VISIONARY | CAN-DO | UNITED ANNUAL REPORT 2016 140TH EDITION CHAIRMAN’S REPORT In 2016 the South Adelaide Football Club has performed developed, this should see our with credit. Competitiveness has been enhanced across all senior squads becoming more grades. This produced a second place finish in the Stanley evenly balanced between H Lewis Trophy, which is the best result for South Adelaide local players and recruits. The in many years. There was greater engagement by local need to continue to improve players from our zones and the leakage of players from and grow our playing talent the senior squad was minimal. Members will have detected from within is clear, and is an palpable commitment to the Club and pride shown in established goal for the Club. wearing the Blue & White jumper for the 140th Year. The This improved position in junior football has created a playing group has embraced the trademarks that they genuine challenge given our overall financial position. have developed with the assistance of Leading Teams. The In order for the club to be able to continue to improve and league team won ten out of ten home matches including grow our playing talent from within our local recruiting three matches against AFL State League teams Adelaide zones, South Adelaide has established, via the Australian (twice) and Port Adelaide (once). This is the first time that Sports Foundation, a tax deductible donation opportunity has been achieved at Hickinbotham Oval. for members and supporters to directly fund the club’s There were key resignations which bookended the season. junior football programs. Our target is to raise $200,000 The CEO resigned in March and the board called on Neill which will ensure that our junior programs will be fully Sharpe to step up into that role as well as continuing as funded over the next two years, during which time the Football Manager. Neill has done a remarkable job in both Club will concentrate on working to reduce legacy debt football and administration in 2016 for which the board and seeing that finances overall are re-balanced. It would and all members of the Club are truly indebted to him. be a tragedy for the Club to have to cut expenditure in the Sadly, the highly productive Gotch era has closed without football development area which can underpin our future securing the premiership which continues to elude this success. Early response from members and supporters has Club. I repeat my thanks to Brad Gotch for three years of been gratifying and the first distribution of over $20,000 loyal and effective service to South Adelaide Football Club being paid by the Foundation early. and I wish Brad and Michelle every success and happiness I wish to acknowledge the contribution made to the board for the future. He has left a wonderful legacy for his great of this Club by Darren Kappler and Grant Miles whose friend and incoming coach Garry Hocking. And he has left terms expire at this AGM as well as the late Dave Flanagan one of his sons Xavier, a 100 game Panther to contribute who died recently and who stepped down at last year’s some Gotch DNA into the Club’s next premiership. AGM. All three had served on the Board for nine years. Off field, like many of our competitor Clubs, the trading As a former Captain and inducted as a South Adelaide performance by South Adelaide has been challenging. Legend, David Kappler held office as football director. Financial constraints are now a harsh reality in SANFL. Grant has served as Finance Director and has witnessed Traditional revenue streams associated with Club the highs and lows of the Club’s trading since the Jimmy membership and game day attendance have declined Deane’s refurbishment was undertaken by a previous markedly. The Licensed Venue, Jimmy Deane’s, has administration. Dave was a former Chairman of the Club experienced its most difficult trading year since its and SANFL delegate. Dave was a passionate man who refurbishment in 2008. This work was undertaken with a truly loved this Club. bank loan of $3.5M with the expectation of annual principal A Club cannot exist for 140 years without the dedicated reductions. The Club’s anticipated full year performance 140TH ANNUAL REPORT - 2016 support of its members. I urge all members to do what will be a loss for the third year in a row. Thankfully, along you can at this time of challenge and opportunity for with the seven other constituent clubs, South Adelaide South Adelaide Football Club. I look forward to working will receive assistance from the SANFL’s Land Divestment with the Board and other volunteers in 2017 in order to Grants distributed over coming years from the sale of land support Garry Hocking and Adam Blakely with the senior at Football Park. These funds will be used to retire debt. squad, Tony Bamford and Warren Ploenges with junior Budget forecasts for 2017 have necessarily been struck on development as well as Neill in administration and Peter the basis of significant cuts in expenditure. This will impact at Jimmy Deane’s along with the Club’s wonderful staff. on the Football Department. Have a safe and happy Christmas. See you at the football Over the past five years the performance of South next year. Adelaide’s junior grades has improved significantly. In 2015, Andrew Luckhurst-Smith and again this year, the U16s have performed extremely Chairman well and the U18s have also become competitive. The recasting of SANFL zone boundaries in 2014 handed back to the Club the traditionally strong recruiting grounds of 2 Flagstaff Hill, Happy Valley and Sheidow Park. If properly CEO’S REPORT Football is a fickle business as we all know. Winning is critical watch all those boys journey and South Adelaide Football Club have found that difficult with interest. for large periods of its 140 year existence. It’s great that our club and this In 2016 there was a lot of winning, 14 in fact. Ten wins at game can give an opportunity Hickinbotham Oval – something that had never happened to play at the highest standard before. Wins also at Norwood and Central, extremely rare in to a 27 year-old, a Ugandan recent times. refugee, a 202cm soccer player who spent a large part of his youth in the UK and a 168cm In a very even team that featured 31 players on the year there ball magnet can become an AFL Premiership player at 20 were some stand out individual performances. Brett Eddy won years of age. We all couldn’t help but enjoy Caleb Daniel’s his first Ken Farmer Medal as the SANFL’s leading goalkicker. Premiership triumph. Brede Seccull emerged as one of the competition’s leading midfielders tieing for his first Knuckey Cup with Joel Cross, Jake Veide’s late season ending injury ranks as a genuine who grabbed his third in another consistently brilliant year. disappointment. It was great that Jake got to the 100 game We also saw the emergence of Nic Schwarz, Tyson Brown, milestone in a career littered with some serious injuries. Emmanuel Irra, Matt Rankine, Sam Overall, Ben Haren, Codey There was some real pride in him getting his name on the Ellison and Rigby Barnes. No. 62 locker and also in him kicking the fairytale final goal in that game. That his team mates came from everywhere to The Reserves too lifted their rating to contest in the finals for congratulate him speaks to the regards he is held. He will be the first time in many years. missed this year as he takes the season off to rehabilitate and On the back of all those positives the Finals didn’t go to travel the world but we look forward to him returning in 2018. plan. Both League and Reserves lost the first week to what There were other noteworthy milestones as Club stalwart ironically would prove to be the Premiers in both grades Tarak Redigolo also clinched his long-awaited 100th game (Sturt and North Adelaide respectively). for the Panthers, Nathan Daniel played his 100th game and Since the season’s end there has been a good deal of Brad Crabb notched up his 150th to also become a South change. Senior Coach Brad Gotch accepted an opportunity Adelaide Life Member. to return to his family in Melbourne and take up a coaching Tony Bamford continues to build our junior program and role with Collingwood. It is a testimony to the regard Brad get the best out of our talented youth. The U18s had their is held in that he can claim to be the only South Adelaide best season since the inception of the U18 competition. Clay League Coach to get a farewell. History says plenty have Sampson replaced Julian Farkas as U16 Coach and won every been farewelled but not in such pleasant circumstances. In game bar the last minor round game by 10 goals. However, three years Brad made a significantly positive impact on the their last round loss relegated them to second and on a wet South Adelaide Football Club and we wish him all the best in night at Football Park eventual premier Glenelg adapted his next challenge. best to the conditions to knock the Panthers out of the finals. League Assistant Coaches Jarrad Wright, Matt Golding and Positively for the Club there is an even and deep spread of Michael Handby also bid farewell. They have served the Club talent in this age group. We will all watch their development with distinction and we wish them all the best.