A lot has happened in a short period of time since my tenure began as President! 

I was thrilled to see us have an extremely successful AMMNA Championships this year where we walked away with five out of a possible seven divisions as National Champions – our best result since 2015! The hard work has already begun behind the scenes to help us defend those titles and hopefully regain the two we missed.

Strategic Plan

The start of the process towards a five-year Strategic Plan got underway with approximately 40 participants in June. With players ranging from our 17 & Unders right up to our Open ages, various interested parties voiced their opinions and concerns, whilst contributing towards what is the start of our Strategic Plan. As a Committee we have a session planned in September to turn this from information and key points into a working document. So stay tuned as I will be providing updates as this progresses.

Head Coach & Tour Manager appointments

We have made two new positions this year in order to help us run more smoothly and provide central points of contact for our members. Our Head Coach – Christina Puopolo – will be working with all of our coaches to help provide a clear pathway and overall programme for Victorian Men’s & Mixed Netball, Christina is looking forward to overseeing  the programme and is excited for what can happen with our junior players as she is for her own team, the Men’s Open. Sonya Febbo has taken on the role of Tour Manager and in true Sonya style is out of the blocks a mile-a-minute. Sonya will be providing regular updates to our members regarding what is happening within the State Programme – everything from trainings through to all the details of accommodation and flights. She is also your point of contact if you have any questions in the lead up or during the championships. Christina can be contacted via HeadCoach@vmmna.org and Sonya via TourManager@vmmna.org

All Coach and Manager positions for Nationals 2020 have been appointed and can be found here.

Results from Post-Nationals 2019 Survey

After the championships we conducted an association-wide survey to gauge opinion on what worked well, what didn’t work, what we can do better in the future. There were 118 respondents across all age groups and included players, parents and officials. The first meeting of the new committee spent much time working through the survey results and we HAVE LISTENED!

Overall our members weren’t happy with the quality of accommodation – so we have booked Quest Apartments for ALL TEAMS for 2020. What this means is that there are no studio apartments, larger rooms, and accomodation is located in safe areas.

Communication was brought up as a major issue surrounding the tournament – I am looking at being as transparent as possible with communication and ensuring members know what is going on. Our Tour Manager will be providing regular updates to the playing group and we will be conducting an information session when trainings commence so everyone can be clear on expectations and exactly what is going on.

Also from the survey results, members want to know what their fees are actually paying for – so we will be providing details of all things that are covered in your invoice – and I can ensure you, it’s more than you probably realise!

There was talk of more interaction and support of Senior and Junior teams – we are working with our Head Coach and Tour Manager to give teams opportunities to build a rapport and support one another through a better training schedule. We want to become a true state squad – not just individual teams.

Players are also wanting up-to-date best practice advice and guidance on what they should and will be putting into their bodies come Nationals – as such we have engaged a Sports Nutritionist currently working with an AFL club to help provide recipes for meals and recovery foods for our managers to use!

We had feedback on reviewing the High Performance Programme and we will be sitting down in October to discuss how this will proceed for the coming year and into the future. So watch this space!

Sponsorship & VMMNA Media Kit

People want us to have sponsors – and we do too! I am thrilled that we now have a Media Kit available for any prospective sponsors with a number of sponsorship packages listed.  We have so far secured our first Gold Sponsor – CitySide Sports & our first Bronze Sponsor – Peninsula Peak Physique. Throw your support behind both these businesses, as they have been generous enough to support us! If you do know of anyone that has a business or you have a contact at a business – please get in touch via my email: president@vmmna.org and I can send through our Media Kit and discuss sponsorship opportunities.

Junior & Senior MLeagues

On top of this we have also had a thrilling end to the second-ever Junior MLeague season with Doncaster & Districts Netball Association and St Therese’s Netball Club battling out both Grand Finals and I tell you what, these kids can play! The skill level and competitive spirit on display was incredible and bodes extremely well for the future of Men’s and Mixed Netball here in Victoria.

Our senior offering of MLeague also starts on Wednesday the 28^th of August with all five SNHC courts and timeslots at capacity! Eight Premier Men’s teams will be battling out for the premiership, along with three other divisions (Premier Mixed, Div 1 Men’s and Div 1 Mixed) and we had a record-breaking total of 37 teams put in applications to participate this year.

Please reach out

As President I, along with my Committee, am looking forward to working with each and every one of you to help Men’s & Mixed Netball in Victoria go from strength-to-strength. To do this I do not want us resting on our laurels, we must continue to strive to be better in everything we do. So if you have an idea come have a chat with me when you see me around the traps or send me an email at president@vmmna.org.

Additionally if you have any concerns that are confidential in nature, the email address is private and I will handle anything that comes with the utmost confidence. We are always looking for people with different skill sets to help us out, so if there is any area of the organisation you want to become involved in, or are willing to spare even a short period of time on, let us know simply by emailing myself. Many hands make light work and that can be anything from contributing to a Sub-Committee, to helping cook the snags at a fundraising BBQ!

Here is to an exciting remainder of 2019 and an even more exciting 2020 for Victorian Men’s & Mixed Netball Association!

Yours in netball,