Editorial: Welcome to season 2019

George Voyage – VAFA President

On behalf of the VAFA I am delighted to welcome everyone to the opening weekend of the 2019 season.

The preparation time is over. The familiar cries across the city of the last few months ‘that promised recruit isn’t with us’ or ‘we lost a few chasing money’ is perhaps offset by ‘we’ve picked up a couple who can hopefully play’ or ‘we will be very young’ has me thinking.

William Buck Director, Lindsay Holloway, highlighted that in a modern world where community activity seems to get less and less, the VAFA plays a key role in creating a forum for all people to be involved in a community.

A safe place. A place to meet friends and make new ones. To get fit.  To be part of a team and essentially to be part of a community. To play or officiate or support to the best of each person’s ability.

Respect for everyone is a keystone of the VAFA. Respect for our opponents, our club mates, and our umpires, officials and volunteers.

There have been some club moves during the off season. We welcome RMIT WFA as the newest club into our women’s competition. I’m certain this famous institution will have a wonderful impact in our Association.

Regrettably, two clubs from our outer eastern area have folded or merged, whilst two of our iconic divisional clubs are consolidating as one team clubs in our Thirds competition. This emphasises the challenges faced and the key objective is to ensure financial stability and sustainability of our organisation and all of our clubs into the future.

Apart from this critical core issue, some of our other key objectives for the season include:

• To ensure the VAFA continues to be the very best operator and competition of Australian rules football in our community.
• To ensure the VAFA’s well-skilled and highly engaged team continues to manage the competition and its associated systems and events efficiently and to the highest order.
• To ensure the redevelopment of Elsternwick Park is seen as an asset that all our clubs are proud to own and be a part of.

We also have a very challenging representative programme for 2019 which will include another four outings from our senior men’s, senior women’s, B-D4 and U19’s teams.

Welcome to all new players, officials, umpires and volunteers. We trust you will have a very positive VAFA experience.

Everything is set for a fantastic 2019 as our young women and men begin their six-month trek in search of the Holy Grail.

Good luck to everyone.

Game on!