CEO Dan Taylor has penned a letter to Melbourne Football Club members.

Dear members,

As I enter my third month as CEO, I want to update you on key priorities and progress across the club.

Last night’s Best and Fairest event was a fantastic celebration of the AFL season that was and terrific recognition for many within our AFL program for their efforts in 2026. Congratulations to the top five, all the award winners and our newly inducted Life Members. Well done in particular to Captain Max Gawn, who took home his fourth Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Memorial Trophy at the age of 34 – an amazing achievement!

While last night was about celebrating the 2026 men’s team, we also recently recognised our other superstar captain, Kate Hore, who reached 100 AFLW games last week – only the ninth player in the history of the competition to achieve the incredible milestone.

This week, Paxy Paxman, who is an icon of our club and of women’s football, also reaches her milestone 100th match. I hope to see as many of you as possible at Victoria Park on Sunday to cheer on Paxy and the team.

With the AFL off-season underway and the player movement period commencing, I understand there is significant interest and speculation. I encourage members and supporters to continue to rely on the club’s official channels for information regarding our players and football program.

In off-field news, the club this week surpassed 65,000 members for only the fourth time, representing a 10% increase over last year. We’ve also achieved our AFLW membership record. Our club is so fortunate to have such passionate and devoted members.

The resolution of a permanent Training and Administration Facility remains our number one priority. The club continues to engage constructively with the Victorian Government regarding a proposed home base at Caulfield. We remain excited about the opportunity this project presents for the club and wider community.

While there has been plenty to celebrate this year, I want to acknowledge that off the field the club has not delivered the stability or financial performance that members should expect from us. My commitment, with the Board, is to address this. We know we will be judged by our actions and results, so we have set about improving the club with intent and urgency.

We are finalising our five-year strategy, which aims to create the conditions for sustained success by being bold both on and off the field and aligned across the club. We will update members at the AGM, as we look towards 2027 and beyond with optimism.

We are proactively addressing a range of legal and commercial challenges. We terminated and pursued co-principal partner Drivers Depot for failing to meet its financial obligations, and I am pleased to inform members that we have now settled this matter and recouped a significant amount of funds owed to the club. We will approach other legal matters facing the club decisively going forward.

Our commercial team continues to work diligently to refresh our sponsorship and partnership portfolio for 2027 and will share exciting updates on this in due course.

We are excited to re-establish a strong, stable and ambitious Melbourne Football Club that delivers sustained excellence on and off the field and look forward to providing further updates when we have news to share.

Go Demons

CEO Dan Taylor