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On behalf of everyone at the Morley Bulldogs Junior Football Club I would like to firstly apologise for not being present at today’s AGM and appreciate the President elect (I believe) John Pinneri for stepping into my shoes for the day and kindly reading out my report for me and for his nominating for the role in the 2023 year and beyond.
Secondly, I would like to thank all of the Committee Members, Coaches, Team Managers, Sponsors and Parent Volunteers for their support in the 2022 year. It has been another amazing year at the Doggie Den!
In 2022, the Morley Bulldogs JFC has achieved what I thought was impossible, in that we have had an even better year than the one we had in 2021! This excellent, family centric junior football club has continued to go from strength to strength both on and off the field and it is a credit to our volunteer base and Doggie families.
Our on-field registrations increased by a further 6.83% from 366 players last year to 391 players this year. This is made up of 70 Auskickers, 75 female footballers and 246 players in Years 3 through to Year 12.
Some of our on-field highlights have been:
An increase of 25 players and families at the Club in 2022 (8 female and 17 male players)
8 of our 9 Youths sides making the Finals (a club record and an amazing result);
The acquisition and funding of 4 new sets of jumpers in 2022 (3 male and 1 female);
A number of 50 game and 100 game milestones this year;
A former Club player, reaching the 100 WAFL games with East Perth (Shayne Hille);
A number of our senior female players debuting at the WAFL level (Rogers Cup);
A number of our senior male players playing at the WAFL colts and reserves levels;
A number of our youth players were invited to train in specialist teams and academies; and
We have had 2 Year 12 players achieve life membership at the Club this year.
The financial position of the Club is an excellent position. As a Committee, we have continued to operate with surplus funds in the bank account and we are mindful of being responsible for the future financial success of this great Club and we have also set aside funds for the Night Lights Project which has been a major project for the Club over the last year.
We have continued to have the support of our major sponsors, Ross Realty, Troys Auto Refinishing and Ezetax whom are all in the last year of their three-year multi-year deals with the Club. We continued to have support from the local eateries, the General Public Food Co, Grill’d, Maccas and Ezitow.
We also welcomed some new sponsors to the Club this year, in The RAH Group/McDonalds, Fairplay Sports and Fresh Boost Coffee Co.
We successfully transitioned all of the youth sides across to the Morley Bulldogs Team App this year after our trial in 2021 and this is now the major tool being used to manage players and teams at the Club and the electronic distribution of news, events, schedules and ticketing information to our members. The majority of our sides also using this medium for electronic fairest and best voting.
We announced two major perpetual awards at our EB Browne Night for our Youth Players in 2021 which were the Anne Glossop and Paul Robinson Awards. These awards are awarded to the club’s top Female and Male players whom have been outstanding and excelled on the field across the season and whom have scored the highest total votes in the Fairest and Best voting across all the Youth grade teams.
Anne Glossop and Paul Robinson have made significant contributions to the Morley Bulldogs and the announcement of these Perpetual awards was greatly received at least years awards night and we look forward to bestowing these awards again in a few weeks time.
When initially tapped on the shoulder to perform this role and fill the big boots of Ross Condo, I asked the Committee at the time what would be the number one wish that we would like to achieve as a Club and at the time it was the obtaining of lights for the Club to be able to play night games and allow our female footballers, whom play on Friday nights, to actually play home games at our venue.
Regrettably, this hasn’t been achieved as yet during my tenure as President but I am pleased to advise that the lights are being installed in December of this year and have been scheduled by the City of Bayswater.
Late last year we did announce the successful obtaining of some funding to partly fund the installation of 100 lux lights on both the EB Browne and RA Cooke grounds from the City of Bayswater and the State Government and this project has a total project cost of $264,000. The funding committed by both of those organisations will pay for two thirds of that cost and the remainder will need to be funded by the Club and where possible with assistance also from the Morley Sporting Club, of which we are a part. Whilst the Club has always been financially secure, a significant amount of fundraising is needed to fill the gap in funding required.
As a result, to assist with the fundraising needed for our contribution the Club registered with the Australian Sports Foundation to enable tax deductible donations and has also participated in the Toyota Good for Footy Raffle in 2022 and will most likely look to participate in the Toyota Raffle again in 2023.
The Raffle in particular is an exciting annual way for the Club to raise funds for large projects as all funds raised from the ticket sales go directly to the Club but also give our members and families the chance to win up to 35 prizes and this also includes three cars!
The Toyota Good for Footy Raffle has been a resounding success and as at the date of this Report the Club is surprisingly in 5th place in Australia for funds raised at $21,335. That is simply an amazing effort and will go a long way toward assisting in the funding of the Night Lights Project.
Whilst the lights haven’t been installed as yet, whilst I am President, I am pleased that the wish will be fulfilled in the near future and whilst I am stepping down as President this year, I will be in the background and will be assisting the new President with the finalisation of this Project as part of handover for next year at the Club and working with the Morley Sporting Club to finish what was started last year.
This Club is an amazing Club and has arguably the best committee and best volunteers in WA and our volunteers do an amazing job, week in and week out, both in season and out of season to make sure that the Club runs as smoothly as it does.
Sincere thanks to everyone that has served on the Committee during my time and assisted in making me look good, which is a pretty hard task, and special mentions go out to John Pinneri, Anna Lombardi, David Higgins, Ross Condo, Adam Paige and Kellie Sims who perform some tireless tasks as part of managing their individual roles on the Committee. It will be sad to not see a Lombardi running around in a Doggie jumper next year and Anna and Roy around the Club in the coming years after their extremely long and dedicated service to our Club.
We lost Anne Glossop as our Canteen Manager last year and the canteen this year has been run entirely through the use of Volunteers on the Saturday and the Three Stooges (Pinneri, Higgins and Condo) and we were extremely grateful for the Glossop family to return and assist us with the Canteen on the Sunday at EB Browne games.
Each year, the Committee has the envious task of announcing our Club Person of the Year Award and it is always difficult to single out one particular person above all others that should be bestowed the award. However, this year, it was a unanimous decision in relation to our recipient.
This recipient is always around at the Club volunteering his time in a multitude of capacities. He helps out in the Canteen, he helps out with Merchandise, he is a Team Manager, he attends to the closure of the Canteen at every fixtured day at the Club to balance the takings and then performs the enviable task of Club Treasurer and banking during the week. I have no idea how he manages to do all the above and also work full-time as the roles and responsibilities that he fulfils for the Club are a full-time gig!
It is gives me great pleasure to announce that this years Club Person of the Year is David Higgins!
Finally, thanks again for your valued support and Go Doggies!
TODD ZANI President