2023 President’s Report Annual General Meeting

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Old Brighton Grammarians Football Club in season 2023. We have a wonderful group of people involved in our football club in a variety of ways, all connected through a love of the club, wanting to see our players perform on the field and succeed and develop as people outside of football.

2023 marked the sixth straight year our Senior Men’s side competed in the Premier Division of the VAFA – the longest consecutive period our club has played in the top division. This playing group has established themselves as one of the top sides in the competition, and has proven that our best football is good enough to compete with anyone. Two hard fought wins over run away premiers, Collegians, provided a snapshot of what this group is capable of.

However, after making a Grand Final in 2022 this year taught the boys a valuable lesson on what is required to consistently compete at the top of Premier Division and to reach our potential. This will be the job of our newly appointed Senior Men’s Coach, Marcel Bruin, as we embark on season 2024.

It was a huge positive to welcome back Marcel, a former club captain, premiership player and best and fairest winner, as Senior Assistant Coach under Dan Donati this year, together with assistants Josh Homann and Luke Daffy. This year’s coaching group did a fantastic job in laying strong foundations for the future. Marcel is ready to take the next step in his coaching career, is passionate about the club and driven to see us reach our potential in 2024 and beyond.

We have also welcomed Greg Hutchison, our longest serving and most recent premiership coach, back to the club in the newly formed position of Director of Coaching. Hutchy’s unparalleled experience in football at the highest level, as well as his deep understanding and love of our club will be invaluable in developing and educating our coaching group across all teams.

Our Women’s Football Program continued to improve in the face of widespread participation issues in community football following the pandemic. Our coaching group and support staff once again did an incredible job in supporting our players, which included a number of girls who were new to the club and others who were new to footy all together. Senior Women’s Coach Andrew Grant praised the group as having the best culture he had seen in the 7 year history of our women’s program. The girls finished in third position, losing to eventual premiers Marcellin in the finals, and have already started pre-season with a steely resolve to have another crack next year.

A focus of the Committee this year was to welcome in our new players and their families, particularly those joining us from the school. Old Brighton has been the beneficiary of an exceptional football and schooling program at BGS, as demonstrated by the quality of players and young men that join us each year.

We had 15 under 19s play in the seniors throughout this year, complimenting a playing list filled with under 25 talent. It was a challenging year on the field for the 19s, however there is no doubt that a committed group with more stability can compete strongly in Premier Division in 2024. Thanks to all the hard work of Matt Mclennan, Stu Kay, Jamie Freeman and Paul Ryan in leading the group and for putting their hand up to go around again next year.

 I am extremely grateful for the support and contributions of so many in our community. Thanks to our amazing army of volunteers, sponsors, members, physios, team managers, trainers, coaches and supporters. We are fortunate to have people who care about and are actively involved in our footy club. From the stalwarts in the kitchen who pull off the best lunches in the VAFA every home game, the new parents who took up volunteer jobs as timekeepers, scoreboard operators and boundary runners, to the players who get involved in helping out on the monster lists of tasks that are required each week to make the club the place it is. Thank you.

A special thank you and congratulations to our co-Best Club Person of the Year recipients for 2023: Travis O’Donohue and Katie Flockart. Both Trav and Katie have typified what it means to be a Level 5 Club Person, a phrase coined by past President Rob Jakobi defining someone who goes above and beyond in making the football club a better place for all who walked through its doors.

Thank you to Marsh and Sally Hill for the enormous volume of work you do each week, leading the charge with our volunteers and significantly contributing to the incredible environment that our players enjoy.

Thank you to our generous Principal Partners, TLC Healthcare and Hodges, for their continued support. We are fortunate and grateful to have welcomed back both Principal Partners this year, as well as Major Partners The Marine, Winning Appliances and John Trotter.

It was also a pleasure to welcome six new Major Partners: InForm, Cornerstone HR, Lighting Options, CVA Property, Affinity Insurance and Sumo Strength. A great thing about local football is that our partners are active members of our footy club, attend the games, support events, volunteer and support our players including through job opportunities and mentorship. Thank you for being such an important part of our footy club this year and we look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with you all.

In 2024 we will have Paul Hamilton and Mark George come on board to look after our Partnership Program, which will help broaden and strengthen the relationships with our partners. I am excited to see what we can achieve with Paul and Mark taking over this vital portfolio.

The club remains in a strong financial position with the foundations in place to take the next step in 2024. This year we invested significantly in the club with new equipment, a brand new gym fit out and the recent installation of a new scoreboard (just in time for Round 1… of the cricket season). We will continue to look at ways to improve the club for our players to give them the best opportunity to succeed, and for all of our supporters to enjoy being part of our great community.

Thank you to the fantastic people on our Committee who put in so much energy and dedication to running the footy club this year, a number who joined the Committee for the first time. I am proud of the great work we did this year, but more so excited about what we can achieve in the next 12 months and beyond. Planning is well and truly underway, and I am so pleased that we have all 10 who served on the Committee for the year returning again next season.

I feel very fortunate to be a part of the Old Brighton footy club and privileged to have served as President this year. It is a role which comes with great responsibility to ensure that we create an environment where our players can strive for greatness on the football field, can grow as people and create life long memories and friends.

Thank you to our Old Brighton community for your support this year. We look forward to welcoming you all back again in 2024 and to embrace the challenges which lie ahead.