Message from the President

Our penultimate event for the football year was held last Thursday. The Jack Douglas Medal night was a great celebration of the year and all of our teams and players. Thanks to Lisa Ginies for her work in organising the event. Thanks again to Steve Browne for organising the trophies and Paul Murphy for running the slide show and setting the running sheet.

At the Jack Douglas I encouraged everyone to enjoy our success. We are a strong, vibrant, inclusive and responsible club with much to be proud of. We have won consecutive Premier Division flags. We won this year with a very young side. Our future is bright. However, for future success can I ask everyone to retain a sense of humility. Hubris is the enemy of success. If we train, play, support and work with this attitude we can continue to build a great club and enjoy sustained, long term success.

The final event for the SKOB 2018 year is the Annual General Meeting. The meeting will be held on Tuesday 30 October at TH King Pavilion at 7pm. All welcome.

In conclusion, I want to sincerely thank all the volunteers who have contributed over the course of 2018. As we are now at the end of the season can I ask all volunteers (be they Committee members or people that do one job per year) to please remember the golden rule of community organisations: Find Your Replacement. If you are planning to continue to assist the club and do your (current) job(s) at SKOB in 2019 – thank you. If you are unable to assist – please FIND YOUR REPLACEMENT. This is the number one rule of volunteer based community organisations.

It goes without saying that we are Community Club with limited resources needing volunteers to provide the opportunity for young men and women to participate in football. In 2019, parents and family members need to assist us in providing this opportunity for their children / family members. If we are under resourced on game days (in particular) – it has a direct negative impact on team performance. Lack of Team Management results in general disorganisation that may include incomplete or errors in Team Sheets required by VAFA may result in lost points; inadequate access to water by players; no boundary umpire will result in one of our players having to throw the ball in – obviously this results in us being a player short at a throw in; lack of goal umpire may result in “interesting” or “debatable” adjudications!; while no time keeper may result in inaccuracies on play duration. Please consider how you can help next year.

So, apart from the Committee, thanks to the following who have helped in 2018:

Phil McCabe; Greg Critchley; Gerard Gleeson; Louise Wood; Pat Di Natale; Kate Di Natale; Jim Gleeson; Tony Phillips; Nick Moore; John Gilham; David Parkes; Andrew Russo; Darren Milne; Paul Pirola; Steve Farrugia; James Goller; Con Papergeorgiou; Dom Morgan; Ed Ryan; Abramo Lerado; Sandra Holden; Fi Sullivan; Andrew Sullivan; Jimmy McQuie; Robin Bowles; Richard Lewis; Chris Morley; Karen Nitschke; Sam Viti; Pia Jones; John Ogge; Trish Doble; Tim Arnold; Peter Hannan; Michael Cross; Trish Op De Coul; Paul Murphy; Michael Kelly; Michael Fernon; Stephen Kerr; Miles Duggan; Perc McArdle; Rachel Kennedy; Lisa Ring; Ricky Hodges; John Miller; and Sam Murray.

Finally, I particularly thank Kim Whelan for his tireless and critical work as Club Doctor. He is the Stockland Volunteer of the Year award winner.