I’m very pleased to present this report to our community for Season 2026. We have achieved a lot over the past year and I’m excited to see where we can go for 2027. 

I’d like to thank our outgoing secretary Aaron Hazell. Aaron has been instrumental in upgrading our governance and operating procedures at committee level, as well as ensuring the backend of our webpage is up to date. He has also run the fixturing, RevSport set up, allocations, rostering and our regular committee meetings, to name a few of the many things within his remit. 

I’d also like to thank our outgoing Vice President Benny Knight. Benny has pushed hard to ensure we have a solid base of ongoing sponsorship and grants coming in. He’s also worked hard on implementing our Hockey Victoria schools programs, Hook in2 Hockey as well as being a pretty solid goal keeper for our Men’s Vic League squad. 

There’s a lot that goes into running a community organisation that is unseen and under appreciated, and hockey is no different. In fact, I’d argue that West Gippsland Hockey Association presents a bit of a unique environment with some big responsibilities. That being said, I’m pleased to report that the 2026 season has largely been a success and the WGHA Board has been able to deliver on its commitment to the hockey community across Gippsland. 

Firstly, to our sponsors (already noted in Julie’s Treasurer’s report), thank you. Without your assistance financially we wouldn’t be able to keep up with the equipment needs of our teams, subsidise coach fees, provide uniforms and generally keep things moving along. 

Secondly to our volunteers. You make hockey happen. While the board might set the framework and fixturing, you all ensure the day to day of hockey runs smoothly. From Rob looking after the canteen, to Bec and her Hook in2 Hockey crew. From team managers to our umpire crew. From our Strikers coordinators and of course to all our players. You all make what we do here possible, but we do need more people to step up. 

Thirdly, thanks to our amazing partnership with GippSport (thanks Trev and co!), we have been successful in winning a significant amount of funding via various grants. These have allowed us to continue to provide new equipment for our junior teams, run All-Abilities Hockey for new people in our community and provide additional training via ASPECT. We have also been successful in receiving a grant that will allow us to purchase our own set of Hockey 5s boards, which will be critical in providing additional pathways and products for hockey in Gippsland.  

This year we have seen a slight drop off in membership of about 7% and we’ve been hovering around 300 members for a few years. This is something that the board is keenly aware of and we’re working hard to address these short comings. Yes, there are gaps in teams and in particular we are missing a Warriors’ women’s team as well as a Strikers Women's Vic League team, but we are putting in place strategies to fix these issues. 

Further, as WGHA is an affiliate of Hockey Victoria we have a number of responsibilities that we need to be aware of. I’d like to challenge the notion that hockey is just hockey and that’s it. We need to be committed to building an inclusive and diverse community where our environment is welcoming and safe for all participants. 

• We’ve worked hard to ensure we can run All Abilities Hockey and walking hockey sessions that help develop social and motor skills of participants. 

• We need to improve our recognition of first nations groups and issues, and we are well behind other affiliates in terms of running an indigenous round.

• Gender equity is another area for improvement and I’m keen to stand up a women and girls subcommittee to promote the pathways available to women and girls in our great sport

• LGBTQI+ and Pride initiatives are important and we need to promote an environment that is safe and welcoming for all of our members. 

The above initiatives are about WGHA becoming a welcoming and progressive community where people of all backgrounds feel safe to play hockey. At the moment we are an outlier in the Victorian hockey community because we do not promote these things and that needs to change. 

Congratulations are in order to all our award winners and our grand final winners. In particular, the Gulls junior section led well by Diane Haynes has set the benchmark with numbers and results. I challenge other teams to catch them next year. 

It has also been great to see our Junior Strikers section go from strength to strength as we position ourselves as the pathway for junior development in Gippsland. Thank you to our coaches and Andrew Mock as Junior Strikers Coordinator for a largely successful year.

• Although our U16 Pennant Southeast boys didn’t quite win the flag, finishing second to a very strong Camberwell side in the grand final is an amazing achievement. Thank you especially to the East Gippy boys who committed to significant travel to round out the side with some fantastic skills.

• Our U16 Pennant Southeast girls team went from strength to strength under the tutelage of Hannah. Hopefully we can build on this season next year and also enter an U14 girls team

• Our U14 Pennant Southeast boys have improved significantly under coaches Marisa and Zizi while giving a number of very young players their first taste of higher level hockey 

• Our U18s had a good crack under the stern eye of Jordan Oellerman and brought together a wide array of local players, but fell just short against a quality Frankston side in the finals. 

We had mixed results across the various Junior State Championships, where WGHA partners with LVHA and East Gippsland to form Gippsland Bulls squads. It is no secret that we’re lagging behind other regional teams and significantly behind the stronger metro areas at JSC, so we need to keep developing our internal capacity to train not just the kids, but also our coaches. 

Our Senior Strikers section, led by Michael Vorster had a mixed season, with our women’s squad merging with the neighbouring Latrobe Valley Vic League squad under the name Gippsland Elite. They made the finals and were able to introduce a number of juniors to the rigors of senior hockey. We will need to consider how this approach works for the coming seasons but it is a positive step that we’ve been able to work closely with our friends at LVHA to keep representative women’s hockey going.  

Our men’s squad fared better in no small part to Dave Cuthbertson signing on as coach. Although the squad was the smallest in Men’s Vic League 3, they went through undefeated earning promotion to Vic League 2, as well as winning the grand final against Latrobe University. Our challenge now is to build on this season and bring along a reserves side to complement the VL2 squad, which I have no doubt Cuthy will be able to do. This is a key step to ensure we provide the best possible pathway for our juniors to compete in.  

We have a number of challenges for the next committee moving to 2027 and it would be great to get more community involvement. Let’s all work together to get 10 people doing one thing, rather than one person 10 things!

• Schools outreach - the committee has committed $8,000 to hire a couple of coaches to go out to our local schools, show the students HOCKEY and then follow up with ongoing coaching of our local coaches over the winter season. 

• Comms - we need a dedicated comms team to keep everyone up to date with what we’re doing. Don’t be using AI though to generate content ok!

• Fundraising - it’s been a while since we had a chocolate or pie drive. Let’s get it going again next year

• Events - last year we partnered with the Drouin Dragons Soccer Club to run a couple of events, but this year we didn’t have anyone to drive this. 

• Senior and Junior Competition Coordinators - our Secretary can’t do this all on their own. We’ll give you the training and the resources you need to be the go to person for each competition

• Sponsorships - with Benny stepping back to focus on building his dream home, we need someone else to foster those relationships with our local businesses. 

• Lots of other things so come and talk to the committee. We’re the ones wearing the big giant novelty hats that say ‘committee’ on them.