From McLean Oval to the Big League: A President’s Playbook for Building a Club That Lasts

Why Big-Club Thinking Matters in Regional Western Australia

Some presidents in country football shrug when you mention AFL best practice.“That’s not us. We don’t have their money, their staff, their resources.”

True.

But the point isn’t to copy their budget, it’s to copy their thinking.

AFL clubs operate in the most competitive sporting market in Australia. They survive, and thrive, by thinking ahead, balancing short-term performance with long-term positioning.

And the smartest thing a regional club can do is steal their mental models and shrink them to fit the regions.

Fremantle Dockers – The Partner Engagement Machine

At Fremantle, the sponsorship department doesn’t just collect the money and send out invoices. They run what’s essentially a partner ecosystem.

Justin Longmuir doesn’t lock himself in the coach’s box 24/7. Once a month, he sits down with key sponsors, over dinner, at the club, or in private rooms at Fremantle pubs and talks football and business. He shares insight, listens to ideas, and keeps the relationship alive beyond signage and match-day premium hospitality.

That’s not about being nice. It’s strategic. Sponsors stay because they feel connected to the inner circle.

Translation for the Great Southern:

• Your sponsors need to hear from the president or coach personally at least quarterly, regardless of how chummy they are or aren't with that sponsor.

• Build a “President’s Table” — four dinners a year where major partners and potential partners sit down with leadership.

• Use those nights to talk vision, not just budget.

Collingwood – Culture as a Commercial Engine

Collingwood is a revenue juggernaut because it’s a cultural juggernaut. 110,000+ members. Merch that sells out in hours. Sponsors queueing up to be associated with the brand.

It’s not just about winning flags. It’s about owning a space in people’s identity. When you’re a Magpie, you live it. That’s why they can sell a $120 hoodie with the logo and move thousands in a day.

Translation for the Great Southern:

• Make being part of your club a badge of honour.

• Invest in visual identity, uniforms, merch, signage, so the brand feels bigger than the league you play in. Something Walpole-Denmark does amazingly!

• Create rituals. Game-day march-ins. Victory songs. Build experiences people talk about.

If the brand feels bigger, sponsors will pay bigger.

West Coast – The Resilient Brand

West Coast keeps 100,000+ members even in down years.

How? They’ve built value into the membership itself, not just the win-loss column.

Exclusive content. Networking events. Community programs. Being part of the club means something even when the ladder position doesn’t.

Translation for the Great Southern:

• Create memberships that create belonging.

• Add non-game perks — members-only functions, early merch drops, discount partnerships with local (and external) businesses.

• Create a “digital membership” for alumni and supporters who live away from town.

The Common Thread: Systems That Outlast People

Fremantle’s partner dinners. Collingwood’s brand culture. West Coast’s membership value. They’re all systems. They don’t live and die with one president, one coach, or one committee. They survive transitions.

This is where most community clubs fail. We run on personality, not process. When the charismatic leader leaves, the momentum dies.

The fix is simple: document everything. If you run a brilliant sponsors’ lunch, write down how you did it, suppliers, run sheet, guest list, budget. If you build a strong social media rhythm, make a content calendar so the next person can pick it up without starting from zero.

Why External Sponsors Belong in This Chapter

The AFL doesn’t just live off local sponsors, they go after partners who want reach. They offer national or state-level exposure and then deliver it through games, media, and community programs.

Great Southern clubs can do the same, in scale.

• Target Perth-based companies that want a regional footprint.

• Partner with brands that supply products or services used locally but headquartered elsewhere.

• Offer them digital reach — livestream logos, newsletter features, social media collaborations.

The real bonus here is their ROI isn’t tied to the health of the local economy. If the local ag market dips, their investment in you still makes sense because they’re buying brand alignment, not just local sales.

A Mental Shift Presidents and Committees must Make

If you run a club, stop thinking like a hobbyist. You’re in the sports entertainment business, even if your players work nine-to-five.

The AFL thinks in seasons and decades. Most community clubs think in weekends. That mindset gap is why one group grows and the other barely survives.

How to Apply This Before the Season Ends

Don’t wait for the AGM. You can start tomorrow:

1. Call your top three sponsors and invite them to dinner with the president and coach.

2. Audit your membership offer, what’s in it beyond entry?

3. Identify one ritual or tradition you can introduce before finals.

4. Shortlist three potential external sponsors and reach out before they’re locked into next year’s budgets.

   
   

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

The Premiership Cup being in Denmark is a visual win. But if you want it to mean something in three years’ time, you have to play the AFL game at a country scale, systems, succession, brand, and partner engagement.

Because here’s the thing: the Cup leaves. The photo fades. The hype dies. What’s left is the structure you’ve built, the relationships you’ve deepened, and the habits you’ve embedded.

That’s the quiet, boring stuff that makes the next Cup visit possible.

Next in Chapter 3: We’ll step beyond the AFL and look at Stanford University’s sport model, famous COO lessons from global sport, and how external sponsorship becomes the lever that changes everything for Great Southern clubs.

Why Look Beyond Australia?

If the AFL is the national gold standard for professional football operations, then Stanford University is one of the global benchmarks for integrated sporting excellence.

Yes, it’s a university. But in terms of scale, brand, and operational sophistication, Stanford Athletics functions more like a hybrid AFL club and Olympic program than a typical college sports department.

And what they’ve mastered has direct lessons for any ambitious regional football club willing to look outward.

Stanford’s Integrated Model

Stanford runs 36 varsity sports. That’s 900+ student-athletes, 350 staff, and a budget north of $120 million. Yet the same core philosophy drives everything they do:

• Elite pathways that start in the community and flow into the system.

• Integrated academic and athletic development, their athletes aren’t just players, they’re brand ambassadors.

• Revenue diversification, sponsorship, ticketing, philanthropy, merchandising, and media rights all feed the engine.

The key for us isn’t to copy the scale, it’s to copy the integration. In Stanford’s model, no team is left to fend for itself. The resources are centralised, the brand is consistent, and the pathways are deliberate.

Translation for the Great Southern:

• Share resources across age groups, men’s and women’s teams.

• Build one consistent brand identity, not a mishmash of old uniforms and logos.

• Make player development visible to sponsors, let them “own” a pathway.

The COO Lens on Football Operations

In elite sport, the COO (Chief Operating Officer) is the person who takes vision and turns it into repeatable process. They’re not in the headlines, but they’re the reason the machine runs year after year.

Names like Simon Garlick (former COO at the Western Bulldogs, now Fremantle CEO) or Geoff Walsh (Collingwood’s long-serving football operations manager) show how much of a club’s success is about structure, not just talent.

The COO mindset asks:

• Where are the bottlenecks?

• What can we standardise?

• How do we make the volunteer’s job easier so they stay longer?

• Where’s the gap between what the president says we want and what our systems actually deliver?

Most country clubs don’t have a COO, but they can borrow the mindset: one person, even if volunteer, whose only job is to design and refine operations.

External Sponsorship – The Untapped Lever

As we mentioned earlier, too many regional clubs are financially capped because they only think “local.”

The fix: bring in external partners whose ROI isn’t dependent on local sales.

Example: Imagine a Perth-based workwear company becomes your official apparel partner. They’re not relying on Denmark locals to buy enough boots to justify the deal. They’re paying for association, brand alignment, and access to your club’s social and media reach across the region.

Building the Offer for External Sponsors

Diving deeper on the earlier comments in this area, external sponsors will never sign on because you need the money.

They will sign on because you’ve built a professional offer that makes sense for their marketing strategy.

Your pitch must include:

• Audience reach (live game attendance + digital audience).

• Demographics (age, profession, disposable income of members).

• Brand alignment (how your values match theirs).

• Activation opportunities (events, content, co-branded campaigns).

And then, crucially, you deliver more than promised.

The Stanford + COO + Sponsorship Intersection

Here’s where it all ties together:

• Stanford teaches you integration and pathways.

• The COO mindset teaches you to operationalise and sustain it.

• External sponsorship gives you the capital to actually make it happen.

You can’t rely on sausage sizzles to fund a 10-year player pathway. But with one major external sponsor locked in for three years, you can hire a part-time development officer, run regional clinics, and produce professional-grade media to attract more talent and sponsors.

Case Study: Turning a One-Off Into a Movement

Say Denmark-Walpole hosts the Premiership Cup again next year. The “small” club mindset says: Great, we’ll get photos and good social media engagement.

The “Stanford + COO + external sponsor” mindset says:

• We’ll get a sponsor to underwrite the event.

• We’ll invite 10 WAFL and AFL development coaches and run a Great Southern talent combine that weekend.

• We’ll film it professionally and create a 3-part mini-doc for social media, sponsored by our external partner.

• We’ll sell the event to the AFL as a model for other regional hubs.

Same cup. Same weekend. Completely different outcome.

Why Presidents & Committees Resist This (and Why They Can’t Afford To)

There’s a comfort in sticking with local sponsors you know. It’s easier. Less intimidating. No cold calls to head offices in Perth. No corporate decks. No “risk” of hearing no.

But comfort is the enemy of growth. Every major AFL club president understands they have to spend as much time with corporate partners as with their own committee. If you want your club to grow, you have to reframe sponsorship as a leadership duty, not an afterthought.

Action Steps Before the Season Ends

1. Identify three potential external sponsors whose audience overlaps with your member demographic.

2. Assign one committee member to become the “COO”. Responsible for operationalising systems, not running events.

3. Audit your player pathways. Is there a clear line from juniors to seniors to WAFL/AFL?

4. Build one integrated brand kit for all teams and divisions in the club.

   
   

Do those four things now, and you’ll double your chances of securing serious outside investment next season.

Next in Chapter 4: Let's end and turn this into a playbook, the Scoreboard, the 180-Day Action Plan, and the final challenge to Great Southern presidents who want their clubs to outgrow survival.

Why We End with a Playbook

A big idea without a clear action path is just a nice speech.The purpose of this final chapter is simple: to make sure the energy from the Premiership Cup, the succession story, and the AFL/Stanford lessons actually converts into behaviour.

Because in regional football, it’s not the clubs with the biggest budget that win long term. It’s the clubs that turn good ideas into repeatable systems fast.

The Scoreboard That Actually Matters

Forget vanity metrics. The scoreboard that matters for a president or committee isn’t just wins and losses on the field, it’s measurable growth indicators that predict the club’s health in two, five, and ten years.

Here’s what your real scoreboard should look like:

• Volunteer Retention Rate

  • Goal: 80%+ year-to-year retention.

  • Why: Volunteers are your human infrastructure. Losing them faster than you replace them kills operational continuity.

• Sponsorship Diversity Index

  • Goal: At least 30% of sponsorship revenue from external (non-local) sources.

  • Why: Protects you from local economic swings and allows strategic investment.

• Membership Growth & Engagement

  • Goal: 10% annual growth; 60%+ active participation in events.

  • Why: Passive members drift. Active members renew.

• Pathway Conversion Rate

  • Goal: At least two juniors progressing to WAFL/AFL development squads annually.

  • Why: Talent success stories feed pride, media attention, and sponsorship leverage.

• Financial Reserve Ratio

  • Goal: Minimum six months’ operating expenses in reserve.

  • Why: Financial breathing room gives you freedom to invest, not just react.

The 180-Day Plan

Month 1-2: Audit & Appoint

• Appoint a volunteer COO (operations lead) who isn’t the president.

• Audit current sponsors; identify gaps for external prospects.

• Review all pathways — juniors, women’s, seniors — for bottlenecks.

• Map all major club processes (events, recruitment, comms) so they’re not personality-dependent.

Month 3-4: Build & Pitch

• Develop an integrated brand kit (uniforms, signage, media templates).

• Create an external sponsorship deck with audience data and activation ideas.

• Soft-pitch to three external sponsors with a mix of digital and event opportunities.

• Plan one “Presidents’ Table” dinner with major partners and prospects.

Month 5-6: Activate & Announce

• Host the Presidents’ Table dinner — invite coach, senior players, key partners.

• Launch a new ritual/tradition to elevate club culture.

• Publicly announce at least one external sponsor for the next season.

• Release a “Pathways Report” showcasing talent progress — even if small — to start building that story.

The Cultural Side of the Plan

This isn’t just about tasks. It’s about how you carry them out.

The president’s role here is to set the tone:

• Professional but human. You’re running a sports business, but it’s powered by community passion.

• Transparent but strategic. Share enough with members to keep trust, but keep some powder dry for announcements that create momentum.

• Proud but hungry. Celebrate wins, but never let the club believe the work is done.

Turning External Sponsorship Into Internal Pride

One of the myths in country football is that “outsiders” don’t care about the club the way locals do. That’s true, until you make them care.

The way to make an external sponsor care is to give them more than they expected:

• Invite them to a home game and introduce them on the field.

• Send them video updates of their sponsored player or program.

• Give them moments they can use in their own marketing — photos, stories, social content.

When you make their investment personal, they become advocates. And an advocate talks about you in rooms you’ll never get into on your own.

The President’s Personal Challenge

Here’s the hard truth: if you’re a club president and you haven’t had a face-to-face with each of your top five sponsors this quarter, you’re leaving money and influence on the table.

It’s not enough to shake hands at game day. You need to sit down, talk shop, and share vision. That’s what Justin Longmuir does at Fremantle. That’s what Eddie McGuire did relentlessly at Collingwood. That’s why big clubs stay big, because the top is personally involved in partner relationships.

The Final Push – From Moment to Movement

The Premiership Cup on display at McLean Oval is a moment. It is proof that Denmark is connected to something bigger.But the clubs that thrive turn moments into movements. They:

• Institutionalise the things that worked.

• Build external partnerships to fund what’s next.

• Keep both the engine and the horizon in play.

If you’re in the Great Southern and you want your club to be relevant in a decade, you can’t just rely on talent and tradition. You need systems, you need external capital, and you need leadership willing to think like a COO and act like a president who’s building something bigger than themselves.

The Call to Action

So here’s my call to every president and key decision-maker reading this: Before the season ends, choose one big move from this playbook and execute it with intent. Don’t just talk about it in committee. Don’t just “explore” it. Action it.

Because in country football, there’s no off-season for leadership. The scoreboard doesn’t reset when the siren blows. And the clubs that understand that, the ones who think bigger, act faster, and build deeper, are the ones who not only survive but define the next era of Great Southern sport.