I became aware this afternoon of a statement Sue Alberti made to Michael Warner of the Herald Sun today.

The Board and senior management of the club had previously been made aware of a number of issues at our first AFLW home game related to Sue and her support staff and her film crew. 

Because of our relationship and her history, I had reached out to her to meet to discuss these matters privately over a coffee.  The Board unanimously supported this approach.

Sue was unavailable to meet until after this weekend.

The matters of which she has now publicly complained occurred in the context of the first game.  When I became aware of last night’s incidents, I reached out to her again to meet to discuss the position and she agreed this morning to meet early next week.

I regret that she has ventilated one part of the story in the media.

I stand by the policies and actions of our staff and management. No-one was excluded from the Whitten Oval last night.

It is still my hope and judgment that the matter is best resolved by a frank discussion between me and Sue, and the club will make no further comment until after that meeting has taken place.

I want to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all of our paid and volunteer staff who once again catered for 9000 people at VU Whitten Oval last night, including a number of different events in our function areas, as well as media, AFL and football department operations.

I want to express the club’s gratitude to everyone from the LGBTIQ community and the Bulldogs’ own Pride Group, who generated so many community activities, all at our home ground last night.

And of course, I hope that appropriate attention will be focussed on the magnificent record-breaking achievements of our players last night.