Senior Men's & Women's Football and Netball, Junior Boys & Girls Football, Auskick and over 35's Veterans and Masters Football. Affiliated with EFNL. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land in Boronia.
Boronia Hawks are excited to announce our expanded Football Department for the 2022 season!
Following on from the announcement that Scott Nicholas, Candyce Wright, Ray Lacey and Lachie Watson are back on board, we’re thrilled to welcome some new and familiar faces to the team.
KAREN LITTLE will take over from Nathan Allen in the role of Football Operations Manager! Karen will bring a great understanding and knowledge of our squad as a player, trainer and administrator and will help take our program to another level through operational and strategic support and initiatives!
BRAD SLATER will join the coaching team as a Senior Assistant Coach. Brad played over 200 games at Mitcham in Division 1 before an extensive coaching career, most recently with St. Simons and Rowville Knights where he coached Under 15, Under 16 and Under 18 girls from 2016-2020.
DANA TAMOS will join us over pre-season as Strength & Conditioning Coach. Dana will prescribe a 16 week training program available to all of our players (more info to come), support the coaches with S & C planning and attend training once a month over pre-season! Dana has previously worked with Eastern Ranges NAB League program, Casey VFLW and St Kilda’s Next Gen Academy and we’re thrilled to have her specific experience with women’s football on board! Please check out Dana’s Facebook at 1Life Human Performance.
For more information please contact Scott Nicholas (Senior Coach) on 0403 238 494 or Karen Little (Football Manager) on 0417 077 783 or visit www.boroniahawks.com.au
Please join us in welcoming Karen, Brad and Dana in their new roles!GO HAWKA
It’s fair to say 2021 was a lot tougher than 2020 although both were interrupted seasons. There was still a lot of uncertainty if 2021 would go ahead after a series of snap lockdowns which made it tough to re-engage with our sponsors. They too had been doing it tough but we were very fortunate that a good 95% recommitted in supporting the club again in 2021.
The start of the season was frantic. In what would normally be a 4 month planning process had to be condensed into 1-2 months. This year we wanted to build on what we had started in previous years and to introduce new ideas and initiatives.
Our inaugural Golf Day was a huge success with 20 teams entered which generated an excellent profit for the day! We relaunched our Sponsorship proposal which is now a professional document that is designed to attract more sponsors to our club. Membership packages were reviewed highlighting a gap in our social offering for friends of members and community. This will be a major focus for us in 2022 so watch this space!
Once the season started our attention soon switched to game day and how we could improve the experience for all players and supporters. Our bar offering was reviewed with the introduction of Great Northern on tap, a better wine offering and the introduction of the Billson Vodka varieties. The bar menu took on a refresh which became electronic and now gives us a better tool to engage with our customers. Live music was a regular addition after some of the games which provided entertainment and ensured our bar sales ticked over into the night. A special thanks to Nick Blomfield who was kind enough to share his other talent with us outside of playing in our Vets football team.
As much as we tried to run our revamped “Ladies High Tea” we didn’t quite get there. A lot of time went into the planning of this event which was headed by Carly Dymond and her dedicated subcommittee. It was a real shame, but we are determined to launch it in 2022 which is sure to be a great day!
The other big news in 2021 is that Knox City Council have committed to the planning of our new clubroom. Although we need this sooner than later to cater for our growth, the important thing is that it is now on the Council’s radar and they have committed to the scoping to begin in 2023/24, design in 2024/25 and construction in 2025/26. A big thank-you to our number one ticket holder Jackson Taylor MP who secured $120K of Victorian Government funding towards this project. This money was intended to go towards fast tracking the scoping & design component, but unfortunately the Knox City Council no budget capacity and declined the offer. We will continue to work with the Council and Jackson to explore how we can shorten the time frame of this project.
Although this last lockdown brought an end to this season we are working behind the scenes on yet more ideas. The Growler project was a great example of continuing to look for different ways to engage with our members and generate funds for the club. In the midst of lockdown we were pleased to be able to deliver much needed funds back into our bank account. Thanks for everyone who supported this initiative and a big shout out to Flash, Grant, Billy & Jase who helped pull this together in the space of one week.
Bring on 2022 and look forward in seeing you all at our games next year.
Our relationship with Knox City Council has stayed strong though out 2021 despite our interrupted season. Their continued support through their weekly newsletters, emails & phone conversations to keep us connected to our local community is always received well.
We were able to navigate our way through the restrictions outlined with Council and EFNL with greater ease this season; so that made our volunteers, players & community feel safe when around our grounds and facilities. Council has always been a big supporter of our club and all that we are striving to achieve.
Unfortunately, we were not able to make it through the whole 2021 season but we hope to begin arrangements for ground use shortly to kick start our pre-season training and, fingers crossed, 2022 will be a complete season.
Want to WIN a 4.5kg block of Toblerone and lock in your FREE FEES ?? With Registration for the 2022 season opening tomorrow we’re giving away a giant Toblerone to new and current junior players that register before 5pm Friday Nov 5th !
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.
How great was it to see the kids back playing footy this season! We didn’t get through the whole season but after not playing at all last year I think 12 out of the 14 games is a good result.
The club was very concerned about getting kids back into sport after 2020 and looked at options to bring back as many players as possible. We were lucky enough to have some amazing sponsors in Fletchers Real Estate Mooroolbark and The Hawks Nest Coterie Groupwho sponsored our juniors and enabled us to offer free fees for the season. We really appreciate the support of these sponsors and would like to thank them. A second initiative was a preseason event called “Sound the Siren” with an aim to reconnect our community and offer the juniors a fun, social day to meet up with team mates after a long absence. With Candyce and Stacey taking the reins, the event was a huge success. The players got out and played a scratch match and plenty of merchandise was sold.
Although some players didn’t return, we still had over 60 new players registered with an overall increase from last season of 33 players. Amazing results after a year off. We ended up fielding 9 Junior teams in Mixed U8, U9, U10, U12, U13, Girls U12, U14, Boys U14, and U15.
To our board Scott, Tanya, Dave, Karen, Wayne, Greg, Kat & Ash and senior committee thank you for your support of the last 2 years. We are so lucky to have such great people outside of the junior committee willing to help our junior program. To the junior committee, Lauren, Sam, Danny, Stacey, Candyce, Mike, Victoria and Carolyn.
To our volunteers, coaches, team managers, trainers, runners, goals umpires and time keepers – the games wouldn’t run without you giving up your time. Thanks to Ellen in the canteen, Billy marking the grounds and running the bar at awards nights and Jason who helped with anything we needed help with.
Boronia Hawks is aiming to introduce new initiatives for our social media platforms and communications strategies for the 2022 season and beyond.
We will be looking at our website and current social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Mail Chimp, Tidy HQ, Team App and You Tube.
We would love to hear from any of our members and supporters interested in being involved. Ideally, you will have relevant skills, experience and ideas and will contribute as an active participant in a project team.
Please contact Scott Nicholas on 0403 238 494 if you would like to learn more about this opportunity.
Boronia Hawks Football Netball Club is very excited to announce that Mitch Mellis has signed with the Club and will be back to Boronia for the 2022 season.
Mitch is without doubt one the finest junior players in our Club’s history and now returns to Tormore Reserve with an outstanding football CV since he left our junior ranks. After spending the last couple of “covid” seasons with VFL club Williamstown and EFNL club Vermont, he will be back playing with his brother Jake and many old team mates and will provide a huge boost to our mid-field for years to come.
Mitch has represented Victoria in both football and basketball, an outstanding achievement in itself. He won three League B&F’s with Boronia Juniors and six Boronia B&F’s including the Ray Lacey Medal for Under 17’s Best and Fairest in 2017.
He had an excellent career with Eastern Ranges, playing 33 games from 2017 to 2019. Mitch won the Pennington Medal for Eastern Ranges TAC Cup Best and Fairest in 2018. He won selection in the 2019 NAB League Team of the Year and gained third place in the 2019 Morrish Medal for the NAB League Best and Fairest. This resulted in his recruitment to Williamstown.
Please take a moment to read a brief summary of Mitch’s career:
Returns to Boronia Hawks in 2021.
Played 4 VFL Games for Williamstown in 2021.
Played 5 Premier Division games for Vermont in 2021.
Signed to Williamstown Football Club in 2019.
Played 3 games for Victoria Metro in 2019.
Runner-up in Pennington Medal for Eastern Ranges TAC Cup Best and Fairest in 2019.
Played 13 TAC Cup games for Eastern Ranges in 2019.
Pennington Medal for Eastern Ranges TAC Cup Best and Fairest in 2018.
Played 17 TAC Cup games for Eastern Ranges in 2018.
Under 19’s debut for Boronia in Round 2 2018.
Played 3 TAC Cup games for Eastern Ranges in 2017.
Boronia Past Players & Supporters Group Player Most Likely Award in 2017.
Ray Lacey Medal for Boronia Under 17’s Best and Fairest in 2017.
100th game for Boronia Juniors in 2017.
Played 3 TAC Cup games for Eastern Ranges in 2017.
Returned to Boronia after two junior seasons with Vermont in 2017.
Represented Victoria in the Australian Under 16 Basketball Championships.
EFNL U15’s Inter-League representative in 2016.
EFNL U14’s Inter-League representative in 2015.
Boronia Past Players & Supporters Group Young Gun Award in 2014.
EFNL Under 13B Best and Fairest in 2014.
Boronia Under 13’s Best and Fairest in 2014.
EFNL Under 12B Best and Fairest in 2013.
Boronia Under 12’s Best and Fairest in 2013.
EFNL Under 11B Best and Fairest in 2012.
Boronia Under 11’s Best and Fairest in 2012.
Boronia Under 11’s Best and Fairest in 2011.
Boronia Under 9’s Best and Fairest in 2009.
Joined Boronia Juniors in 2009.
Son of former player and coach Cam Mellis.
Boronia Hawks are absolutely delighted to welcome Mitch back to Boronia, where the Mellis name already stands tall in our Club’s history and culture. Please join us all in welcoming Mitch, while also congratulating Ash Johnston and Matt Clark in bringing home one of our favourite sons.
Our canteen is very important to both the Boronia Hawks Football Netball Club and Boronia Cricket Club for providing food at training nights, game day and for catering events that connect and celebrate our club communities.
We are very grateful to be awarded $1,000 by Energy Safe Victoria from the Safer Canteen Grants Program, which will be used towards the replacement of old and potentially unsafe electrical appliances.
Thank you to Ellen and all of our wonderful canteen volunteers who work tirelessly to prepare and serve food from a canteen that is well overdue for an upgrade. Thanks also to Kerryn Westcott and Karen Little for their enormous contribution to the Club by identifying and applying for grants.
Thank you to the volunteers from our Committees, Coaching Team, Playing Groups and Trainer Team who successfully completed aYouth Mental Health First Aid course with Mental Health First Aid Australia.
The course covered how to assist adolescents who are developing a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis; where and how to get help; and how to provide first aid in a crisis situation.
With a focus on adolescents, our volunteer team members are available to assist anyone in our Club community including coaches, team managers, parents and players. If you would like to make contact please do so directly or through Kristan Wood (Woody), our Junior President on 0411 605 203 or via email kristan@allstaterefrigeration.com.au
Chloe Timms (Women’s Football Squad)
Danny Weston (Junior Coach and Junior Committee Member)
Gen Lyons (Women’s Football Squad)
Julie Allen (Player parent, U15 boys)
Lauren Porter (Auskick Assistant Co-ordinator and U9’s Team Manager)
Kate Vangeninden (Head Trainer)
Rhiannon Crompton (Women’s Football Squad)
Sam Dunkinson (Junior Vice President, Auskick Co-ordinator and Fundraising Committee Member)
Stephen Little (Trainer)
We are very appreciative to the Knox City Council for the Community Development Fund 2020/2021 which funded this training and their ongoing provision of grants to support our Club community.
Thank you to Samantha Dunkinson for coordinating the training dates and requirements with the course provider. Thank you also to Karen Little, our Director, Community and Inclusion for her incredible work as our champion of mental health support within the Club.
