Day One of the Fremantle
Dockers internship; and what a day it was. Coincidently on my first week of
placement it so happened to be one of the Dockers largest home games of the
year, the Starlight Children Foundation Purple Haze game (Fremantle vs.
Essendon). For the past 11 years the Fremantle Dockers have had a partnership
with The Starlight Children’s Foundation and in honour of this partnership host
a home game dedicated to raising funds for the foundation and its worthy cause.
Subsequently the Dockers host a pre game charity auction lunch involving all of
the associated Dockers sponsors (Big Cheese) as well a few special individuals who have
previously and continue to support both the Dockers and Starlight.
So back to my first day..
Waking up like a kid on Christmas I jumped out of bed and made sure I was ready
for an action packed day with my Coordinator. Having been informed the night
before that we were hosting a function I spent the morning pondering over
breakfast what kind of function it would be. Again by coincidence the day
before it had been announced that legendary Essendon coach James Hird had been
accused of partaking in drug use, how very scandalous! Not such good news for Essendon,
however potentially brilliant news for the Fremantle Dockers Marketing and PR
team.
Thinking back to my
essential PR planning tools I immediately came to see the good and bad of the
situation. A wise lecturer once told me that an issue that arises that may at
first seem potentially damaging to your organisation, however if interpreted
correctly could be utilised to a fantastic competitive advantage. So number one
first lesson in media damage control; do not associate yourself with another’s
problems when it is not directly connected to your organisation. Given we as
the Events/ Marketing department would be directly communicating with the MC
and media trained players to attend the event it was to be made very clear that
absolutely no comments would be made in regards to the Essendon incident.
Now you can guess at why
we were told to disassociate ourselves from Essendon’s unfortunate series of
events. Do not make comment, stay out of the frenzied media debate, simple.
However, the other side of the story is not so clear. How does Essendon’s woes
work at a competitive advantage for Fremantle? In terms of Marketing and PR
function the media frenzied whipped up by national and state would direct what
was predicted to be one of the highest rating games in the Southern Hemisphere
apart from the Grand Final of course- In other words the whole of Australia
would be watching the game on Friday anticipating what James Hirds’ next move
would be. Would he crack under the pressure or would he rise to the occasion?
But I digress, back to the
pre-game function. All and all the function was a huge success. A charity
auction was held with all proceeds going to the Starlight Foundation and a very
worthy cause. Players auctioned the items with a special mention going out to
Chris Mayne, the auctioneer extraordinaire! Our MC was very entertaining
keeping up the witty banter throughout the two hours that the function was held
for and I must say the food was delicious once I figured out it was actually ok
to be the intern and eat just like the other guests, phew! And finally you
would be pleased to know that no mention of the Essendon debacle left our MC’s
lips. Well maybe just once, but that can be our little secret right?!
On a bit of a sour note
Essendon defeated the Dockers, so yes James Hird held up quite well in fact. Oh well you can’t win them all, great game I say!
