Dear Members,

I am excited to write to you for the first time as President of our Football Club.

While it's been a whirlwind few hours, I wanted to immediately write to you, our members, whom I am now privileged to represent.

Having worn the red and black with great pride as a player for 162 games, I feel a deep sense of commitment to this club. It has shaped who I am, and having the opportunity to lead the Club as President is an honour and a privilege that I don't take lightly.

I want to take this opportunity to firstly thank and acknowledge David Barham for his incredible service to our football club. He has been selfless in his approach and has driven significant change that has fundamentally reset our club. Under his presidency, we've achieved the stability and alignment that he fought so hard for. Dave's impact will continue to grow as we build on these strong foundations, and I want to thank him for his dedication, passion, and unwavering determination for Essendon.

I also want to acknowledge Dave’s family: his wife Tash and daughters Mia and Sophie. These roles are a family affair, and we look forward to seeing Dave and his family back at the 'G in Round 1 next year as one of us in the stands.

This brings us to where we are today, and I want to make one thing very clear: we are in a strong position. The work of recent years has given us stability and, most importantly, the right people in key roles.

We have an outstanding CEO in Craig Vozzo and exceptional coaches in Brad Scott and Natalie Wood leading our men's and women's programs. I have complete confidence in our senior leaders at the club to continue to drive a culture of excellence, passion, unity, and respect - our core values as a football club.

We have a real opportunity at this Club, and I will bring a fresh approach as President, focused on challenging what we’re doing and encouraging all our people to think, act, and be progressive. I will continue to provide alignment and clarity to everyone at the club so that football is our core focus, and I will work with our leaders to accelerate this area.

Our current stability gives us a great foundation, but stability doesn’t mean safety, we need to get moving and get to work with a sense of urgency and purpose.

To our members, your support is more important than ever right now. It’s not lost on any one of us that it has been 25 years since the Club has tasted the ultimate success, and every person connected to Essendon is working extremely hard to deliver this to our members and supporters.

The power of Essendon has always been in our unity. When we stand together as one, as players both past and present, coaches, staff, volunteers, partners, members, supporters, and our Essendon community - we can be formidable again. As I’ve touched on, good work has been done, but hard work and hard decisions lay ahead for us, and I’m energised to represent you and am up for that challenge.

This Club has an incredible history but its time to write our next chapter and if I have one message for you, it's this: be optimistic, be excited, and be part of this journey with us.

Our goal is to build a Club that you feel proud of, one that puts itself in contention on the field year after year. Let’s stick together. I look forward to leading this Club as we write an exciting new chapter, which can be our best one yet.

Thanks for your support.

Go Dons
Welshy.