Darebin Women’s Sports Club Incorporated Annual Report 2016 ABN: 28780574660 Sports Fields Mailing Address Web AH Capp Reserve & PO Box 6038 www.falcons.org.au WH Robinson Reserve Preston West 3072 Halwyn Crescent West Preston Vic 3072 Melways Ref 30 B2 TABLE OF CONTENTS DAREBIN WOMEN’S SPORTS CLUB 2016 COMMITTEE 3 PRESIDENT'S REPORT 4 TREASURER’S REPORT 10 AFL – SENIOR 13 AFL - YOUTH GIRLS 15 SENIOR SOCCER 16 JUNIOR SOCCER 18 CRICKET 23 EIGHT-BALL 24 GRANTS AND SPONSORSHIP 25 MEDIA REPORT 26 SOCIAL REPORT 27 2016 AWARD WINNERS 28 2016 SPONSORS AND PARTNERS 31 2 Darebin Women’s Sports Club 2016 Committee PresiDent Aleisha LeonarD Vice PresiDent Jasmine Hirst Secretary Kelly Farrell Treasurer Aasta O’Connor Social CoorDinator Shevaun Hogan MeDia & Communications Kathleen Roe Sponsorship & Grants Harriet Radermacher Cricket ADministrator Carrie Brown Senior AFL ADministrator Alex ReynolDs Youth AFL ADministrator Aleisha LeonarD Eight-ball ADministrator Sally Rees Junior Soccer ADministrator Jasmine Hirst Senior Soccer ADministrator Kate Palmer General Member (V) Julia Chiera General Member (V) Niki Duckstein General Member (V) Alison Smirnoff General Member (V) Faele O’Connor General Member Darcy Vescio General Member Missy HenDerson *V Denotes voting member 3 President’s Report #Falcsfly2016. The year that was! What a great year we haD at AH Capp anD Robinson Reserves! As women’s sport continues to grow in popularity, anD professional careers in female sport become a reality so, too, we see an increase in participation numbers. This year we move closer to the kick off of the inaugural women’s AFL national league in early 2017, with many Falcons playing at this level. It’s important for girls to have positive role moDels in the sport that they love. As women’s sports such as AFL, Soccer anD Cricket become more competitive anD proviDe professional career opportunities for females, girls are exposeD to wonDerful role moDels they can look up to and be inspired by to continue pursuing their own sporting dreams. Whether it is to play with their frienDs each week, or strive to play at an elite level, our goal as a club is to continue to provide opportunities for girls to play sport at all levels. Here’s a few numbers from 2016 We currently have: • 2 senior soccer teams – this year with several appearances in the league top 10 for MVP & highest goal scorer! • 2 senior AFL teams – 2 granD final appearances; 1 VFL premiership anD a 4-peat! • 1 youth girls AFL team – premiership winners for 2016 in their 7th straight granD final • 1 Auskick AFL squad • An 8-ball team - currently top of the table for Singles, anD just pippeD at the post in the semi- final for Doubles • 1 retiring cricket team - saDly Despite being competitive, several players have moveD on or retireD. Over summer 2016/2017 we are taking a break from entering a team in the one Day shielD with plans to return next year with a more social / community level team. Let Jasmine or myself know if you’re interesteD in being involveD! • AND 16 JUNIOR SOCCER TEAMS! - That’s 294 junior soccer players anD a junior soccer clinic of 77 girls • All up, over 400 active playing members and more than 100 actively involved coaches, team managers, anD volunteers who assist in getting our teams out there each week! Just a couple more great stats: we are home to the 2nd largest junior soccer program in Victoria, AND we have the most successful AFL team of all time. 4 Australia Day recognition Jasmine, Harriet anD I attenDeD the City of Darebin Australia Day awards in January. The club was awarDed a special commenDation awarD recognising our service to the community. Finally lit up Early in the year we unveileD the new lights at AH Capp anD Robinson Reserves. All the time spent campaigning, getting signatures anD attenDing council meetings finally paiD off. Thanks to everyone involveD, especially to Julia Chiera anD Jasmine Hirst who were absolutely instrumental in working behind the scenes to make this happen. Also a big thanks to Sandra Dal Pos for raising money through her club raffle over the past 2 years to pay for our contribution to the lights. For AFL anD Senior soccer the new lights meant better visibility on Dark colD winter trainings, reducing injuries. For Junior soccer, the new lights meant we could utilise the entire grounD of Robinson Reserve anD the ability to adD 5 more teams in 2016 to the junior soccer program! This year the honourable Fiona Richardson our local Labor MP announced funding allocated for the overdue upgrade of Robinson Reserve Pavillion. Planning is in the process for a new much improved Pavillion to house the 300+ strong junior & senior soccer programs. 5 Sponsor recognition Our major AFL sponsorship with MeriDian Communications continues through 2017, anD in aDDition we signeD on several new sponsors in 2016. KerDo Legal (Auskick) enableD us to pay for coaching fees anD purchase new equipment for our inaugural girls Auskick program. Four aDDitional sponsors alloweD us to provide senior players across Soccer and AFL with a warm up top: Welcome to Thornbury, Nelson Alexander, The Prep game and Thornbury Horticulture & Design. Also a record number of senior and youth AFL players haD inDiviDual sponsorship Deals, which covereD the cost of their playing fees. Many thanks to Louise at Pallino Bar who encourageD several local businesses to support us! Inaugural AFL AUSKICK for girls For 2016 the committee were Determined to start an Auskick program, and that is just what we did. The talenteD Lauren Arnell steppeD into the honorary role of Auskick Coordinator, leaDing a team of senior players to help coach. Sponsorship covered the cost of coaching courses, new equipment and t-shirts for all the girls anD their coaches anD off we went! Starting with a group of 9 girls we ran a 3 month program on a Friday afternoon and finished up with 23 girls learning how to 'kick like a girl'. I'm confident next year we will continue growing anD be able to establish some junior AFL sides. Watch this space, we are DetermineD to grow the program to the size of the Junior soccer empire!!! Thanks so much to Lauren Arnell for coorDinating the program, anD to the wonDerful coaches for being involveD this year: Cherelle Byrne, Daisy Pearce, Melissa Hickey, Norieul Kinross, Caz EDebohls, Melissa Bibby, Meghan McDonald, Karen Paxman, Gena Taven-Lawson, Georgia HolDen, Brooke Howells, Sarah HammonD, Linette LaverDure, Stephanie Simpson, Emma Browne, Alex Reynolds, Nic Callinan, anD Lauren Pearce. Social events – including the 10 & 20 year flags This year saw us holD several social events. Earlier in the year we helD our $1000 Draw which was a lot of fun! We haD the PresiDents lunch which was a great way to spend time with our valued sponsors, social anD life members of the club. We also celebrated the anniversary of our first ever flag as FairfielD Falcons 20 years ago, anD also as Darebin Falcons 10 years ago. We had a little shinDig at the Stolberg anD some of our original Falcons attended and spoke about what it was like for them 20 years ago as Falcons. 6 Famous footballing Falcons The Draft was helD for the inaugural women's AFL league in October, anD we have a whopping 15 AFL Falcons Drafted across the Melbourne Demons, Western BullDogs, Carlton Blues anD Greater Western SyDney. Congratulations to these girls on being Drafted: Aasta O’Connor, Elise O’Dea, Brooke Patterson, Nicole Callinan, Kate TynDall, Lauren Pearce, anD Meghan McDonalD. They join Daisy Pearce, Melissa Hickey anD Karen Paxman at the Demons, Katie Brennan anD Libby Birch at the BullDogs, Lauren Arnell, Nat Exon anD Darcy Vescio at Carlton, anD Jess Dal Pos is off on an adventure to Greater western SyDney! Also worth mentioning is James McConnell our S&C coach who has taken on the head strength & conDitioning role at the BullDogs, anD Jane Lange VFL coach appointeD as assistant coach at Carlton! Senior soccer success This year we had two fantastic senior soccer teams in Div 3 and Div 4 and brought on a third coach to ensure both teams were looked after on game Day. It was a very competitive season, anD there were 4 Falcons in the top 12 best anD fairest in the league, with 3 in the top 5 highest scoring in the league. 7 Youth girls dominate Elise took her squad of youth girls to their 7th straight granD final, won the premiership flag, AND won Northern female Coach of the year! Elise was inviteD to attenD the AFL gala community awarDs where she was one of four finalists nominateD for the prestigious Peta Searle Female State coach of the year! Junior soccer stars This huge program went from strength to strength, growing with 5 new teams in 2016. The girls also experienced some fame, they played at half time during the Matildas game at Etihad staDium, AND some early birDs were featured on the morning weather report on channel 7! All in all, Falcs really did in fly 2016! Sponsors Thank-you to all our wonDerful sponsors, particularly MeriDian Communications our major AFL sponsor 2014-2017. Without our sponsors’ support we would have to run a lot of barbeques! The funding we receive from our sponsors enable us to subsiDise fees, proviDe players with a jumper anD seniors also with a warm up top at no cost, buy new equipment, put coaches through courses, and help cover club running costs such as our rates. Please check out all our sponsors at the back of this report.