Chairmans Report 2008/09
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THE YEAR THAT WAS Well what a season 2008-09 turned out to be. This being the 15th Anniversary of the merging of two very successful Clubs –St Johns Uniting and Aberfeldie Bapts back in 1994.
ASJCC won our first A Grade Premiership in our first season and hopefully it was an omen to win again in this anniversary season.
And win it we did. Facing last year winner RMIT in the final, every player played their part and ASJCC won the game out right, adding our 3rd A Grade Premiership.
Before a quick summary of the year, I would like to congratulate the MMVCA winners for this 2008-09.
Dusan Stoevski took out the Champions trophy for the 2nd year in A Mats.
Kristin Logan won the Bowling award and Anthony Barnes won our first B Grade Competition award for the club with the B Mats Bowling.
Well done to all players and again it’s a personal award but an honour shared by the club.
A Grade went in to this year being the best team over the last few seasons but not achieving ultimate success. Determined to turn it around, the club worked hard at training and on the field, losing only the last game of the year to finish in 2nd place behind RMIT.
Beating Strathmore Heights in the Semi, A Grade went on to beat RMIT over four days in the Grand Final.
Several centuries were scored in the season by A Grade players. Stephen Wills started the year well scoring 140no in the first game and again with 102 against Maribyrnong Park in round 6.
Michael Rizio scored his first in a timely manner, 111 in semi final against Strathmore Heights and followed it up in the 2nd innings of the grand final with 88.
In the bowling department, 5 wicket hauls were taken by D Stoevski 3 times – best being 5-7,
K Logan’s 5-26 and Yorke Banyard 5-26.
The B Grade side played well for most of the year and were in the top two until the last game which saw them fall out of the finals and ending in 5th place.
With it being a very competitive and close competition, we fell away in the last 3 games costing ourselves a final berth.
Three players recorded centuries in B Grade. First year player Julian Powell playing in his second match for the club scored 108 in round 4 and Des Kinsey, after many years of heavy scoring, scored his maiden ton with 104 against Barkly St Uniting in round 5.
An unbeaten century followed in round 8 by Damon Brohaska against Moonee Valley and the bowling – Troy Gourlays 6-56 - clubs best - and Anthony Barnes 5-40 being the best bowling in B Grade.
The One Day side started the year without a Captain but by round 3, Mel Efstathiou took on the Captaincy and as the season progress the One Day started developing as a team. This was evident by us making the finals only to beat beaten by Flemington Colts in our first final.
Four players scored centuries in the One Day side throughout the year.
Stephen Wills scored the second of his three centuries with 100no, followed by Justin Altus 120 in round 7, Evan Miller’s 113 in round 14 and Kane Honan followed up with 104 in round 16.
Best of the bowlers was Damitha Chandali but unable to get that 5 wicket haul.
Well done to all teams and players. It was a very successful year on the field with A Grade playing 22 players, B Grade 28 players and OD 30 players.
Ten players were new to the club and hopefully 2009-2010 see the return of all players to the club and more success follows.
It was also a successful season off the field.
Once again Steve Ingham obtained several sponsors for the club and a Social Committee was formed to organise social events for the year.
Trivia and Poker nights were organised and with team ‘All The Other Teams Suck’ winning the Trivia Night (Under controversy) and ‘The Doctor’–Phil Marr King of the poker Tables, both were great events.
A big thank you to the Committee and Social Committee for all the time and effort everyone put in throughout the year to make the Club a success off the field.
One of the proudest moments for the Club was a raffle and BBQ to raise money for the Bushfire Appeal. Not being a large club and with the help of Fosters and Club donation we managed to raise over $1700.00.
With Steve Ingham organising prizes and getting the drinks donated, it was an enjoyable and worth while evening.
A ‘Man of the Match’ was announced for the A & B grades followed by a Monthly Award to all grades for ‘Player of the Month’.
A first for the club was a Weekly Newsletter that was written and edited by Lauren Oxford.
Each week we were kept informed with stats and news around the club.
The club website was upgraded and was kept updated and modified every week with stats, milestones and upcoming events by Steve Ingham.
Again the Canteen and clubrooms were cleaned, kept stocked and council kept in check by Duzh throughout the season.
Another first is a Club theme song. lt was sang long and loud after the A Grade Grand Final Victory – Checkout page 47 for a copy.
Added to this year’s yearbook is Duzh’s account of A Grades games leading up to and including the Grand Final. It is following players’ stats at the back of the book.
This year there will be a new award – The Players Player Award.
This Award will be presented to the player, voted on by his team mates, as the most valuable to the side throughout the year.
Also on Presentation night we recognised Dale Thornton and Peter Sidley for their work and service to the Club over many years.
Some other milestones that are worth mentioning are Michael Wills 300th game for the club and took his 400th catch, Stephen Wills 4000th run and Carl Polo 400th wicket. Well done.
Big thanks to partners and friends who helped the Club out through the year as well.
This Seasons Committee: Chairman - M Wills, Secretary – S Wills,
Treasurer - A Barnes, Committee members- D Stoevski, D Siomos, C Polo, S Ingham
Social Committee: L Oxford, W Quirk, J Christou, S Halge, R Lamattina
Captains for 2008-2009:
A Grade – D Stoevski
B Grade – S Halge
One Day – M Efstathiou
Mick Wills
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