Being in the position of Chairman of the AUSC, I have the privilege of being able to view the achievements of our club as a whole and from where I am standing, I am constantly amazed at the talent that we have across the range of players and divisions.
I get to see a number of games throughout the year from the juniors through to the A teams in our top divisions and from what I have observed, the only thing that separates us at the moment is our colours and our individual histories. The skills of our players and coaches are not in question and the passion that we all have for our teams is overwhelming. The AUSC is all about this passion, and together with our resolve to overcome difficulties and meet challenges, we make a most formidable club. The 2014 season has presented its challenges and difficulties and we have overcome most of them.
It was a very difficult season with the weather and your vice presidents have worked with the Board to manage our grounds as best we could. Teams were required to be shifted from time to time to other grounds as we needed to rest pitches so that they could recover from the amount of wear and tear after the heavy rains we had. This has not always been easy but most of you did your best to cooperate with ground allocations despite the difficulties it presented. I am pleased with the number of teams that went that one step further and placed themselves in indoor training for a large number of sessions. This helped tremendously.
We hope to have a system in place for next year that will make it easier for us to train on and maintain a pitch for the majority of the season but we do have some constraints that need to be overcome.
1. The number of teams that we currently have which puts a tremendous strain on resources.
2. The Grads Oval will not be allocated as a home ground to any team. It will be shared with Lacrosse who will have it every other week. The A and B teams from our First Divisions will be allocated playing time in the first instance on the non-Lacrosse weeks; we will then look at allocating what is left (if any) of the remaining home games with our other teams. The logistics of this is still to be worked out but we hope for a satisfying solution for all of us.
3. The perception that some teams are better than others and should get the best grounds for training and home games.
I strongly believe that all of our 5 major teams, Blacks, Reds, Whites, Blues and Women & Juniors are equal within the structure of the AUSC but we have to be realistic and agree that the A and B teams in our top divisions will get priority when it comes to the allocation of resources. This has been discussed with the Board and overwhelmingly accepted.
The current structure will, however have to change by the start of the 2016 season and thereby the Board is looking at either, entering a team in the State League or having 3 premier teams one each in the FFSA (Women) , The Amateurs and the Collegiate leagues. We are exploring our options to fit in with the structure that Adelaide University Sports is imposing upon us.
It certainly is an exciting and challenging time for our club and whatever path we follow over the next year or so, your Board is working hard to come up with something that will see us retaining the culture of the AUSC without changing the individual characteristics of each of our teams.
With all of this ahead of us, let’s not forget to celebrate the successes that we have had this year.
I am very proud to be chairman in the year that the the Mens Blacks Premiers became true premiers after a drought of 13 years when they defeated BOSA in a tough game, but Uni – controlled the game from beginning to end, and I am equally proud to be part of the Grads Blue Success. They will be promoted to Div 1 after climbing from Div 4 (all within 5 years) after defeating one of the most experienced and skilful teams in any league, Windsor Gradens.
I am very proud of our junior U/15 As who played out a cup final and would have won it if fairer decisions were made by the officials.
And how can I not be proud of the elder statesmen of our club, Grads Red Div 4 who went through a whole season without conceding a game. Now which other team can boast this?
I would like to warmly thank all of you for your involvement and support of your club the AUSC and hope to personally thank you at the Awards night on October 11th at the New Club Rooms.
Chris Haralam
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