CONTENTS Office Bearers 1 President’s Report 2 Finance Report 6 Profit & Loss Statement 6 Balance Sheet 9 Notes to the Financial Reports 10 Independent Audit Report to Members 11 Declaration by Members of the Committee 12 Acknowledgements 13 Club Supporters 14 Club Coach: Season Review 15 1st XI: Season Review 23 1st XI: Award Winners 25 1st XI: Season Statistics 25 Batting 25 Bowling 25 2nd XI: Season Review 26 2nd XI: Award Winners 29 2nd XI: Season Statistics 29 Batting 29 Bowling 30 3rd XI: Award Winners 31 3rd XI: Season Statistics 31 Batting 31 i Bowling 32 4th XI: Award Winners 33 4th XI: Season Statistics 33 Batting 33 Bowling 34 Award Winners 35 Outstanding Performances 37 Batting 37 Bowling 37 Honour Roll 38 Honorary Life Members 43 Hall of Fame & Club Legends 43 Club History 44 ii Office Bearers President – Graeme Cook Treasurer – Alex Steenberg Secretary – Alice Barrow Committee Members Mike Delves, Stephen Stanley, Wayne Stewart, Leigh Watts Cricket Victoria Delegate Graeme Cook, Leigh Watts (Alternate) Cricket Sub-Committee Jeff Harvey (Chair), Alan Melbourne (Secretary), Graeme Cook, Peter Dickson, Phil Lovell, Michael O’Sullivan Hall of Fame Sub-Committee Jeff Harvey (Chair), Alan Melbourne (Secretary), Denis de Lacy, Rob Goldin, George Murray, Roger Page, Ralston Wood 1 Presidents Report The 2015/16 season marked the 30th anniversary of the merged Fitzroy Doncaster Cricket Club and it will remain etched in our memories for a very long time. Winning a First XI premiership is an outstanding achievement by any measure and one that everyone involved with our Club can be proud of and celebrate. As I always mention, our aim is to be a successful cricket club measured by our ability to provide quality facilities and an inclusive environment in partnership with the community to attract, develop, and retain talented and passionate players and supporters. We also have a crucial role as part of the Victorian cricket pathway to produce quality players across all Cricket Victoria high performance levels of cricket. We had confidence that if we achieved the above, and with the right focus on field, that we would achieve this reward. Cricket I would like to reflect on some of the key factors leading to our success this year In recent seasons, we have worked towards the following goals, which we identified. These included our on-field mental and physical toughness, the need to have an enjoyable club, recruitment and leadership. We are always talking about the Lions spirit, our culture and what this means to us. The appointment of Michael O’Sullivan as Coach in 2014 was critical for us achieving our ambitions. When we appointed Michael, we felt we had a short window of opportunity to win a premiership whilst we had our current senior players. Therefore, although we faced disappointment again in 2014/15 when we narrowly missed finals, we did not dwell, we learnt, and from that reflection together with more hard work, we succeeded. Despite some significant injuries, and the ongoing family stress for the O’Sullivan’s our season has been a remarkable success. Achieving the following: First XI finishing the home and away season Minor Premiers; The Club finishing third in the overall Club Championship; The Second XI playing another finals campaign; First XI (white ball) Premiers; and ultimately The First XI (two day) Premiers. We had seventeen players play First XI this season but I can’t emphasise it enough that every player at the club played a role in our success, and they all supported, encouraged and pushed our first and second XI teams hard to perform. So thankyou to all the players 2 I need to mention a special thankyou to Sean Pietersz who after the 2014/15 season stepped down from coaching. We were so fortunate that Sean stepped back into the role pre-season whilst Michael was overseas for 3 months. We were also pleased when Phil Lovell returned from Darwin and slid back into the role managing the Harvey Watts Development Squad and Assistant Coach of the 3rd and 4th XI’s due to the resignation of Chris Cunningham. Together with the efforts of Wayne Stewart and Chris Moore, the Squad took another step forward this season with how it operates and the quality of the young players continues to grow. On that note, I am pleased to report that all of our coaching staff, including Steve Cashen, are already re-appointed for next season. Importantly I would like to congratulate all the other Premiers in men’s and women’s Premier Cricket this season and to the Monash Tigers on winning the Club Championship; something that we aspire to. Finance I am extremely pleased to report that the Club has posted a profit this season, managing to turn around several years of loss. More details are in the Treasurer’s report but this profit is on top of the prize money we have received from Cricket Victoria. We have achieved this through maintaining a very strong focus on cost control throughout the season, together with the efforts of our supporters such as Michael Fletcher organising our very successful T20 Breakfast function. Throughout the season, the playing group were amazing with their support, organising and attending social functions and supporting our sponsors such as KFC and The Harp Hotel. That said, although we achieved our fundraising target on the social side, we did not achieve our overall fundraising target. We are grateful to all our sponsors for their generous support, and we achieved our sponsorship target for this season. This financial achievement has provided the Committee with the confidence to keep going with the current operating plans, including the coaching and playing budget. The Committee did not make the decision lightly to increase the budget last season but made it with the objective of remaining competitive on field. To remain competitive in the competition, the Committee is determined to stay on par with the coaching and playing budget. Operations I am pleased to report that Schramms Sports Club under the Chair of Mal Smith is progressing with Council the plan for the lower ground pavilion. With funding from Council, State Government and Cricket Victoria, we will hopefully commence building in the 2017/18 financial year. 3 We would like to think that the condition of the main pavilion could be improved in the near term. We are grateful to Council for couching the wicket this season, and I would like to recognise the effort from our curator David Blackley leading up to and during the finals campaign. It was pleasing to have some new volunteers on board this year including Mike Delves and Alice Barrow who joined the Committee and thankyou to Jean Emmins and Marita Cook for the popular lunches and afternoon teas, and support for our social functions! I would like to say a special thankyou to Marita for her patience, understanding and support that she provides to me. Throughout the year, the Presidents and Delegates have spent much time with Cricket Victoria establishing the premier cricket strategy. The Committee will re-focus our strategic plan for future seasons to ensure alignment. Cricket Victoria is determined to ensure cricket in Victoria remains relevant and appeals to everyone long into the future. An important matter to report is the implementation of Cricket Australia’s Accreditation Scheme, which over time will influence funding to Clubs from Cricket Australia. Whilst it is pleasing to report that we rated well across the fifteen categories in the Scheme, there is always room for improvement, mostly in areas that the Committee has already identified. However, the main category, which we need to do more, is facilitating female involvement in the game both on and off field. Due to the efforts of Wayne Stewart, once again we “opened the doors” at Schramms for a number of Cricket Victoria and community matches. • 2 weekends of School Sports Victoria selection trials & matches • VMCU U/18 Grand Final • BHRDCA U/18 & U/16 Practice Matches • VMCU U/21 Round 2 Match • U/14, U/16, U/18 Inner East Emus Pathway Trials plus 5 Matches including two Quarter Finals • Deaf Exhibition Match • 3 Days of Infinity Cricket Finals Games (Community Cricket). As mentioned last season, these types of events at Schramms are important opportunities for us to show case our facilities to Cricket Victoria. The Committee believes Schramms Reserve is in a great location, with good facilities and easy access from the city, to be a key cricketing venue in the City of Manningham and we will continue to work with Council with the aim of developing the facilities accordingly. In closing, I would like to acknowledge the hard work and support of everyone (as listed) on the three Committees and together with those mentioned above also say thank you to the following. 4 Our volunteers and parents who have helped throughout the season on match day and Thursday nights, particularly: Graeme, Ilva and Glenn Woollard, Kris Hinz, Michael Fletcher, David White, Almaaz and Emrana Alavi Rowan Kayll and Ric Cattanach. Bill Jackson who tirelessly ran the raffle, which raised over $4000 to purchase new honour boards for our Life Members, Hall of Fame Legends and Don Patrick Award recipients. James Considine who continues to put an amazing amount of time into providing all the great footage and social media we enjoy. Tim Considine for his ongoing support and to acknowledge his role as a Cricket Victoria Director, and a special acknowledgment to Roger Page who has put down his scorers pen after 40 years. Finally, as always, I would like to again acknowledge all of our great sponsors and also Cricket Victoria and Manningham Council whose support is invaluable.