After 12 months of being in the role as President, I am extremely proud of where the football club is currently positioned. For that I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone involved at the club over the last few years (and more specifically this past season) including our loyal sponsors, members, players and parents and supporters. In addition, I’d like to pay particular tribute to my wonderful colleagues on the Executive Committee who have worked tirelessly, with the professionalism and passion that is required for this type of role. Specific mention to three of our Committee members who are finishing their terms – Vasco Tanevski, George Jankovski and Bobby Mircevski. Whilst all three will not hold official Committee roles next year, we have managed to secure their services for next year so they can continue to make a contribution. This is a huge positive for the club given many in the past walked away from the club when they have finished their Committee roles so congratulations to all three of them.
Whilst we should be proud of where the club is at, we should remember that our focus needs to firmly be on the future and with our 5 year plan in place, I am confident we will achieve our key objectives in that plan. At the core of our plan is the importance of running the club in a financially sustainable manner to ensure that we live within our means. To that end, we will continue to deliver surpluses to reinvest in our operations and infrastructure.
In the last 12 months we have achieved some wonderful things on and off the pitch:
- We have consolidated the running of various teams in “one club” by including our men’s, women’s and juniors under the one umbrella
- We launched our juniors lighting infrastructure in July 2015 with representatives from Council and Government present. This gives us access to four full size pitches and this has been crucial to enable us to expand our junior playing numbers
- We started a new Lion Cub program for 4-6 year old children on a Saturday morning and that has been a great success with over 20 children participating
- We continued our community engagement with the following programs:
- Running a program for blind and vision impaired children (in association with Blind Sports Victoria). This was further expanded with the launch of the “B League”, a competition for blind and vision impaired adults where Preston Lions is represented and being coached by one of our junior coaches Zivko Kolevski
- The “Deadly Kick Koori Soccer Program’ was a pilot program for Koori children that we ran jointly working in partnership with Darebin Council, Banyule Council and Heidelberg United FC.
- Our continued association with Melbourne Victory as part of the Club Victory program where our juniors have participated in a number of activities at A-League games
- We hosted a past players function where a number of past players and officials came together for the first time in many years to reminisce about their wonderful contribution they made to club
- After 7+ years of not participating in the national Maso Cup, we formed new relationships with our interstate colleagues and we are participating in the Cup tournament being hosted in Wollongong in late January 2016.
Over the next few months our efforts will be focused on preparing for next year on all levels. From running fundraising activities such as our Annual Golf tournament (this was held a couple of weeks ago), our annual Supporters Cup tournament in early December to Juniors trials and registration events being held in late 2015 and mid-January 2016. Our senior Men’s team will also start their pre-season preparations on 11 December to ensure we are ready for the Maso Cup in Wollongong.
Finally, a special mention must go to our football department and coaching staff who were able to turnaround a poor start to the season and deliver a fourth place finish (only 2 points from top) for our senior Men’s team who played in the State League 1 competition. On the back of this we were proud to announce the appointment of Zeljko Popovic as our Senior Men’s Head Coach for 2016. Our aim at the end of 2016 is to have our proud club back playing in the highest levels of competition in Victoria – the NPL. As an Executive Committee we are working closely with Football Federation Victoria to give ourselves the best opportunity of success to secure an NPL licence for 2017.
In closing, it has been an absolute privilege to lead this wonderful club of ours. I look forward to a bright and successful future for Preston Lions Football Club and with the support of my Committee colleagues, our sponsors, members and supporters I am confident we will once again restore some real pride in club.
Zak Gruevski
President