An early draw, featuring several interstate competitors at home and the Darwin game against league newcomers, Gold Coast, has seen the Club’s mid-season crowd numbers decline on last season’s average.
Garlick told westernbulldogs.com today that the upcoming home game clashes against, Carlton, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Sydney all represent a great opportunity for Bulldogs Members and Fans to come out and support the red, white and blue at Etihad.
“While we have been disappointed in the downturn in crowd numbers this year, it needs to be recognised that the figures reported today only take into account home games up to the halfway point of the year.
“Clearly, we have been disappointed in the crowd numbers this year, however, it is important to note that games against Port Adelaide, Brisbane, West Coast and Gold Coast in Darwin were always going to impact our average crowd numbers.
“As our Members would expect, we responsibly planned for this from a financial point of view. We do believe there is still some exciting footy to come from the boys as we head into the second half of the year and we urge all of our Members and Fans to back Brendan McCartney and the team - as we continue to develop our youngsters and seek as many wins as possible,” Garlick said.
Off the field, Garlick also highlighted the fact that the Club had never been better placed to tackle the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for the Bulldogs.
“We are 100 per cent focussed on building a sustainable and successful football club and we are absolutely confident we are on the right path to deliver this, both on and off the field,” Garlick said.
“Financially we have seen an unprecedented period of stability in recent years posting five consecutive profits in a row - and we are working professionally and responsibly to deliver on this front again in 2012.
“We will also hit over 30,000 Members this year for only the third time in the Club’s history.
“And we are making significant in-roads on our longer term strategy to build a larger more sustainable supporter base off the back of the fastest growing region in the country, Melbourne’s West.
“The Club has actually never been placed better to do this from an off field perspective but we are under no illusions that the absolute driver of achieving our aims will be a strong, competitive football team.
“This is an unwavering focus for everyone at the Football Club and while we have had some inconsistent performances this year, we are absolutely confident we are on the right path,” Garlick said today.
