Reposting as Euan hit the wrong button and noone has received…….#amateur

Welcome to the 2023 football season! I want to start off by saying a massive thank you to the volunteers within the club who help make this club run and getting us to this point.

Michael Clayton – our registrar. While his role is to make the onboarding of players as easy as possible, he does so much more. From dealing with various councils to get fields booked for training and game day right through to training schedules.

Jacqui Jago – women’s coordinator. Looking after all the enquiries from the women’s side of the club and helping to ensure every player finds a home. Also helping to get our uniforms distributed in time for the opening games.

Victor Jago – Equipment officer. Ensuring we have all the appropriate equipment for the season at the right venue. Even more difficult this year with Gladesville Reserve out of action.

Paul Williamson – Minis coordinator. Usually, the first point of contact for all our new junior players. Paul does an awesome job of allocating new players to teams with their friends and/or school mates. In addition, Paul organised grading for applicable teams which is always a difficult task.

Clair Williamson – women’s registrar. Working alongside Jacqui, Clair has helped to ensure all the junior and senior women’s players have found a home for the current season. The administration behind the scenes to allocate players to teams is a huge effort.

Jim Likidis (10-12)/Eric Li (14+)/Peter Steel (Seniors) – Age co-ordinators. Always a tough task with each age group bringing its own unique challenges. For the juniors it’s the challenge of losing kids to private schools while in the seniors this year’s challenge was the establishment of a new over 55 division which has had a significant knock-on impact to how we structure our o45s. All these guys have done a great job in handling some complex situations.

Aaron Lynch – Director of Coaching. Making himself available to assist any new coaches but also for providing access to the resources that will help each of our coaches, especially all the newbies.

Coaches/Managers – Probably the toughest but most rewarding of all the volunteering roles (based on my experience of coaching my sons u6 team). Thank you to each and every parent who has stepped up. I truly hope you enjoy the experience!

Gladesville Reserve Update

For those who have with the club for a number of years will know that we received a grant of $2m from the NSW State Government with the assistance of Anthony Roberts back in early 2019. We also helped the council apply for additional funding to upgrade the lights with an additional $260K committed in early 2023.

These grants are to upgrade Gladesville Reserve to deliver an improved playing experience and increased playing capacity for our members and the enjoyment of the broader community.

The good news is that work on a new and improved Gladesville Reserve will start of 1 April 2023. The bad news is that we will not have access to this field for the upcoming season.

Training

The knock-on impact to Gladesville Reserve being out of action is that we have needed to find additional venues with lights to accommodate the training needs. While we have secured additional time slots at Bedlam Bay and Westminster this year will be a tight squeeze at times. Please work together to ensure every team gets an appropriate amount of space to train.

Equipment/Uniform Shop

The shop at Weil Park will be open :

9-11am Sun 26 Mar and
9-11am Sat 1 Apr

to get any last-minute kit requirements. It will only be open during the season based on individual volunteer availability.

We are also trialling an online shop. If you head over to our TeamApp there is a link for an online shop that is run by our kit supplier UMBRO.

I really hope that after 2 years of seasons being impacted by COVID and then last year impacted by the weather that 2023 is a great season. If at any time you need anything feel free to reach out to me at president@ashhfc.com.au

Go All Saints!

Cheers

Euan