Speaking at the club’s best and fairest on Thursday night, Stynes said the Demons’ young squad had the ability to take the club to its first flag since 1964.
“The Hawks this year in their grand final had nine players taken in the top 20. At the start of next year we will have 14 players who were taken in the top 20 draft picks on our list,” he said.
“We’re not afraid to make decisions if they help us to get where we want to go. I want to see it happen in my time and I want to see us challenge for a premiership again.”
Stynes said Melbourne had learned some crucial lessons from a horrendous 2008 campaign and openly admitted the problems that faced the club.
“It’s been a tough year. You’ve got to be honest - it’s been a terrible year,” he said.
“It is tough when you’ve played for this great club to see what happened this year. We can’t kid ourselves. To become a great club we have to embrace these things and learn from them.”
Among the many setbacks the Demons suffered this year included finishing last, losing major sponsor iPrimus and twice changing its CEO.
Stynes said the club had been held back both on and off the field.
“We’ve got the worst training venue in the AFL and since I’ve played with this football club we’ve never had a summer training ground.”
“We have a poor relationship with the MCC and the AFL and we were beaten by over 100 points on three occasions.”
“Nevertheless I wouldn’t have taken on this job if I didn’t believe we could turn things around.”
The Demons are close to signing a deal to set up training facilities at Casey Fields, which the president said would go some way to solving the club’s identity crisis.
“We’re a club that’s been born out of a stadium not out of a suburb and it’s about time we got involved in grass roots in the local communities.”
