Skipton Football Netball Club - first Report for the 2003 Season

CLUB NEWS

"Rovin' Rambler Report"
Welcome to our first Report for the 2003 Season. As in the last couple of years we will do our best to keep you in touch with what is happening around your Club through this column. We have also introduced a new section called "Netball Natter" which will allow the girls to have their say.

COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT Much has been happening over the summer with the Committee remaining active to ensure that the hard work done in recent years has not been wasted. John Peeters was re-elected President for his third term at the Annual General meeting. Adrian Williams remains as the Senior Vice-President and Stephen Clark joins the Committee as Junior Vice-President.

David Poulton continues as Secretary and Andrew Bodman has been "promoted" to the Treasurers position giving "Robbo" a well earned rest. Charlie Caldow, Natalie Drake, Harry Kennedy, Ian Robertson, Trevor Thornton and Tony Slater remain on the Committee and have been joined by new members Trudy Boyer, Andrew Clark, Gavan Corbett, and Clare Odlum.

LIFE MEMBERSHIP Two of our longest serving players were rewarded for their loyalty at the Annual Meeting when Kate Morcombe and Andrew Clark were presented with Life Membership of our Club. In presenting the awards the President, John Peeters, outlined the service given to the Club by Kate and Andrew who both started with the Junior sections over twenty years ago and have played more than 300 Junior and Senior games.

SENIOR FOOTBALL Tim McKay has been reappointed as Senior Coach and he is joined by Rowan O'Callaghan from Terang as his assistant. Mick Shelton continues as the Reserves Coach. Graham Layley will be a Selector and the Team Manager and he will be supported by Ross O'Brien on the Selection Committee with Andrew Bodman as Runner and Mathew Battistello from Terang as Skills Coach. Tony Boyer and Rod Kennedy will remain as joint Captains.

A number of new players have joined the Club including Ryan Adamson and Anthony Bibby both from Springbank, Michael Bourke (Clunes), Troy Ferrier (Berri-Culgoa), Luke Hills (Beaufort), Mark Hocking (Redan), Kris Johnson (Ballarat), Jamie McKay (Clunes), Daniel Nelson (East Point), Cameron Postlethwaite, (St.Arnaud) and Daniel Rowe (Clunes).

Several players have left the Club including Michael Hutt who has gone to Sebastopol, Graeme Lench (Newlyn), David Dwight (Sandford), Scott Fletcher (Amateurs) Troy Janssens (Buninyong), Scott Paulke (Nagambie) and Matthew Shelton (Great Western). Kiernan Molloy is also trying out with Redan and from all reports has played well in practice matches.

Last Saturday we played Dunnstown at home and although beaten in both games by very narrow margins it was apparent that the Club can go into the Season with some confidence that we will be very competitive again. An intra-club game will be played this Saturday.

UNDER 16½ FOOTBALL After a number of years of being in charge of our Juniors Tony Slater has stepped aside and the new Chairperson is Trevor Thornton. He will be supported by Ian Robertson who has taken over as Manager from Michael Sturgeon who will remain on as his assistant. Our Club is certainly indebted to both Tony and Michael for their tireless work in this important part of our Club.

Dean Sheridan remains on as Coach and he will be again assisted by Ian Bradshaw. As in recent seasons numbers are again a problem but those players who have been attending training have shown great enthusiasm which has been pleasing for Dean. He certainly would be pleased to hear from anybody who knows of any potential players !

UNDER 12 FOOTBALL Stephen Wood is coaching the Under 12 teams again. Training will start on Thursday, 24th April, at 4.00 pm A registration evening will be held at the Clubrooms between 4.00 pm and 5.30 pm on Thursday, 10th April. A fee of $15 will need to paid that evening which includes membership of the Club and affiliation with the Victorian Country Football League that also provides some medical coverage.

A new innovation at League level this year will see a number of Under 12 games played on Saturdays as curtain raisers to the Under 16½.. These games will start at 9.45 am The players will also be seen in a new set of jumpers recently purchased for them by the Club

SHEEP DRIVE "Robbo" has advised us that the our Sheep Drive will be held after Easter. He will be pleased to hear from anybody who is prepared to support the Club

"NETBALL NATTER"
Well, it is that time again and we welcome all the old and new players back to our Club. We will be striving for another successful year by setting high standards in all grades. We also plan to introduce a number of new ideas and changes throughout the season. After two years as Netball Chairperson Katherine Gillespie has stepped down and her position has been taken by Trudy Boyer. She will be supported by Clare Odlum who has again accepted the role of Manager

APPOINTMENTS After three years Trudy has relinquished her role as Seniors and Reserves Coach and that position has been filled by a very capable replacement in Teresa Williams. The Under 17 Coach is Megan Poulton and the Under 14 Emma Poulton. Faye Shelton has been appointed captain of the Senior team with Kate Morcombe as vice-captain. In the Reserves Lynette Heenan will be captain with Dione Edmonston vice-captain. Team Managers will be Fiona Fletcher (Seniors), Dione Edmonston (Reserves), Sharee Thornton (Under 17) and Lindy Robertson (Under 14)

TRAINING Training for the Senior teams is well under way. A number of new players have been included on a list of about twenty-one players which will mean that there will be plenty of competition for a game. The Under 17's are down on numbers but hopefully they will improve over the next few weeks. The opposite can be said about the Under 14's who appear to have plenty of players available. Training for the Junior teams is held on Thursday nights at 5.00p.m. for the Under 14 and 5.30p.m for the Under 17. Anybody knowing of possible Under17 players is asked to contact Clare on 53 360502.

COURSES To improve the knowledge and understanding for the players and officials our Club and the League will be running a number courses throughout the Season. It is a great opportunity to gain valuable information and experience from representatives of Netball Victoria and we hope that as a Club that we support them with good attendances.

The following courses have been confirmed and names should be submitted as soon as possible:

Sports Medicine Awareness course on Sunday 4th May at Lexton. Includes techniques on correct stretching, initial care of injuries and much more
Umpires Theory Exam - anyone wishing to sit this year needs to submit their name immediately so that the papers can be ordered. Participants will be issued with a certificate on passing the exam.
Umpires Course for Skipton players on Thursday, 5th June, at Skipton between 6.00p.m. and 9.00p.m. Lorraine Adams, an experienced umpire will take the course.

FUNDRAISER To ensure that we keep costs down for our members and to help in upgrading our facilities we are running a Cadbury Fundraiser with a selection of $1 and $2 products available for sale . Please look out for any of our netballers and help support the Skipton Football Netball Club by purchasing one of the packages.

We hope that through the "Netball Natter" column we will be able to keep you in touch with "the goss" and everything else that might be happening in netball at the Club.

N.B.- Both our Seniors and Reserves teams had very good wins against Dunnstown last Saturday with a number of encouraging signs coming out of both games.