2018 Annual Report | 1 Contents

20 ANNUAL 18 REPORT 2018 ANNUAL REPORT | 1 CONTENTS 2 | SYDNEY UNI SPORT & FITNESS PRESIDENT’S BLUES 02REPORT 28ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S STAKEHOLDER 04REPORT 30CHART LEGAL & HUMAN CLUB 08RESOURCES 32REPORTS HIGH PERFORMANCE & ORGANISATIONAL 10CLUB DEVELOPMENT 93CHART ELITE ATHLETE 12PROGRAM 94DONORS MARKETING & OFFICE 14COMMUNICATIONS 96BEARERS PROGRAMS & HONOURS & 18PARTICIPATION 98TRADITIONS OPERATIONS & 22INFRASTRUCTURE 99SCHOLARSHIPS DEVELOPMENT 26& SPONSORSHIP 2018 ANNUAL REPORT | 1 PRESIDENT’S REPORT THIS YEAR HAS BEEN BOTH leading clubs - in athletics, rowing and water polo. To think CHALLENGING AND WORTHWHILE that one organisation maintains the excellence of one, let alone – UNLIKE ANY OTHER. three national championships, is outstanding. This is not to mention the many other titles that are held across Together, we as members of Sydney University Sport have the board, all of which are contained in this report. But I make struggled with the big questions; who are we, what are we special mention of the following: striving for and how do we achieve this? • Growthbuilt Sydney University Australian National Football It was tough, and what may have been considered tension, was Club for their persistent and growing excellence. merely growing pain driven by a community who only ever cared deeply about the future of sport at the University of Sydney. • Sydney University Football Club for winning their 15th Club Championship, for bringing home the Shute Shield May the 7th 2019 was a remarkable day for Sydney University Sport. and Jack Scott Cup. Our past is littered with significant reforms – but Tuesday the 7th • Sydney University Hockey Club and their philanthropic saw the members of Sydney University Sport come together and excellence that foreshadows an exciting future. choose a new direction in what is a centuries old partnership. • Sydney University Boat Club and their national championship, Like the very first days of Sydney University Sport, the fellowship winning the Australian Boat Race and dominating the and fraternity of sportsmen and women was reaffirmed and our intervarsity championship. historic clubs were again recognised as key to our success. • Sydney University Rugby League for their first premiership But unlike before, Sydney University Sport, an organisation win since 2002. centuries in the making, has adopted a new way of moving forward together. • Sydney University Water Polo on being undefeated in most arenas and winning the national championship. Together we have adopted a new constitution and model of operation that forges us together with more opportunity. In doing • Sydney University Cricket Club on not just the club so we have risen to the challenge of the endemic governance championship but attaining the highest point score in history. trials that have emerged – transparency, oversight and strategy. These are just a theme of the many exceptional and outstanding It has been anything but easy, but in doing so, we maintain our achievements that together we deserve to be proud of. standing within the ranks of leading sports organisations who For the last two years, it has been a privilege to work with have gone through this journey of incorporation. administrators, sports men and women and sponsors who This will be my last report as President, and what I presume give so selflessly to achieve these feats. will be the last report of any Sydney University Sport President We could not buy your commitment. – as very soon, we begin building a new board of governance This success comes from something much deeper, much to work with our clubs on fashioning a strategy to maintain older and more noble – something that cannot be bought our successes for years to come. or built overnight. It deserves celebration that these reforms were not prompted The selfless commitment of each of you to volunteer, passed from by a slump in the performance of our clubs, rather the opposite. generation to generation – is the spirit of Sydney University Sport. With great foresight our Management Committee and clubs found it appropriate to adopt reforms at a point of opportunity Your selfless commitment to each other, to your club and to and strength. Sydney University cannot be mimicked or imitated. And what exceptional success our clubs have had this year. If this spirit continues to be passed on – as it was passed to us – At this moment Sydney University Sport has three of Australia’s we will be just as strong in 100 years. 2 | SYDNEY UNI SPORT & FITNESS I want to pay tribute to an important group of people. Alongside them I must highlight my thanks for the There are many leaders, patrons, captains, coaches all of whom Management Committee for both years of my Presidency – I am thankful for and many that deserve recognition. We would you have considered wisely and fought valiantly for what is be nothing without you. good for all and not some. But for the past two years my greatest joy and encouragement Alongside this, are our club Presidents and leaders who has been watching the unsung heroes – those who all too often exemplify the best of us. are giving up whole weeks of their year to help an athlete or Together I hope and pray that Sydney University Sport club without being asked. continues to flourish for the benefit of students and athletes Whether they’re game day volunteers or keeping the accounts across the generations - and I want to thank the many who, – there are many who are not thanked often or enough as you whilst not named here, have shared in this vision and are should be. greatly deserving. And I want to take this occasion to recognise you – because JAMES FLYNN | PRESIDENT we would achieve nothing without you. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT | 3 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT 2018 WAS ANOTHER SOLID YEAR FOR year, the completion of the Regiment student housing facility SYDNEY UNI SPORT & FITNESS (SUSF) and a targeted marketing campaign, the start of 2019 has seen AND ITS CLUBS, AND SAW SOME the 2018 records shattered. We have always been about the INCREDIBLE MILESTONES ACHIEVED. students of Sydney University and we are delivering a better product to more of them than ever before. More of our Clubs are winning Club Championships in addition One of the signature developments in 2018 was the to their individual team honours, and this reflects achievement implementation of our Water Safe Program. The program’s aim right across the board within our Clubs. is to assist Sydney University students who are not familiar with Not every sport has a Club Championship, but at the time the water to become confident and unafraid of water contact, of writing in 2019, we are Club Champions in men’s rugby, and to assist them in developing survival skills in the water. women’s rugby, men’s cricket, men’s and women’s water polo Over 300 students enrolled into the program and the feedback (combined), women’s soccer, rowing and athletics. We are was terrific. It’s a program that will hopefully save someone’s life at or near the top of so many sporting competitions that we one day, and something we’re incredibly proud of – in addition, compete in. This is significant as there was a time where we it was offered free of charge for those students that enrolled. were regarded as “also rans” in a lot of sports, and we weren’t We are planning on expanding the program to 400 students in respected or appreciated. How things have changed… 2019 and hopefully many more than that in years to come. The first group of people I’d like to thank for that are our Having opened two significant pieces of infrastructure in volunteers. Every year hundreds of people coach, administer, 2017, 2018 was the first year since 2011 that a major piece of referee, fundraise and generally assist our Clubs and the people SUSF sports infrastructure was not in the planning or building within them. We have a symbiotic relationship with our Clubs – stage. We did manage to fit out the kitchen in the TAG Family in many ways we couldn’t live without them and they couldn’t Foundation Grandstand to complete that facility, and we also live without SUSF. At the forefront of that relationship are the expanded our gym at the Sports & Aquatic Centre to replace volunteers within our Club sport system – SUSF could not much of the space previously occupied by the Co-op Bookstore. replace it if it were ever to disappear, and we’re so grateful that A big thank you to Ed Smith and his team for their work on both people are continuing to volunteer for our Clubs – it’s the core of those projects, and throughout our facilities. of what makes them successful. This gave us the opportunity to bed down the two latest facilities I’d also like to thank all of the paid staff within our Clubs – – the Thyne Reid Boathouse and the Bruce Pryor Hockey Field we have terrific staff working with terrific volunteers and it all contributes to our success. And I’d like to thank the SUSF – and get a full year of usage from each of them. I’m pleased to staff that work in non-Club related roles – your contribution report that both facilities have surpassed expectations. is equally as critical and the diverse nature of SUSF makes it SUSF received the largest bequest/donation in its history, and a dynamic and interesting place to work. in the history of Australian University Sport (and arguably the There has been an increasing focus on participation sport and Southern Hemisphere – we’re not aware of anything larger) participation fitness across SUSF and with a growing student courtesy of Bruce and Jenny Pryor – $6.3 million is the estimate body this is likely to continue into the future.

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