What a big year in football it has been for our club. With all the drama at the start of the season regarding our grounds, the delayed start and the shortening of the 2007 season, I must say that this has been the longest short season ever.
Firstly, we must thank the Banyule Council and in particular, Lucia Brennan, for all the assistance given to our club during what has been the start of a very difficult year due to the ongoing drought. I also thank the council and the Watsonia Football Club, in particular, Alan Hunter (President), for all of their support in making us feel right at home with AK line Reserve as our third home ground.
This year we saw our playing numbers jump to 552 across all the age groups and saw us field 3 Colts teams for the first time in the history of the YJFL. Congratulations go to all of the parents and players that participated in the record breaking 2007 season.
13 players were invited to the YJFL Best and Fairest night ending with 1st to Rick Mullins in 14 Gold, 1st to Daniel Dober in 13 Gold, 2nd placing to Tim Doherty 15(sect 1), Rian Boddy 15(sect 4) and Cameron Simpson in 10 Gold, congratulations to all those players.
The YJFL representative teams saw many of our players selected and in particular the Junior Championships had 5 of our boys selected for the under 15 squads and 9 boys selected for the 14 squads, well done.
Game milestone achievements are a special day for player and parents, as well it is for the club. 2007 had 19 players achieve 100 game milestone and 4 players in Jevon Kett, Costa Missailidis, Brent Redmond and Tom Snell achieve 150 games, which take our tally of players to reach this milestone to 51, congratulations to those players.
In a most exciting era for our club, we cannot go on without mentioning the achievements of Steven Kelly in playing all season with the Northern Knights as a bottom age player and both Pat Veszpremi and Matthew Kreuzer who have been standouts in the TAC competition for 2 years and Matthew winning the 2007 Morrish Medal for the Best and Fairest. We wish both these players the very best as they will figure highly in the upcoming AFL National Draft.
This year has seen big spending at our club with bags and polo tops provided for all the players and new football jumpers to all up to under 15’s, this cannot happen without the support of all of our sponsors, I thank them all on behalf of my committee and hope to see them all on board for years to come.
I would like to also report that our feasibility funding for the clubroom development was not approved in the recent budget process. The Banyule council did approve funding for an upgrade to the kitchens instead. I am pleased to announce that at a recent meeting with Riverside Cricket Club and representatives of the council along with Colin Brooks, our Victorian Parliament Local Member, approval was given by the Banyule council to transfer the $23,000.00 kitchen upgrade funding to the Feasibility funding for our proposed development. We are now in the system and we must all work hard on our Banyule ward councillors to ensure they support and keep our development at the top of their agendas, as their support is crucial to the whole process.
Our 3 main functions this year were fantastic with the first being the Trivia night held at the Watsonia RSL which saw 120 people have a great time, the second was the Sponsors night at Whatmough which goes a long way to thanking those who financially support our club. Last year I said it was our biggest Dinner Dance ever, but the support shown by all of our families saw last years attendance figure of 330 smashed by this years attendance record of 430 people enjoy what was a sensational night that celebrated the junior careers of our 31 top age Colts players that represented our club for a total of 3422 games, a record that will be hard to be surpassed anywhere in Australia.
Life Membership to this great club of ours is recognition of the time and effort and absolute dedication that people have for our club. With this I was proud to bestow Life Membership to Tom and Pauline Chapman, Russell and Debbie Benson,
Tony and Marie Giles, Des and Phyllis Price, all great people who dedicate lots of time and effort in ensuring the families enjoy their journey at the St.Mary’s Greensborough Junior Football Club.
