We've been busy since the GRFC Strategic Development Plan Forum in July! It’s been an exciting and busy time in the wash up from the July event last year when we presented the draft strategy for Geelong Football for the next 5 years.  As a group, we were able to capture the energy created on the evening to put together teams of motivated and talented individuals who are working to develop and implement the plan around our strategic pillars...

We started off with 7 pillars in our Strategic Plan: Coach and Player Development, Participation and Competition, Key Stakeholder Relationships and Strategic Alliances, Finance and Administration, GRFC Membership, Major Events, Marketing and Sponsorship & Facilities. We combined these strategic pillars into 4 new pillars:

Pillar A - Coach & Player Development/Participation & Competition

Pillar B - GRF Governance and Membership/Club Capacity Development

Pillar C - Key Stakeholder Relationships & Strategic Alliances/Major Events, Marketing and Sponsorship

Pillar D - Facility Resourcing and Development. 

After working with these Pillars for around 6 months the decision was made to combine Pillars C & D as these groups needed to align with the same Stakeholders and build the same Strategic Alliances and it made sense that they would do this together as one unified group.

The Pillar teams are as follows:

Pillar A – Pillar Lead: Steve Horvat, Team: Foddy Kyprian, Paul Rawson, Michael Ireland, Liam McCloskey, Pete Bradley, Kev Bowers, Igor Srbinovski and Mal Bosnjak

Pillar B - Pillar Lead:Jason Pickles, Team: Simon Wrench, Diane Murase, Martin Brandwyk, Scott Brown and Aamir Qutub.

Pillar C – PIllar Lead: Mike McKinstry, Team: Josip Zilic, Steve Bogdanovski., Josip Skoko, Mike McKinstry, Vicki Maroulis, Vlad Dzajkic, Richard Prior, Daniel Lancefield, Tony Grgurevic, Jo Plummer, Flavia Kaucic, Tonci Prusac

Pillar A - Coach & Player Development/Participation & Competition

Achievements so far…

The Pillar A team are working with the Vic Patriots A League bid group to develop and implement a Coaches Development program that will see high level coaches brought in to train the Talent Identification Program (TIP) squad with coaches from every level across the region being invited along to learn from these coaches.

The team is also working collaboratively with the referee group to improve outcomes for the region’s referees as well as actively increase recruitment and retention of new refs.

Finally Pillar A are in the process of looking at the competition structure and what that should look like in 2020. Previously we have made decisions in an ad hoc manner and this new approach is try and identify what the structure should look like to develop the competition and strengthen pathways for players at all levels.

What’s next…

The group will lock down the Coaches Development Program as well as implement a “No Tolerance of Abuse to Referees” campaign across the region.  The group will then focus on creating a vision for how we want the competition structure to look like in 3 years timeand develop a plan to get us there.

Pillar C - Facilities, Stakeholder Alliances, Events & Marketing
Achievements so far…

The team have been working to engage COGG and the developers of some of Geelong’s growth areas to put forward football’s needs in terms of facilities.  They have also worked with residents in the Armstrong Creek development to put together a group who are keen to start a new team for the area.  The pillar team now has plans in place to identify new growth areas in the region to enable football to be considered as an important part of the mix when allocating sporting facilities.

The team identified the opportunity to link in with local schools to allow the use of their facilities in return for the FFV providing coaching to the school’s students.  The clubs and schools identified for the pilot program are Holy Family and North Geelong, Leopold Primary and Leopold FC, Northern Bay and Corio SC.  The pilot program will be assessed and if the return on investment is sufficient we will work to roll it out to more clubs and schools.

This pillar group has had a number of key meetings with stakeholders to put forward the case for football in the Geelong region and the resources and support we will need going forward to capitalise on the sport’s growth.  These meetings include Justin Burney the State Director for Sport, Recreation and Leisure as well as the State Governments Sports & Rec representative in Geelong, both the administrators and the Sport and Rec teams from COGG, Committee for Geelong, Leisure Networks and Geelong Chamber of Commerce.

What’s Next...

This group will continue to engage with key stakeholders and strategic alliances to continue the positive discussions they have had thus far.  We are also finalising a tri-fold brochure that gives a quick snapshot to stakeholders what the group is planning to achieve to give them an understanding of the future of football in the Geelong region and why they should get behind us.  They will also roll out and assess the Schools Program Pilot as the implications of rolling this program out across the region will have a positive benefit for the clubs in easing their facilities pain but also benefits the schools and wider communities.