PETONE FOOTBALL CLUB (INC) ANNUAL REPORT 2019/2020 I am pleased to provide this annual report outlining the Club’s performance during the 2019/2020 Financial Year and 2020 football season. CLUB OFFICIALS: Those people holding office for the financial year were as follows: Patron Position Not Filled President Campbell Sutherland Chairman Matt Bliss Secretary Barry Pickering Treasurer Bruce Jensen Recording Secretary Clare Ladd Executive Committee Jeremy Bowen, Brendon May, Daryll Pickering, Michael Pickering. Auditor DJ Turner & Associates Life Members Phil Pickering, Campbell Sutherland, Graham Hickling, Barry Pickering, Sue Pickering, Ray Bell, Andy Badrick, Craig Deadman The position of Patron has remained unfilled since the 2013/2014 AGM in the absence of a suitable person to bring value through this role to the club. OVERVIEW: This is my second year as Chair and it has certainly been easier in some respects as not so many new things to learn about, although there has always been new matters to deal with to ensure the club remains relevant and successful. COVID-19 has caused great disruption to the football season with two weeks before the season was about to begin the country was put into Alert Level 1 for five weeks meaning that all but essential workers were to stay at home, and no group training or games allowed. Alert Level 3 for two weeks after that also meant our training was limited but still could not play football. We finally were able to play at Alert Level 2 and we had two weeks of training before the season began. We were able to have a full season for all teams, Senior and Junior – starting in early June and finishing in early October, but many divisions had reduced team numbers to ensure two rounds of football were played and promotion/relegation continued as normal. Our Men’s 1st team achieved the goal of staying in the Central league which proved to be a big step up for the team. Charlie Howe coached the Men’s 1st team for the first half of the season and was replaced by Besim Balicevac for the second half of the season. Our Women’s 1st team acquitted 1 | P a g e themselves well in the W-League again and made it to the semi-finals of the Kelly Cup, and the Women’s Reserve team also did well in the Women’s Premier league. The Men’s reserve team achieved its goal of gaining promotion back to Capital 1 and it was great to celebrate this success. Our Junior section has done well again with the settling in of the Mitre 10 MEGA Petone Settlers Talent Centre with the first year of the Capital Football sanctioned Talent Development Pathway (TDP) in which we entered three teams in the 13th, 14/15th and U17 grades. Our financial position is stable but can always do with improvement around sponsorship and fundraising as we had to cancel two fundraising events this year due to COVID-19 Alert level gathering size restrictions. We have good playing numbers, good support at the club which creates a great atmosphere, some great coaches and strong committees providing leadership, governance and management. I would like to acknowledge the Football Advisory Committee who focussed heavily on getting the Men’s 1st team result in 2020 and the Men’s Reserve team promotion – more detail about this in the Men’s football section below. ADMINISTRATION: This year four of the maximum eight positions for the Executive Committee were filled alongside the elected officers at the last AGM. During the year Clare Ladd was unable to perform her duties as recording secretary due to a stroke from which she is now recovering well. The Executive Committee continued to focus our future direction in the following areas: Our top men’s teams staying in the top league and two leagues down from that for the reserves, and our top women's teams staying to the top two leagues. We have an ageing asset in the clubrooms that has potential. Our junior numbers are significant, creating a clear pathway that links them to senior football. Our engagement with members and parents can always be improved. In particular we have continued to grow and develop the Mitre 10 MEGA Petone Settlers Talent Centre including a Community Skills program within it and the TDP at its peak. Feedback has been mixed, largely about a lack of clear direction and communication. Although we have a great group engaged with the governance and administration of the programme, the Technical Director (Roger Torres) in his first year in the role is working through how to make the required improvements as it was affected significantly by the COVID-19 restrictions this year. We continue to work through the challenges and have created a Sub-Committee to guide the programme going forward. We have been provisionally accredited to the Capital Football Talent Development Pathway which involved appointing suitably qualified coaches (Director OFC/NZF B Licence qualified and head coaches C Licence qualified), and presentation of a training program for 32 weeks throughout the year for 13th, 14/15th (both mixed) and U17 boys grades. We completed the Kitchen upgrade project in February 2020 and it was funded largely by grant funding. We were hoping to start on the external cladding replacement project in early 2021 but unfortunately our grant funding application has been declined. We continue to have the challenge of attracting new volunteers for individual roles that can spread the overall workload. However we do have a great group of dedicated volunteers with a few more coming forward through the year which is encouraging. Sue Pickering continued as the Bar Manager 2 | P a g e role scheduling bar staff (an area where we always need more help). The kitchen continues to be run by Henry from Cookies Café who feeds visiting team and provides hot food on club days – it appears to be worthwhile for him so we will continue this next year. I do encourage people who cannot commit to an Executive Committee position but who have something to offer the Club with a specific, more focussed role, to put themselves forward. The Women’s Management Committee has not been in place this year so Barry Pickering, Jinece Bakhos and myself have done our best to ensure the women’s football needs are meet. The Men’s Football Manager position is being carried out by Barry Pickering. The Football Advisory Committee (FAC) has focused on Men’s football matters, and due to the lack of a formal Women’s Football Committee they have overseen some of the Women’s football matters. Two women’s representatives are on the FAC and the FAC will then oversee all Women’s football matters. The Junior Management Committee under Mark Allen’s leadership continues to do a great Job in ensuring well over 500 Junior players enJoyed their experience at Petone each week. They have also made a significant contribution to the work that is being done around the talent centre pathway and fund raising. HIGHLIGHTS: At the annual Capital Football awards evening we had three playing nominations in respect of Sean De Roo for the Capital 1-4 player of the Year and Ellen Fibbes for Women’s Young Player of the Year. Although there did not win their recognition was very appreciated, but Ellen was selected in the publicly voted W League team of the year. We were delighted to be nominated and won the following non playing awards: Programme of the year (Iain MacIntyre, Jeff Bell and many club contributors) Social media club of the year (Angela Eglinton, Jeremy Bowen, Jeff Bell) Administrator of the year (Barry Pickering) Volunteer of the year (Graham Hickling) The Mitre 10 MEGA Petone Settlers Talent Centre programme continued to grow through the year with a lot of participants on Terms 2 and 3 with a drop of in participation in Term 4 again. We signed a maJor sponsor for the programme being Mitre 10 MEGA for 3 years. The years programme was significantly impacted by COVID-19 gathering restrictions. We are now focused on improving the programme by establishing a Sub-Committee to guide improvement and success in the future. The Men’s 1st team retained its place in the Central League. The Men’s Reserve team won Capital 2 and got promoted to Capital 1 in 2020. The Women’s 1st team and Reserve Team acquitted themselves well in the W-League and Women’s Premier League respectively. Also an honourable mention to the Untouchables (effectively our Men’s 4th team) who were runners up in Wellington 3 gaining promotion to Wellington 2 for 2020. The club continues to be well represented by our young players: Ariana Gray was Vice Captain of NZ Maori Women’s team, in the NZ Under 17s squad, and in the Capital Football Talented Athlete Programme. 3 | P a g e Libby Boobyer, Ellen Fibbes, Ariana Gray, Caelin Patterson and Carolyn O’Reily were selected for the Capital Football 2020 National Women’s League training squad. Sam Pickering was selected by Hawkes Bay United to play in the 2020/21 ISPS Handa Premiership (National League) Well done to all of these players. SENIOR FOOTBALL: Men’s Football This season we fielded five senior men's teams, four masters’ teams and one U17 team. This was one less team from last season. It was a great season for the Men’s 1st team staying in Central League and for the Men’s Reserve team winning Capital 2 and gaining promotion to Capital 1 in 2020.