AVOCA FOOTBALL NETBALL CLUB Volume 1 JUNE 2021 Welcome to the Mid Season Newsletter. President’s Message :P.1 Reunion Postponed? :P.2 Player Milestones :P.3 Social News :P.4 Generous Supporters :P5 Upgrades & Improvements :P6 Fixture Change :P7 Toyota Raffle :P8 Western Bulldogs :P9 Canteen Roster :P10 Junior Interleague :P11 & Paige is kicking goals Sponsor Thanks :P12 PRESIDENT’S REPORT Welcome to our Mid-Season Newsletter We are now officially at the half way mark of our season and as we head into the June long weekend bye, this gives us an opportunity to reflect on the season so far in what has of recent times been another challenging season for us. Although we are at the half way mark, there is still a great deal of football and netball to look forward to as we still have 9 rounds plus a finals campaign to go. Pleasingly all football sides sit inside the top eight with only our three lower junior netball grades at this point outside the eight but with a chance to still make it to the finals. We also have our three senior grades of netball and under 11.5 football undefeated which a fantastic achievement. Well done to all involved. Unfortunately, we have had a number of long-term injuries especially in regards to our senior football with Nick Coghlan and Zac McLeod out for the season with ruptured achilles. We wish them and all those on the injury list a speedy recovery. The extended break will be good for us overall though with many returning over the coming weeks. Can we take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful sponsors and volunteers who have assisted us greatly in getting our teams out on the oval / courts. We are looking forward to what the rest of 2021 will look like as we prepare for and head into another finals campaign where hopefully we can improve on the three premiership flags we brought back to the kennel in 2019. There will be some obvious challenges over the coming weeks and in to winter as we navigate our way through Covid. Please ensure everyone stays safe and adheres to our Covid Safe Plan and protocols at all times both when at home and when travelling to away games. The club will continue to update any changes to our fixture should there be a need going forward. BULLDOGS BARK
Reunion to be postponed?? As we navigate our way through the latest covid restrictions and what our season will now look like, the club is currently reviewing options for our upcoming reunion planned for Saturday June 19 in line with current and potential government restrictions and advice. At this stage we will not be in a position to make a decision if the reunion can proceed until Thursday June 10. If AFL Victoria gives approval for our round 9 fixture to proceed, we will then take into account approved crowd numbers, club room capacity, regional and metropolitan restrictions and what any state restrictions are for return travellers. In the first instance we may look to split football and netball reunions and push the netball reunion back to later in the year. Another option may be to reschedule both football and netball reunions which is looking like the likely option unless something changes significantly over the next week. If our reunion needs to be moved, August 7 will be the likely option and our Social Club has arranged an 80s Prom night then so this might be fitting. The club will meet once restrictions are updated and will advise accordingly. If anyone has any questions or would like to provide feedback to assist our decision making, please contact club President Bill Drummond on 0417 117911.
MILESTONE GAMES The club has been keeping records of games played for players since 1984. Unfortunately records were not kept before that time. We recognise milestones of footballers and netballers for 100 games or more. There has been 157 footballers play 100 games or more since 1984. There has been 62 netballers play over 100 games or more since 1984. Trevor Field has played the most football games with 624 games (2019) and Stacey Blair has played 459 netball games. (2019) Milestone Games to come. There are still a number of milestone games to come this season barring injury. Nick Drury - 150 games. Lachlan Wardlaw - 200 games. Daniel Howell - 200 games. Lachlan Howell - 200 games. Jason Hunt - 150 games. Eric Wilkinson - 150 games. Hugh Bucknall - 100 games. Colleen Soulsby and Lucy Walkley could possibly play their 400th games. Charlotte Barber could play 100. Player Milestones There have been a number of milestones this season to date and we congratulate all of our players who have given service to the club over the years. Josh Powers played his 150th game in Round one against Trentham Josh is a very determined player who commenced playing for Avoca in 2013, and has been a great contributor to the club. His 149th game was in the 2019 Under 14.5 Premiership. Well done Josh! Rohan Redpath played his 100th game for the Bulldogs back in Round 1 against Trentham. Rohan gives 100 percent each game and his 99th game was in the 2019 Under 14.5 premiership. Rohan first played in 2015 and has reached the milestone quickly as a result of playing 2 grades of football most weeks. Well done Rohan!. James Higgins played his 100th game for the club when we played Royal Park in Round 4. James first commenced playing for Avoca in 2014 and has improved his football each season and has hardly missed a training session for the season. Congratulatons James. Shaun Cudmore played his 100th club game when we played Dunolly in Round 6. Cuddy ‘s 100th game was in the Under 17.5 grade and he then backed up for his first ever senior grade game with a best on ground performance kicking 5 goals. Cuddy commenced playing in 2013 and has won numerous individual awards along the way including two Runner Up Best & Fairest awards. He is a left footer and shows promise as a player of the future with his brilliant well balanced skills. Well done Cuddy. Bill Barber played his 100th club game when we played Maldon in Round 8. Bill first commenced playing for Avoca in 2014 and has given 100 percent effort in all of his games. Bill has the distinction of being a premiership player for our club when he was a member of the 2014 Under 14.5 Premiership Team. The Coach’s thought so highly of Bill in that team that they awarded their Coach’s Trophy to him. Well done Bill!
PHOTOS How good to have Social Activites back It was great to have some social activity back at the clubrooms after the Round 3 game against Navarre. The Social Club organised a Trivia Night with the help of Deb Hicks and it was a huge success. There were many activities to test the brain and other social activities. Congratulations to the winning team who were just too good on the night. Luke Davis was the star of the night as he displayed his hula hooping expertise. Unfortunately we haven’t had another Social event as COVID has resurfaced and we haven’t had another home game since. Hopefully we can resume social activities again soon. The Social Calendar can be seen below. Remember: The Reunion may be put back to August 7th The winning trivia night team celebrate their victory. Luke Davis shows how to use the Hula Hoop. Jack Hutton and Kirby Postle were also Skilful hoopers.
PHOTOS AFL Goldfields Earlier in the season both Campbell Blair and Geordie Gollop were selected in their prospective age groups for the AFL Goldfields Academy Program. The program was held over three weeks and it has been very beneficial to both boys. Geordie has played a number or Reserves games this season and figured amongst the better players in some games. Campbell continues to excel in his grade and has also played in the Under 17.5 grade a few times. Well done to both boys! Generous Supporters There have been a number of examples of good hearted supporters of the Avoca Football Netball Club this season. A Mystery donor started it all off at the start of the season with a donation of half a dozen Sherrin Footballs. Old Dog Brett Kallio then paid $200 for a 5 year subscription to the OLD DOGS club and donated as further $300 to the club on behalf of the OLD DOGS club. Old Dog Tom Veale then purchased a two year subscription and donated a further $170 to the club. A visit from a long lost cousin of one of our members resulted in a donation of a couple of Yellow training sherrins courtesy of Tony Bray. And Hazelie Robinson dropped into junior training one night to donate a couple of footballs from the Melbourne Football Club AFLW team. The club is very grateful to all of the above people for your extreme generosity. Thank you all very much! Hazelie Robinson at junior training with footballs from Melbourne AFLW team.
COMMUNITY BANK AVOCA Upgrades and Improvements Need to buy new vehicles, plant or equipment? Our Club Sponsor, The Avoca Community Bank can help you keep your capital and manage your cash flow. And depending on your circumstances, taxation benefits may also be available to you. Our lending specialists will work with you to tailor equipment finance solutions for your business. Chat with a lending specialist today, phone Maryborough branch on 5461 4384 or search Bendigo Bank Equipment Finance. Following the success of last season's Toyota Good for Footy Raffle where $7,000 was raised, the club committed to direct this money into club assets to assist our volunteers and players. We are pleased to advise that the recent upgrades and improvements have been completed with a new walk-in freezer installed, football oval lighting upgraded and netball lighting upgraded to LED lighting where the club has contributed $14,000 on top of the $7,000 raised. We are also hosting Wesley LifeForce's local Suicide prevention network at our clubrooms and will continue to support this network and we have two of our committee members on this network. We will work with this network to conduct Mental health and resilience training throughout the season and ongoing as required. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the 2020 raffle and our sponsors and volunteers who were involved in these upgrades. We are currently working through this season's major raffle where we are combining the Toyota Good for Footy Raffle with a number of local prizes donated by our wonderful sponsors. Keep an eye out for this promotion over the coming weeks. Again proceeds from our club raffle will continue to be reinvested back into club facilities and programs. We have purchased a new walk in Cool-room to compliment the walk in freezer and funds raised will be put towards the cost of the cool-room. Again, thank you to all involved. Pictured are the new freezer and some photo's of local electrician David Veitch and Aaron Graham working on our lighting upgrade.
GOLD COAST SPONSOR Thursday Night Meals The Avoca Football Netball Club is very happy that ULTRA Broadbeach has agreed to renew our relationship for the 2021 season. ULTRA has supported our club for many years pre covid, and have once again donated a voucher for a 2 night stay in a 2br unit valued at over $500, that the club can use in a fundraiser. We encourage all of our membership base to stay at ULTRA Broadbeach when holidaying on the Gold Coast. https://www.ultrabroadbeach.com. au/ The club would like to thank Sandie Ward who has been a great addition to the committee this season. Sandie is also our Head Chef for our Thursday night Meals and she has come up with some great feeds so far. If you would like to try out some of Sandie’s culinary delights, then pop down to watch training and stay for a drink and feed and hear our team selection for all senior grades of netball and football. Meals served from 7.30pm Fixture Change With the current covid restrictions in place the following option will be put in place: The league Bye in place for July 3rd will now have the postponed round 7 fixture played on that weekend. Round 8 senior matches scheduled for this weekend will now be moved to replace the scheduled round 14 matches. So we will now play Harcourt in Round 14 instead of Trentham. Round fifteen and Sixteen fixtured matches will still remain in place but could be replaced if restrictions continue. Junior matches from round 8 that are being played this weekend will be played again in round Congratulations to the Loaney Family The Avoca Football Netball Club congratulates Paul and Tara on the birth of Arthur Wayne Loaney, born 4/6/21. A little brother for Maddy. Fantastic news guys!
FACILITY SECURITY Good for Football/Netball Toyota Raffle The facility at the Avoca Public Park has recently been secured by the installation of an alarm system which includes camera vision of areas of the clubroom facility. To increase the security further so that the whole building is covered, the installation of more cameras will be purchased and placed around the exterior of the building to make it a much safer and secure environment. A Community Grant from the Pyrenees Shire has been applied for to help finance the project. and the club is very happy that one of our club partner’s in Randall Edwards at VISAT Communication & Security has taken on the task of making our facility safer. Season 2020 saw the Avoca Football Netball Club take part in the Toyota Good for Footy/Netball Raffle which resulted in a $7,000 fundraising effort for the club. The Funds raised went towards the purchase and installation of a walk in freezer and the upgrade of our oval and netball court lighting. We thank everyone that purchased tickets and we hope that you will again do so in the 2021 Toyota Raffle. To purchase tickets, just google Toyota Raffle Avoca FNC. There are three opportunities to win a car and other great prizes. This season the club has also included a number of other prizes that we will draw from Avoca FNC ticket holders. This is a great way of holding a raffle as it is ticketless so there is no hassle with writing tickets and drawing tickets as it is all done online. The winner of our extra prize last year was John & Sheree Moser who won a $250 Voucher from Pyrenees Premium Cuts.
AUSKICK & NETSETGO Is held at the WESTERN BULLDOGS SUPPORTING Avoca Public Park on Wednesday afternoons. Auskick at 3.30 pm Netsetgo at 3.45pm GRASS ROOTS SPORT The Avoca Football Netball Club is very pleased to announce that Chris & Robyn Cocking of Avoca Hewitt & Whitty, have won our Business Partners Draw, and as a result were supposed to attend the Western Bulldogs vs Melbourne game at Marvel Stadium on Friday 28th May. But the COVID lockdown threw a spanner in the works. Hopefully they will now be attending the Bulldogs vs Sydney Swans encounter later in the season as Guests of the Western Bulldogs Football Club and will also be attending the match day function as part of their prize package. The Western Bulldogs have very generously agreed to donate the package to our club for the 2021 season. We are very appreciative that the Western Bulldogs are supporting our grass roots Bulldogs Football & Netball Club. Thank you to Zim’s Fencing and Maryborough Sportspower for donating awards for our Junior footballers. We are also very appreciative of Chris & Robyn’s support of our club through their Hewitt & Whitty Business. Have a great night guys! Here is another story relating to Chris and Robyn who had a trip to Melbourne recently. While Chris was waiting for Robyn who had an appointment, he decided to go for a bit of a sight-see around the Richmond area. The ardent Tigers supporter happened to bump into a couple of likely looking footballers while he was on his journey. Jack & Dusty asked if they could have their photo taken with the Avoca FNC Sponsor and Chris gratefully obliged. Chris couldn’t get the smile off his face when he picked Robyn up and said that it was one of the best moments of his life.
OLD DOGS CLUB We take this opportunity to thank our membership of the OLD DOGS Club. Past football & netball players of the Avoca Bulldogs support the OLD DOGS Club and the funds from their membership is put towards purchasing our game day footballs and netballs. Membership is $40 and allows entry into home games each season. And you are also invited to attend the OLD DOGS round on August 7th. If you are a past player and would like to become an OLD DOG you can do so by calling 0408 571 829. For more info Google Avoca OLD DOGS AVOC FNC Members please support Isla The Avoca Football Netball Club would like to wish our past player’s Harley and Nikita Hunter and Family, the very best after their daughter Isla was recently diagnosed with Infantile Batten Disease, a terminal neuro-degenerative disease, which affects her brain cells and nervous system, this disease is fatal and fast moving! A Go Fund Me page has been launched to help raise money for Isla’s ongoing care and we encourage our membership to donate to the page. Google Isla Hunters battle Go Fund Me. Canteen Roster Sima the Canteen Manager A message from Sima the Canteen Manager. Hi Everyone..ð This is the canteen roster for the rest of the season. As you can see there is a few spots that haven’t been filled at the time slot of 1-3pm. I have had trouble filling these due to the change in starting and finishing times with the netty and footy games so if anyone could fill them for me that would be awesome. Just let me know and I will pop your name in. Also, the shifts that are 10-1 & 1-3 please keep in mind that if you swap your shift with a young child it puts a lot of pressure on them and everyone else in the canteen as these are generally our busy times, so if we can avoid that from happening, that would be great! Thanks again to all for helping with the canteen as this makes it possible to run and less pressure for all involved. Thx a bunch Si
HIGH FLYERS Jason Wood and Junior Interleague Reps Nick Coghlan were flying high in round 1. Photo credits Steve Hammond The Avoca FNC congratulate the Avoca girls that have made selection for the junior interleague netball teams. 15 & Under - Tilly Davis 13 & Under - Emily Beavis & Lucy Coghlan Well done girls! Unfortunately the Covid Lockdown resulted in the games not being played, but it is still a great result to be selected. We also congratulate Sid Robinson, Hayden Knight, Campbell Blair & Geordie Gollop who were all selected in the Under 15 Football Interleague Squad. Paige is kicking goals Article courtesy of Ashlynne McInnes and the Maryborough Advertiser Not even a year off due to a global pandemic could stop our own Paige Scott’s trajectory in the footballing world. Paige turns 17 this month, admits she was devastated with the year off from football due to COVID-19 restrictions, but has returned with a bang this year, playing high level footy this summer with the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in the NAB League and being picked up by Vic Country for the NAB AFLW Championships last month. Paige said when she got the news that Rebels training was back on and the 2021 season would start in February, she was “pumped”. “I was very eager to get back out there after COVID restrictions. As soon as I got the email that Rebels training was back on, I was pumped. I was polishing up the boots and getting a few miles in the legs,” she said. “I worked pretty hard in the preseason to try and get back into it. Being announced in the leadership team was a highlight for me this year, I really didn’t expect it especially now that I’m a bottom ager again since the age group went up. Paige kicked 4 goals at Launceston Oval to help the Rebels defeat Tassie by 1 point. Paige’s passion and performance got her noticed by Vic Country selectors in time for the 2021 NAB AFL Women’s Championships where she again excelled. Up against girls three years her senior, Her nerves didn’t get the best of her, making headlines with a three-goal haul propelling Vic Country to victory over South Australia. Paige has big plans for the future. “Next year will be my draft year, I’ll just keep my nose clean and really get stuck into preseason. I’ve already set some goals for myself,” she said. “The competition will be really strong with a lot of elite players missing out on being drafted last year. It is exciting and scary to think about.” Paige is highly loved and respected at the Avoca FNC having played football & netball for the club and we wish her well with her future endeavours.
Thank you to all of our Business Partners for the support that you give to our club. We’ve reached the half way point of the home and away season and we take this opportunity too thank our many wonderful partners. It is a very difficult task to operate a sporting club these days and would be nearly impossible without the financial support that our partners provide to our club. We appreciate their support greatly and we encourage all of our supporters to check out the flyer to see just who it is that support our club and we ask that you support them, and thank them whenever the opportunity arises. Thank you to Hewitt & Whitty, OZ Tenpin Bowling, Rebel Sport and Showbiz Cinemas for donating weekly awards to our Junior footballers and netballers.
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