From the CEO

SIMON GARLICK

As a Club, we took a collective step forward in 2022.

But as Justin Longmuir mentioned in his press conference after our semi final loss - unless you win it all, you leave the year disappointed.

And that sums up where we are at. Despite elements of significant growth and development, we are dissatisfied. There is no contentment.

While we have made progress, we haven’t achieved anything yet and there’s a mountain of work to do if we are to reach the aspirations and aims that we have set ourselves.

There is enough experience and awareness in our organisation to understand that without the appropriate levels of hunger, drive and determination, this competition finds you out.

There are countless examples of teams making it to play finals after an extended absence and stagnating or regressing the next year.

This is something to be aware of as opposed to focused on.

The theme for 2022 first started in the summer. Our AFLW team, were dominant on the road all year, and faced North Melbourne in a qualifying final at Arden Street where no one gave us a chance.

What resulted was a 38-point victory, our Club’s first win at the historic ground, followed by the team pushing Adelaide, the eventual premiers, right to the end in the preliminary final the week after. That finals win was the highlight of a challenging year for the group, who played two seasons in one year and sacrificed a lot to ensure both seasons could go ahead. In total, our AFLW team won five interstate games from seven in Season 6.

Then in the AFL, the boys earned 7.5 wins from their 10 games interstate – beating our record of seven road wins in our minor premiership year of 2015.

When one of your main areas for improvement for next season is your home form, and we had 60,000 members scream us over the line in a final in September, you know we have some opportunity for growth.

Right now, there is a sense of normalcy around the Club and I have the privilege of coming into work with a dedicated staff group, who have also persevered through the past three seasons and come out the other side as connected as

ever.

This time last year, we publicly unveiled our five-year strategic plan and while we’re well advanced on several KPIs, we clearly haven’t achieved the most significant yet.

As a Club, we are encouraged by our progress but not satisfied. There’s no silver bullet, no panacea – the ultimate success can only be achieved on the back of the work we’ve done to date, the committed people we have and the culture and environment we are creating.

On all fronts, we won’t be letting up, we will in fact be doubling down.

To our members and supporters, just know, that we know we exist as a group to make the Fremantle family proud.

We hope we have done a bit of that this year and it’s that same purpose that will drive us into the 2023 AFL and AFLW seasons, and we can’t wait for what lies ahead.

TO OUR MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS, JUST KNOW, THAT WE KNOW, THAT WE EXIST AS A GROUP TO MAKE THE FREMANTLE FAMILY PROUD.