Due to circumstances outside of anyone’s control the results of the 2016 season were less than favourable for the Yeoman Football Club with our senior team finishing 8th on the ladder with two wins and seventeen losses and our reserves team finishing 7th with five wins and thirteen losses. We had out going coaches in both the seniors and reserves and our position off the field needed improvement if the Yeoman Football Club was to have a sustainable future moving forward.
The first call to action for the Yeoman Football Club was to find coaches and players, to do this a team of people were put together call the Football Department headed up by long standing committee member Garry Pearce and Peter Wynwood who work tirelessly communicating with all our players from the 2016 season as well as prospective players for the 2017 season. In addition to this the Football Department approached various interested parties for the two coaching roles that were required to be filled and in October 2016 the Yeoman Football Club appointed Tom Mitchell as the Senior Coach Jamie Mitchell as Senior Assistant Coach and John Richardson as the Reserves Coach.
The appointment of the coaches triggered a change of events that filled those involved with the Yeoman Football Club with confidence for the 2017 season with the signing of in excess of twenty new players who were either new or returning to the club in both the senior and reserves grades before the Christmas break and with some aggressive marketing of the Yeoman Football Club Brand through social media and the local news paper we were able to attract more players after Christmas leading in to the new season. With this a player leadership group was appointed – Senior Co-captans Robert Wynwood & Marcus Gee, Senior Vice Capitan Dan Ellery, Senior Leadership Group Tyller Keene, Jack Strugnell and Nick Mitchell, Reserves Capitan Sean Stevens and Reserves Vice Capitan Jake Richardson.
In addition to having new faces on the field there were also a lot of new faces/changes off the field as well after the club held its Annual General Meeting in December including but not limited to Shaun O’Neill (General Committee for season 2016) becoming President, Andrew Armstrong (Stepping down as president from the 2016 season) becoming Vice President, Jacob Riley (first year on the committee) becoming Junior Vice President Cassandra Collins (new to the committee for season 2017) becoming secretary, Terry Lamprey (a Life Member returning to the club) becoming Treasure and Katie Draper (returning to the committee for season 2016) as Canteen Manager. In addition to the new appointment for season 2017 the Yeoman Football Club had a General Committee (including the above people) of twenty one personnel with the right mix of youth and experience who were wanting to help the club with in their roles on the committee – This was outstanding.
With the new Coaches and the new look Executive/Committee now in place everyone hit the ground running, the coaches were busy recruiting and conditioning the players and the committee were busy ensuring that the controls were in place and we were setting ourselves up for success for the 2017 season which involved but was not limited to ten new initiatives for revenue raising being put in to place, the signing of twenty four club sponsors twenty of which were new and four returning from the 2016 season and twenty six player sponsors who all contributed to the Yeoman Football Club financially or with goods or services – Outstanding effort!
Both on and off the field season 2017 was a very positive and enjoyable one for the Yeoman Football Club with our Senior Team finishing 4th with eleven wins and eight losses and our Reserves Team finishing 5th with seven wins and eleven losses taking both our teams in to the finals, something that has not occurred for a very long time for the Yeoman Football Club. In addition to this one of our young stars Nick Mitchell was a dual recipient of the 2017 Ewington Medal (Association Best & Fairest) and was named on the half back flank in the 2017 Darwin Football Association All Stars Team and was joined by older brother Tom Mitchell who was named in the centre and as coach of the 2017 Darwin Football Association All Stars Team.
Off the field the Yeoman Football Club finished significantly financially better off than the 2016 season as a result of the previous mentioned fundraising initiatives including various club functions, Wednesday & Saturday night teas and various raffles. In addition to this the 2017 season was a big turning point for the Yeoman Football Club with a rejuvenated positive, family atmosphere that was generally a very enjoyable place to be that saw a lot of new comers to the club as well as some old faces returning.
Going forward the Yeoman Football Club has a very sustainable future and we have already take the next steps to set the cub up for success with the re appointment of Tom Mitchell as Senior Coach, Nick Mitchell as Assistant Coach and Jamie Mitchell as Bench /Fitness Coach. We are very confident that we will retain 95% of our players from season 2017 and have an aggressive recruiting plan for the off season. Off the felid a solid foundation has been set for season 2018 and with plans already in place to be set up for success – We have no doubt that we will show continues improvement on the 2017 season going forward.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank anyone who was involved with the Yeoman Football Club for season 2017 (players, coaches, committee, sponsors, volunteers, members and visitors).
Shaun O’Neill – President 2017