New President for the GHA

It was with regret that the Geelong Hockey Association Executive received the resignation as President of Alan Climpson. Alan has served our community for many decades and his legacy is not over.

The executive has voted me as the incoming President for the remainder of 2024 and I accept it as an honour. I shall aim to continue the good work of Alan and all members.

I wish to pay tribute to the executive who have volunteered so much time for the benefit and advancement of hockey in our greater community and beyond.

The cost price per every junior and senior team in the GHA is $1,560. For a senior team the cost of a team entry is $1,600 but the real cost is near $2,200 as junior teams pay far less than that. The shortfall is made up from the profit of the canteen, sponsorship and other revenues we receive like grants. The Sharks, our flagship contributes a great deal of money and profit for every home game and represents our association here and in Melbourne. The granting of the Commonwealth Games in the first place was based on our presence in Melbourne and Victoria. The Sharks have been at the forefront of this.

The traditional and still vital element of our association are the local clubs. Strong local clubs mean a strong and stable GHA. Your executive is committed to supporting the local clubs to ensure they are stable and fulfilling their mission. To this end we undertook earlier this year to try to expand our competition by inviting teams from Werribee and Ballarat into our competition.

Werribee were interested but there was push back from clubs about playing games at Werribee, therefore this did not eventuate. With Ballarat they were not interested in entering a side or more in our competition but were interested in having a day of competition here and there. The problem was that their ground is being replaced and they have had a great deal of trouble finding pitch time at a local school who does not have lights. There was also limited support from within. Anyway, we tried and shall continue to look at ways to expand our local competition.

We ask that you support your club at every opportunity and please contact any of the executive at any time if you have any ideas or concerns.

The role of Vice President is now vacant as well as two positions on the executive. Leanne Basham has resigned from the executive due to work demands and we have thanked her for her efforts. If anyone is interested in any of these positions then please contact anyone on the executive.

We wish you all the best for the remainder of the season.

Best wishes

Graeme Dent
President
GHA