The President’s report as tabled, presented and accepted at the AGM Sunday 7 November, 2021

We all knew the 2021 season was going to be a difficult year with no club rooms and no home grounds and with the threat of many Covid 19 restrictions and shutdowns, we were lucky to have a relatively uninterrupted season. 

Teams we fielded this year, with 2 combining with other clubs:

• Mixed U8’s
• U11 Boys
• U11 Girls
• U13 Boys – Finished 4th of 9
• U13 Girls – Finished 6th of 7
• U15 Boys – Finished 2nd of 6
• U 15 Girls – Finished 9th of 9
• U17 Boys (combined with Burnside) – Finished 4th of 4
• Men’s Div2 – Finished 4th of 8
• Women’s Div1 – finished 5th of 5
• Men’s State League – Finished 4th of 7
• Women’s State League (combined with Woodville) – Finished 3rd of 5

Given the challenges of the year, we saw great success on and off the field. With the disruptions of our preseason trainings being shuffled over two different locations before finally relocating back to Gordon Brown Oval (the Upper Grounds) of the Women’s Memorial Playing Fields.

All our Boys teams played in the finals with the U15’s finishing minor Premiers and just missing out on the premiership in a golden goal grand final. Our Men’s State League team making finals for the first time in over a decade.

The girls highlight was between our Div2 team taking on the challenge of stepping up a grade to Div1 to further build their skills, well done, and our State League girls combined Blue Warriors Team continuing’s its successful formula finishing higher than the previous year in an awesome third overall.

Behind the scenes success was led by a very welcomed re-branding of our club. This injected vigour, enthusiasm and club belonging in an otherwise disjointed season and sent a strong ‘watch this space’ message to our competitors. Additional improvements was a refurbished website with an online shop, reformed social media, teams communication via Team App and utilising Slack app – enabling greater communications for our committee.

We still have a long way to go however with more hard work, increasing numbers and further development, in particular with our Juniors. Combine this with outstanding training fields – with lighting and clubrooms – one can’t help but feel the momentum is building in the right direction for success for our club.

Finances

We had predicted the treasures report would return a deficit this year. Given the lack of revenue which heavily relies on the clubrooms and bar to generate income through social functions. Throw in the rebranding and new uniforms, spending was up however the price we paid doesn’t reflect the non-monetary return in pride and club ownership from our players.

We were fortunate with the support from the Office of Recreation, Sport & Racing (ORSR) providing a reduction in cost for our ground fees for this year, which helped greatly minimise our overall deficit. Having said that, moving forward one can only expect grounds and clubroom costs are only going to further increase from what we have paid in the previous. To overcome these rises we need to make sure we utilise our new facilities to the full advantage, strengthening our incoming revenue through increased junior numbers, additional club functions and fundraising events. 

Grounds Redevelopment

After an extremely delayed and slow start, the build and ground works got underway. ISAS field has been completely ripped up, levelled and extended with irrigation and drainage sorted. 

A full upgrade to the electrical supply with the inclusion of a new transformer should see out all our power needs. Footings and underground electrical works with various switchboard installed around the premises have been installed for lighting on all three ovals. Only lighting towers have been erected on ISAS field at this stage due to supply issues and Covid these have been resolved and further towers will be erected shortly.

The clubrooms are looking fabulous, with a real modern look and with what can only be described as absolutely stunning views over our grounds. These, if not already, will reach lock up stage and is still on target for completion for the commencement of next years season.

Mitcham Council looks set to take over these facilities. Final negotiations between them and ORS on how the running and how that all looks is still on going.

Conclusion

My thanks goes out to every club person for their cooperation, patience and understanding throughout this challenging year. Congratulations to all our teams and coaches on their success they have achieved. To all the parents who have rallied together to support our teams and club, I thank you. A special mention has to go to my committee, your work effort and dedication to enable our club to survive and run this year has been second to none. So what lies ahead? As our momentum continues to build. Coupled with the new grounds, lighting and facilities with the determination to succeed. Our future is looking bright and I’m excited for the 2022 season and to further improve our stance in the lacrosse community.

Paul Scuteri – President