JUNIOR OPERATIONS

2022 REPORT – ANDREW GIBBONS

“We did it” was the end result for season 2022. After 3 years of interrupted seasons, we finally were able to play a full season and complete our final series.

As I stated above, We did it, I have highlighted the We because without the help and commitment from all our club committees, parents and players our season would not have been a success.

Yes, there were challenges during the season, but by working together we sorted them out.

Prior to the 2022 season I held numerous meetings with the clubs and through this consultation we decided to realign our female program by changing them to the even age groups and introducing an Under 12 girl’s competition.

The Under 12 girls competition started off slowly, but gained momentum and finished off very strong, with our playing numbers increasing two-fold.

The only real downturn was our Under 18 girls, but after some discussion with our neighbouring league the EFNL we were able to include them in their competition.

By all accounts both our teams (Emerald/Monbulk & Mt Evelyn) enjoyed the experience, and both had successful seasons, with Mt Evelyn winning the Under 18 Premier division Premiership. Our other girls competitions stayed constant with our Under 14 & Under 16 Girls both having a 7 team competition.

Our mixed and boys age groups returned with good numbers and we able to have 1 division of 11’s (which was split for the finals) consisting of 13 teams. Our Under 13 competition consisted of 19 teams which we split into 3 divisions. Our Under 15 competition was made up of 15 teams which included Alexandra & Yea. Our Under 17 competition consisted of 9 teams with Wandin and Yarra Glen merging for the season. We did lose both Wesburn & Seville to our Under 18 Saturday competition, but as long as the boys are playing footy in our league, I am happy.

Our non-competitive age groups Under 9 Wayalaks & Under 10’s was once again supported well by all clubs with the Under 9 Wayalaks having 16 teams and our Under 10’s consisting of 7 teams.

Our Junior Lightning carnivals were again a success, with thanks to Wesburn JFC for hosting the Under 10 Carnival, and a further congratulations to Olinda Ferny Creek who won the carnival.

We started the Under 9 Wayalaks carnival on a reasonably fine day, but due to lightning and inclement weather, we had to finish up early. Thanks to Woori Yallock JFC for hosting the event, unfortunately we will have to wait until next year to crown a carnival winner.

During the season, our fundamental aim was participation, which I feel we achieved. Junior sport has to always be about giving children a place to flourish and enjoy themselves. Thanks to our outgoing CEO Aaron Bailey whose knowledge and guidance shared with me over 6 years, has helped shape our junior competition.

Good luck Aaron on your future endeavours. Though we have had a few changes in the office this year, we always find quality people who are always there to help out in any way during the season “Thank you to all the Outer East staff”. Our Outer East board once again gave great support to me and the Junior Competition “Thank you”. After 2 years without completing our final series, it was fantastic to see the players back out there. Thanks to all our clubs that hosted a finals day and a special big thanks to Wandin JFC, Monbulk JFC & Woori Yallock JFC for hosting electrifying Grand Final days. Our Grand Finals didn’t let us down with close contests in most age groups.

Thank you and well done to our Junior umpires, who performed exceptionally throughout the season under the guidance of our head of umpiring John Howorth.

Thank you John for the invaluable knowledge you passed on to our Junior umpires. Each round we need at least 70 umpires appointed, which is a mammoth task.

The task of appointing the junior umpires was managed beautifully by Emily Jose “Thank you” Emily for all your hard work over the last 4 years.

Summarising the season, I am extremely proud the way all our clubs embraced our new PlayHQ data base and how we all pushed through and came out of the other side after Covid. Well done everyone.