Dear Bulldogs members and fans, 

We know you are all doing it tough and at the Club, things are no different. 

This week, we were forced to stand down close to 70 employees and limit the hours of all of our other employees; most pretty severely. We want to thank all of our employees for their understanding and forbearance, knowing that the interruption to their jobs and their regular income comes on top of a time of unprecedented anxiety and disruption to the rest of their lives. Hopefully they will all stay well and united and in close phone and video contact in the weeks ahead.    

We know that our players are also facing the reality of severe cuts to all AFL player contracts as the entire football world reacts to the impact of the coronavirus.  We appreciate their understanding too. 

The business gurus say you’ve got to go hard and go early on efforts to stem the losses to the business at a time of catastrophic disruption like this.  With very strict cost parameters instituted by the AFL, and, ultimately, accepted by our Board and Executive, we have had to conduct rapid and robust  analysis on the minimum number of staff required to operate the business during this time. In doing so we sought to implement our changes fairly and to preserve our ability to get going as efficiently as possible whenever that is permitted. 

Victoria University Whitten Oval has now been completely locked down with our retained and limited-hours staff members all working from home. Like many of you, we’re trying new ways to connect, to stay in touch and to support each other.    

The skeleton staff we still have working have a clear job to do while the game is suspended. We need to work hard to protect our existing revenues, and we need to find new and different ways to connect and engage with all of you – our loyal and passionate fans. Football is important to all of us, it’s part of who we are.  It creates memories that live on. While it might be missing from our lives for a while longer, we’ve all got a story to share, a memory that has endured. 

We know that many of you will have questions about membership and membership fees. These are hard to answer at a time when we don’t know whether we will play 17 games in 2020 or just the solitary game - and whether crowds will be able to gather again this year.  We have agreed to work with the AFL and other AFL clubs to find a fair and consistent approach to membership questions.  

We would like to thank you for your understanding  and support. The sentiment and solidarity showed by members to the Club has been amazing in such trying circumstances, and it’s appreciated  by everyone at the club. Our membership tally has continued to rise over the course of the last week and we can’t thank you enough for your loyalty. 

Stay strong, look out for each other, and most importantly, please follow the social distancing protocols to keep yourself, your family, and community safe,

The Bulldogs will be back on the field and when we do, we’ll give our very best.

We’re the team of the Mighty West.