Dear members,

With the club's second bye of the season coming last week, I am sure many of you took the time to pause and reflect on the season we have had so far.

As it turns out, we went into the bye coming off what was easily our best performance of the season, so we all have a positive feeling about football at the moment and in particular our Saints.

For those of you who were at that match, I'm sure you were every bit as proud and happy as I was.

With a week's break between that and our next game against Gold Coast, I also took the time to reflect on the season so far but also found myself thinking about what lies ahead of us.

Since taking over as President last year, I have always been looking ahead for how to ensure a bright future for this proud club.

Firstly, my thoughts turn to the immediate future and the remaining five games of the season.

We will be playing in four cities and five separate venues, giving us a chance to take our team to our fans right around Australia.

These five weeks will be a chance to say farewell to a St Kilda champion in Lenny Hayes and our club has plans in place to send Lenny off in the manner he deserves as a great of our club.

I especially hope as many members and supporters as possible get to the Bulldogs game, which will be our official Lenny Hayes tribute game.

His loyalty, commitment and achievements for the Saints have been well documented in recent weeks and will be highlighted at this, his final St Kilda home game.

It gives us a chance to show Lenny our respect and thanks, so buy a special Lenny pass and an I Love Lenny t-shirt, cap or hoodie available through the club and join the celebration of a great Saints man.

The celebrations don't end there, with our Best and Fairest night on September 5 including a special tribute to Lenny – making it an event not to be missed.

Lenny's retirement is another reminder that we are a club in significant transition, a belief that resonated in our Road to 2018 vision statement that was released at the beginning of the season.

We are however, not sitting back waiting for 2018 to roll around, for if we do not make every day count then our goals won't be achieved.

While clear in our long term plans, our coaches and players aren't sitting back and waiting.  The AFL is a brutal competition that demands maximum effort.

The commitment to physical preparation, whether it be the intensity of pre-season training or the week to week preparation required to play at the elite level, is enormous. Alan Richardson, Nick Riewoldt and all of our players, coaches and support staff are putting everything into each and every week.

And we know we have had some tough moments this year, but there have also been some special ones as well, no better example being our most recent game.

Being a club in transition will require hard work and tough decisions. It will also require patience but that should not be misinterpreted as complacency.

I and the board, together with our CEO Matt Finnis and his team, continue to work hard day in, day out to make sure every day counts.

This path the club is on includes our supporters and we all need to be patient but also make every moment count.

For the next five weeks we will continue to have a chance to show what part we are going to play in achieving our goals. The more we act, the stronger we become.

As supporters and members there are many other ways to make a difference and show our support to those who are putting everything into creating our future.

You can sign up for the automatic renewal programme to show you are on board for 2015 membership and put pressure on others to jump on board if they haven't already.

Support of a football club can come in many different ways, be it wearing your colours to the game, buying a ticket to the Trevor Barker award night, supporting club sponsors or buying all St Kilda merchandise through the Saints Locker website.

Take the time to go to saints.com.au or ring the club and stay committed and involved.

It is coming up to a year since I was appointed as St Kilda President and in that time there have been many challenges.

But there have been many responses and advancements. Not all are obvious or provide instant success, however they are critical to achieving our goals.

I moved into the role of President immediately after the Trevor Barker Award night last September.

I use this as a reference point because it was a period during which many issues arose that needed to be dealt with such as changes that came out of the club review, key appointments and the challenges of the trade, free agency and draft periods. There was considerable focus on the club and strong decisions were required.

In any football club, the four most senior roles are usually acknowledged to be the Captain, Senior Coach, Chief Executive and President. We now have in place three new people in that mix.

That in itself is a significant sign of change and without in any way reflecting on the previous incumbents, I believe the leadership structure is a strong one and certainly one that is up for the challenges that lay ahead. 

Apart from the new appointments mentioned above, there have been many other changes and at the end of the season we will provide you a detailed update on our progress. Not everything is good news but there are many positives as well. Some steps have created short-term pain but will lead to a better future.

In finishing, I want to make a special acknowledgement of the response of our senior players.

While we set no limits on the short term, the long term future undeniably rests with the emerging group of talented, young players, and the success of their development is so critically linked to the attitude of the senior playing group. Young players need time to develop. They need the pre-seasons, game time and the learning through experience.

But they need leadership and mentors just as much. The response of our senior group of players this year has been outstanding. As a group they had created a remarkable period of success and will go down in our history as such. Their demonstrated passion to see the club return to once again challenge for flags has been outstanding and reflects the quality of these men, adding another dimension to the legacy this group will leave behind. As a result, our young players are learning from the best.
 
We are all on a journey together and your support for the club is much appreciated. I thank you and our major sponsor Ledified along with our elite partners Watersun, Linen House, Jeld-Wen, Jayco, the city of Wellington and Ozito for your support during the season and I look forward to us sharing this ride together.

Our club motto is Fortius Quo Fidelius, which translates to Strength Through Loyalty.

These words have defined our history and will shape our future, but only if they are accompanied by our actions and the decisions we all choose to make.

Our future does not start next year, it starts now. And I urge you all as Saints supporters to get behind your team for the final five games of the season so we can build momentum for what lies ahead.

- Peter Summers