look after our own. It's really important. I wish everyone eight, nine months of what we do as a team, because it is a team; it's not just the football department, it's everyone; from membership to commercial ops, everyone plays their part."
The Saints are back in Melbourne and will start to ramp up their preparations for the new campaign with an intraclub match and practice match against Carlton at Ikon Park to come later this month, ahead of the AAMI Community Series clash with Essendon at Marvel Stadium on March 5.