2019 AGM Report Reporting Period 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 *Includes 2019 NSWTA Junior Regional event 13-14 July 2019* CONTENTS OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 FINANCE ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 TECHNICAL ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Coaching......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Selectors ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 Referees ......................................................................................................................................................... 8 High Performance Unit .................................................................................................................................. 9 JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................................... 11 MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................................................................... 12 TOURNAMENTS ............................................................................................................................................... 12 2019 National Touch League at Coffs Harbour (13-16 March 2019) ........................................................... 12 2019 Junior Regional Championship at Orange (13-14 July 2019) .............................................................. 15 ACHIEVEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................... 19 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................................ 24 Sydney Scorpions 2019 AGM Report 2 | P a g e OVERVIEW This reporting period has been yet another successful time for Sydney Scorpions. Again in 2019 taking out another NTL Golden Boot Champion Permit and our tenth successive Junior Regional Champion Permit. We continue to hold both state junior and national open/senior champion permit titles. Additionally, we were once again awarded the NSWTA Region of the Year 2017-18 and 2018-19. Our 2019 Junior Gala Day was held on Sunday 27 January, 2019 with 90 teams taking part at Nolan Reserve, North Manly. For the third year running we held our Junior Elite Camp. This was held on 11-12 May 2019 at the Sydney Academy of Sport, Narrabeen. The acceptance rate was at 95%, with only a slight increase in the camp cost for those staying overnight, which included the Boys and Girls 14/16’s squads. The camp acted as our final trial weekend for our Boys and Girls 12’s, 14's and 16's teams. The camp also included the launch of the Scorpions Referees Development Program. Scorpions made the decision to be as flexible as possible with attendance at the camp and this proved to be well received from parents. Plus communication and parental education was vital aiming to provide useful information including timelines via a number of infographics published via our social media channels (refer to Appendix). Junior Regional preparations were challenging due to the cold winter weather and other competing winter sports and there was a great deal of negative talk around the timing of the event and the extremely cold temperatures at Orange. Scorpions again appointed Player Mentors to the Junior Regional campaign with Shellie Davis and Jackson Mills doing a great job as ambassadors at Orange. The mentors assisted both coaches and players providing excellent guidance and support, plus were the main focus of a Q&A session at our Saturday evening Junior Regional Dinner which 262 people attended including parents. Scorpions received feedback from players, parents and affiliates on the North/South conference structure and the consistent feedback is that the Final was too many weeks after the conference events. Plus many are still questioning the feasibility of having the conference split, however with that said the feedback on the Southern Wagga Wagga event was very positive. The obvious challenges are winter sports but also the lengthy junior representative season. Sydney Scorpions enjoyed another successful NTL taking out the Golden Boot Champion Permit honour yet again. We are now in the outright lead 8-7 over the South Queensland Sharks. Scorpions sent 11 teams and were successful winning the Senior Mixed, Men’s 30’s, Men’s 45’s, Men’s 50’, Men’s 55’s and Women’s 40’s divisions. Additionally runners up in the Women’s Open division with an extremely young and inexperienced team at this level, it was very rewarding to be able to give so many up and coming players from many affiliates the opportunity to compete at the national open level and play in the Grand Final against the Sharks on the stadium in front of the large finals day crowd. Scorpions used Xero for their NTL levy and other invoicing which proved a success. Scorpions also inducted another five members into their Hall of Fame, which took place at the annual NTL Scorpions dinner on Friday 15 March, 2019. Many thanks to NSWTA General Manager Dean Russell who attended the dinner and spoke. Scorpions continued to run several Sports Science initiatives, which are delivered through our High Performance Unit. Michael Donaghy does an excellent job as our Sports Science Director and we believe we lead in this area at state, national and even international level within the sport. It was great to see both NSWTA and TFA utilise Michael’s services at the 2018 State of Origin and Youth Trans-Tasman and 2019 FIT World Cup events. Sydney Scorpions 2019 AGM Report 3 | P a g e The Scorpions executive and committee would like to thank Brad Mitchell who will be stepping down as Technical Director at the upcoming AGM in September 2019. Brad has been an instrumental part of Scorpions success and is now employed with Touch Football Australia. Additional thanks and congratulations to Stuart Geros who has taken up a position on the NSW Touch Association Board. Anthony Dudeck Regional Director 2018-19 Sydney Scorpions Committee: Regional Director – Anthony Dudeck Assistant Regional Director – Brad Curl Regional Technical Director – Brad Mitchell Regional Finance Director – Tim Kitchingham Regional Juniors Director – Dave Nolan Regional Coaching Director – Brad Curl Regional Referees Director – Bill Slade Regional Selectors Director – Bruce Ager Regional High Performance Manager – Stuart Geros, Michael Donaghy Regional Sports Scientist – Michael Donaghy Regional Merchandise Managers – Tim Kitchingham, Michelle Geros Regional Communications Managers – Anthony Dudeck Sydney Scorpions 2019 AGM Report 4 | P a g e FINANCE The Scorpions finance situation has been tightly managed this past year, due in part, to minimising our participation fees at both the 2019 NTL and Junior Regional events. Additionally, we are yet to claim any reimbursements against expenses from NSWTA. The transition to Xero resulted in individual invoices to participants, making it a lot easier to keep track of monies owing and payments which has been an issue in the past. This equated to team management being able to be more responsible for the auditing of team payments and individuals will be deemed non-financial, where no levy payments are received. At 2019 NTL we benefitted from an account’s administrator assisting us with invoicing and team management were able to follow up on all payments. This resulted in less stress and strain on the Executive and faster payments from members. For the 2019 Junior Regionals Scorpions were registered to accept NSW Government Active Kids vouchers. A total of $5,400 or 54 players claimed the maximum $100 rebate via the voucher with Scorpions receiving reimbursements via Service NSW. This was favourably received especially via parents/guardians with thanks to NSW Touch for assisting with this set-up. We continue to use PayPal and CommBiz which assist in more timely payments, whilst avoiding delays that are all too common with cheques. The only issue we now need to address is the approval of payments to creditors in a timely manner, so that we can best manage our cash flow going forward. This requires more communication between Executive, which will see us in an even stronger financial position in the future. In relation to 2018/19, Sydney Scorpions will be working with around $25,000 in the bank, with the aim of finishing the year (2019) at around the $25,000 mark. It should be noted that NSWTA have changed their financial year to now be year-end 30th June each year, which has had a small impact on claims against expenses. This balance will reduce to around $12,000 to $15,000 until participation income for 2020 NTL occurs. Sydney Scorpions 2019 AGM Report 5 | P a g e TECHNICAL Coaching The Scorpions coaching program continues to be extremely rich in talent and experience across all tournaments throughout 2019, with many coaches being appointed to roles for the 2018 and 2020 State of Origin series