2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

The 2020 Season has been a season like no other. All hockey had stopped, no training, no functions, no games. Eventually we were able to return to modified training and finally a return to our season.

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The club would like to acknowledge and thank our sponsors for this season, Vic Giannakis from Better Choice Mortgages, Warren and Robyn Jackson from Precision Elevator Removal and Jinder from Hockey International. Their ongoing support of the club is greatly appreciated, and I would encourage our members to support these sponsors where you can. In 2021, we will have a new sponsor come on board in Bottlemart Stirling.

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I won’t go into all the team’s details; however, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the key people (I apologise if I leave anyone out). Michael Naughtin, Matt Kearney, Graeme Shepherdson, Craig and Deb Trott, Lyall Fairlie, Paul Willis, Sam Anderson, Dom Bono, Rhiannon Writer, Nick and Joshua Seddon, Nick Battistessa and Will Ketterer for their roles in coaching and managing our teams this season. They have adapted and responded exceptionally well to the challenges associated with COVID (including Hockey WA return to hockey framework and State Government requirements) and the ever-changing landscape of what was allowed at games and training, often with less than 1 weeks’ notice. Matt Kearney and Kate Kelly took on the arduous task of logging everyone’s training attendance (arrival and departure time) over the first month or two of returning to training and playing. Again… thank you.

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Our J5/6 team have grown in confidence, and it has been encouraging to see new faces down at games. This is the future of our club, and I would like to thank our Junior Coordinator Nick Seddon for his tireless work this season and the previous seasons. Our Hin2H numbers have been lower than usual, with the suspicion of this being the fallout from COVID. We have also returned to coaching the school’s program, which I would like to thank all the coaches who have gone to the schools to assist Nick.

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The decision to cancel all events was a difficult yet necessary one, which has affected our bottom line this year. We were however fortunate enough to be able to host the Ric Hocking Memorial and Past Players Day on the 29th August, and it was fantastic to see so many familiar faces, with life members returning to the club.

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Our team behind the bar again have proven invaluable to this club. Thanks to the Moore’s and the Writer’s who have been behind the bar at all our home games, and always served with a smile.

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Coming into my first year as President, I would like to make special thanks to the Ceri Writer who has been a sounding board as I found my feet. I would like to thank the committee for their assistance, support and patience as I forwarded email after email regarding COVID updates. It must have got to the point where they thought... “ugh… Another email from Pot”. Their support and flexibility as we traversed the changing landscape has been tremendous. We embraced technology and held our meetings over Zoom and Microsoft Teams until we were able to meet in person again.

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This hasn’t been the year we hoped for, but it is the year we were dealt, and as a family, we managed our way through it. This is a fantastic club, and we are fortunate we have been able to play this year, but at times, it came a distant second place, as we reflect on the effect this year has had on our friends, family and the wider hockey community.