Incredible to believe that we have now had two seasons of football that have been significantly impacted by COVID19. Our players have effectively had two seasons taken away from them which is just devastating as one’s playing career is so short-lived, to begin with. We had a number of teams that were vying for premiership glory and to have that taken away from you is just so disappointing.
This year I was super proud of our coaching staff for keeping our players connected. The work our coaches and assistant coaches do behind the scenes in ensuring the well-being of our players is where it should be, is just remarkable. I personally wish to thank every coach for checking in on our players and we are very fortunate to have you all as part of the BHFNC! All of our 2021 coaches have now been reappointed for 2022 and I look forward to you all driving success, driving growth, and driving the high standards that we require to be a successful club. Next season we have Wayne Judge as Director of Football Development on board to support all coaches with their growth and development. I warmly welcome Wayne to our club.
I want to congratulate Scott Nicholas on being awarded EFNL Senior Coach of the Year for 2021. This is a marvellous achievement and very well deserved too! Scott and his team of coaches are doing a wonderful job at growing and improving our women’s football program. The last 4 years have seen extensive growth in female participation at our club in our great game. This is no doubt driven by the quality of coaching staff we have in this area. Thank you to all and special thanks to Candyce who filled in for Ray this season. We look forward to watching you develop Candyce over the coming years.
I wish to acknowledge the winner of the Colin ‘Mick’ Kimmitt Best Clubperson award. Wayne Preston was a much-deserved winner of this prestigious award. Thank you, Wayne for your tireless efforts. Our club is a much better club due to your involvement, drive, and work ethic. I also wish to thank the Board and our Senior Committee. Our club is most fortunate to have such good quality people contributing to community sport!
This season saw the retirement of Buzz and Lmac – Matt Buzinskas and Lachie McKernan. Premiership stars, great blokes, and fine leaders of our club. You have both given so much to the BHFNC and we thank you!
To our incredible volunteers, you are all just the best! I won’t name you all but without the support of our volunteers, we just couldn’t run a club of this size. From food preparation to cleaning the bar to setting up match days to organizing functions, we are just blessed to have so many incredible people supporting our club.
This year, two club stalwarts will move off the committee. This by no means suggests they will stop supporting and working for the club. It just means they don’t have to turn up to boring meetings. To Tim Currie and Tessa Evans, thank you for your great service and advice!
As we now transition into the 2022 season, let me assure you all that we started work on season 2022 about 3 months ago. We already have our 90th birthday celebration committee organised and Greg ‘Hollywood’ Krenn has a team around him that is working on our club corporate Golf Day at the Eastwood Golf Course this year.
What is now abundantly apparent is that our club is different from what it was ten years ago. It is now a much bigger organisation and we need to manage that growth and create protocols and behaviours to ensure we don’t burn out our volunteers. This is a logistical challenge and we will strive to make this work. Expanding our volunteer network is one challenge and then managing our busy schedule and ensuring not too much is done by only a few is the next! This is every club’s challenge but we really need to get better in this area!
From a personal perspective, I have never been more motivated to make this club gain success both on and off the field next season.
Greg Hannon, Senior President