Football Wagga Wagga President’s Report 2010
Presented to AGM 01/12/10 Wagga RSL
Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members for allowing me to act as President for Football Wagga Wagga for the second year. Whilst this year was eventful and in some ways controversial, I am pleased to say I am proud of the achievements of Football Wagga Wagga’s Member clubs and committees efforts this year to continue to work on providing our players with an improved experience playing our wonderful code of football.
I need to thank my committee who worked extremely hard to implement the changes that we put into place this year. We were never totally sure how much work would be required to instigate these changes. However when we found gaps in the work loads, the Executive and General Committee members stepped up to the challenge and did whatever was necessary to ensure the success of the project. To each and everyone I thank them and say that it was an absolute privilege to have worked with them all this year.
At this time I would like to personally thank the Executive committee of Dave O’Grady, Ged Madden, Bernie Blake, and Denise Roy. These fine people continued the work started in the previous year and we are now starting to see the benefits come to fruition.
I would also like to thank members of the general committee, Tara Walker, Craig Duncan, Donna O’Grady. Thank you for your tireless support and help. Craig’s work this year in revamping our website and providing all the information and statistics he does is frankly unbelievable.
Our Executive Officer Donna Baker again performed her duties efficiently and was called upon, again, to go above and beyond her job description as well as the hours of paid work. It is indeed awe inspiring what value Donna brings to the Association with her work and experience, and it may be timely to consider finding a paid assistant so that the ever increasing burden of this association’s affairs can be done in a sensible work day, not the sort of times that Donna finds herself working.
It seems that we make a habit of controversial starts to our season and this year was certainly no exception. The new structure for the Associations referees meant that early in the season we were short of covering our senior games with qualified referees and we depended upon the clubs to provide club referees for some games in the first 4 rounds.
Special thanks should go to all the clubs for standing united with this new structure and enduring the short term pain for the long term gain. It would be timely to thank Bob McKenzie for being chairman of the Referees Subcommittee and the help afforded him by the other members, particularly Denise Roy and Bernie Blake who also helped with the website. It is imperative that we now build upon the solid start with the Association’s referees this year and maintain the momentum by continuing to support the quantity and quality of referees we have through further recruitment from club ranks and ongoing and continual accreditation and training.
The first year of our ground improvement program in conjunction with the Council saw us endure some difficulties this year with availability of fields for both training and playing through the 2010 season. The situation certainly wasn’t helped by the welcome drought breaking deluge the area endured and Duke of Kent not being available for use for this season. The Senior Vice President has identified the areas to concentrate on for year 2 of the 5 year plan and again this momentum must not be allowed to be lost as we all know that ground development and conditions have been sadly lacking for several years.
Our Representative teams and coaches have all been selected for 2011 and will commence training early next year in preparation for the 2011 Representative season. I would personally like to thank all the people who have committed themselves to the sometimes thankless task of Representative Coach or manager for FWW. To those unsuccessful applicants I thank you for offering what can be a very difficult job.
Implementation next year of the mandatory coaching accreditation will certainly have the associations and the clubs focus this year but I am sure we can implement this Football NSW directive without too many hassles.
I wish to thank the Committee members who have seen fit to join me stand for re election for 2011. I would also like to thank the people from the clubs who have put their hand up for the 2011 season and filled various positions. It is always good to have the benefit of fresh ideas to continue to foster the growth of our Association. See you soon, ready for the start of the 2011 season.
Mark Sayer
President Football Wagga Wagga
23rd November 2010