Participant Observations 6/11/19 - Hunter AFL Masters and Clubperson of the Year

As I mentioned in a previous post, at the 2019 Hunter AFL Masters Presentation Night, I was awarded the Clubperson of the Year award.

It was awesome winning the award, especially when you consider the other people who were nominated, which included Alex Holness, Adam Shearer and Beryl Hope - all who contributed a massive amount to the club every year.

As I said on the night, a lot of credit goes to Alex, for helping with so much of the media stuff, winery tour, and surveys. Similarly, a lot of credit goes to the committee, who were open to our ideas and always offered support and encouragement about what we were doing.

It was a really fun year. Looking back, I remember being apprehensive about joining the committee, but once I joined I really enjoyed it, and perhaps because it was my first year I had lots of energy and enthusiasm about being on the committee, which may have contributed winning the award.

But I really feel comfortable in that type of a role - admin and comms - and it brought back a lot of memories from my time in SEABL and at BA, and how much I enjoy that side of sport.

Being on the committee and taking on that comms role also helped me to get the position with the AFL Masters National Board. This may be the gateway towards me working inside the AFL, which is the dream, and I was able to make a couple of small contacts with AFL personnel at the National Carnival.

However, I've already told people that I'm unlikely to seek reappointment to the committee next year. I need to focus on my PhD and the AFL Masters National role, because that's where the future lies, or at least I hope it will.

I still plan on playing for the Hornets, and will do as much as possible around the club, but I need to balance the commitments with so much happening next year. I will definitely miss it, because doing comms for a team is easy compared to doing comms for a league. Most people who you are doing comms for in a team environment are generally supportive, while most people who you are doing comms for in a league environment are generally cynical and critical in the way the league operates.

Nevertheless, the Hornets committee has been amazing. I've made some good friends there and gotten to know people better. I think I'd like to be on another committee like it again one day, although I also know that it may never be matched in terms of the chemistry and culture of the people involved.

Here I am with the other major award winners on the night:

Participant Observations 4/11/19 - Emergent Themes, Friday Nights, and Clubperson of the Year

Some quick hits today, before heading off to teach a class:

I've aggregated the themes from my participant interviews, and they have coalesced into the following emergent themes, which will be used as the basis for document analysis, and later as possible chapter headings in the thesis:

• Changes in Consumption and New Industry Players (29 themes)
• Broadcast Rights, Their Value, and Negotiation (19 themes)
• Regulation (17 themes)
• Stakeholder Relationships (13 themes)
• Business Performance including metrics (13 themes)
• Sport, Culture, and Television (10 themes)

Additionally, participants were asked for their normative views on the following topics:

• Entrepreneurialism
• Regulation

This is exciting, because for the first time, I feel like I can see a structure emerging to the data analysis.

A caveat to the thematic aggregations, is that many themes overlap, and the quantification of themes does not always represent the qualitative veracity of themes. (i.e., a theme might be low in numbers, but strong in concentration).

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With no football on television on Friday nights, I'm at a real loss with what to do with myself.

The same goes for the other days, but it feels especially pronounced on Friday's, because a lot of that day is spent in anticipation building towards the start of the round, the end of the working week, and the start of the weekend.

Cricket hasn't really captured my attention yet, and I've been either watching other content such as Netflix, playing video games, or trying to get by with NBL or A-League on a Friday night.

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A few weeks ago, I won the Clubperson of the Year Award at the 2019 Hunter AFL Masters Presentation Night.

Obviously very humbling, and heaps of recognition needs to go towards Alex Holness and the committee for making this year what it has been.

It's amazing to think my name will be on that trophy for a long time. I've told them however that I won't be seeking reappointment to the committee next year, as I want to focus on the PhD, and AFL Masters National.

I might write another blog post that reflects on the whole year in Hunter AFL Masters, because from an AFL participation perspective, it's been quite unlike any other year.x