I would like to welcome you to the 2014 season.
It promises to be an interesting and exciting one with the construction of the new facilities well under way and the lights upgrade on Park 12 having just been completed. These developments will see us become a more dynamic and unified club with the sharing of the new Grads oval as the AUSC main pitch and the scheduled AUSC functions to come in the new facilities. Night games on Park 12 will become a feature of our season under the new spectacular looking lighting towers.
Parking difficulties
Whilst all of this is happening, there will be some difficulties that we need to overcome, one of which is the parking when the Australian Rules Football is on at the Adelaide Oval.
We have all been working behind the scenes with Adelaide Sports who have been in consultation with the Adelaide City Council to come up with an arrangement that will minimise the impact on all of us.
At present, we will be issued with a number of permits based upon having a number of people car-pooling. We are still working on this. Whilst the AUSC Board has been busy getting all the necessary processes in place including allocating teams to training and home areas (not an easy task when we have 30 teams and limited space), you have been busy with your season preparations.
Our 5 Major teams
We have around 30 squads within our major teams, Blacks, Reds, Whites, Blues, Women and Juniors, and re-introduced for the first time in decades, an Under 14 boys team. I wish them the best for their first season.
The AUS could easily have more squads considering the numbers that we attract, particularly after O Week, but our current facilities will not allow for this. It is hoped that once we get the six ovals at West Beach, we may be able to accommodate more squads to ease the congestion on our grounds which are heavily used throughout the year, not only by us but all the summer sports and the public.
Pre-season trials
I have been very impressed with the activities during pre-season with all of our teams getting organised with trial games and fitness regimes. I have had a number of requests for internal trial games between our five major teams. Usually, each team arranges for trials with other clubs but it has been heartening this year to see the cooperation between our own teams for trials. This is an indicator that we are starting to consider ourselves as one club not a loose collection of teams. As a result of these requests, we have had the Blacks, Whites, Women and juniors using the Lacrosse grounds for internal trials.
The Bill Barbari Cup
One of the uniting highlights of the pre-season is the Bill Barbari Cup which brings together our A and B teams in an arena of competition and serves to prepare for the winter competition ahead. Previously we have held this competition over a period of 4 weekends at the Parks Community Centre; now it has been brought home in a one day event on March 22nd and will be played on the Graduates and North pitches.
This will be an excellent opportunity for each of you to go out there and support your club – the AUSC and see the standard to which all of our teams have aspired.
Recent success
Our teams compete in three leagues which are very competitive and this has made us work harder in raising our standards with some outstanding successes:
*AUSC retained the Collegiate Cup in 2013 after the Grads Reds A team followed in the footsteps of the AUSC Whites‘ win in 2012.
*Our Women Div 1 for this year earned their place in this FFSA division after winning their Division 2 league last year.
*The AUSC Blacks continue to be competitive in a very tough competition, the SA Amateur Soccer League.
*The AUSC Graduates Blue have set themselves a goal to be promoted from the Division 2 Collegiate into Division 1 in 2015.
*Our Premier Women continue to impress in the FFSA and our juniors are developing into very skilled teams under the guidance of our dedicated coaches.
I wish everyone well for the coming season and hope to see as many of you as possible supporting each of our teams and our functions as we progress throughout 2014.
Chris Haralam
AUSC Chairman
chris@auscblacks.com
