Hello Bombers.

It was great to have another night of Friday night football. I hope that all the players, families and supporters who attended enjoyed themselves.

A huge thanks to Nikki and Dave, who were the glue that kept the night together and kept us on track. Thank you as well to all the parents and carers who stepped up, took on a role and ensured that all the tasks were completed.

A bit is happening, so strap yourself in as I try and cover quite a bit with as fewer words as possible.

Coronation
Congratulations Charles.
Auskick
Big Freeze Socks – preorder is about to close
Parent behaviour.
Committee meeting?
Tasmania
Thank you – wait for the Dad joke

Coronation
This weekend is quite the historic event, I must admit I have not given a lot of thought to the coronation of the King. As I’ve read a little, I understand that there is a broad range of views on this topic. I would encourage us all to learn a bit more, and if you are talking at a game this weekend please use this as an opportunity to demonstrate the club value of respect. Be curious but appreciate that other people may have a different view of you, which is okay.

As a GWS fan, I am accepting that I may not see my team win a premiership, I might get to watch two coronations!

Congratulations Charles
Now to a Charles who does not polarise the community, Charles Thompson-Ovens. Congratulations on umpiring your 50th game this weekend Charles, this is a huge achievement and highlights your dedication to improving your umpiring while also playing footy for the club. Charles is on track to achieve the rare double of playing a hundred games at the Bombers and umpiring 100 games.

Auskick
Today is going to be huge, we are hosting Cronulla and are expecting to have over 150 auskickers at the Hangar. I hope everyone has a blast, including the growing number of volunteers creating a brilliant introduction to AFL.

Big Freeze
This season as a footy club we are supporting Motor Neurone Disease (MDN) by providing an option for players, coaches, umpires (really anyone) to wear big freeze socks for a round or two in June. We need to preorder socks, can you please place your order this week in our Team App store
https://mirandabombers.teamapp.com/clubs/228640/store/items/92148?_detail=v1

Parent Behaviour
Let’s continue to be positive and make footy fun for everyone. You may observe 50-metre penalties paid for umpire dissent this season, this rule has been in place for some time. The on-field decisions highlight that as a code we are drifting a little and not modelling the right behaviours to our players. I was fortunate to hear the pregame address by our club coach and one of the u13 coaches Ben, he gave two addresses one to the players and then to the parent and support group, I lack Ben’s oration skills, but the key message was ‘As a club, we don’t back chat umpires, we don’t talk down to the opposition. Remember this is community footy, let’s all enjoy ourselves’.

Committee Meeting
We have our committee meeting this Wednesday, 10 May at club sponsor Tradies Gymea, 57 Manchester Road. Everyone is welcome.

Congratulations Tasmania
As a club, it has been encouraging to see many players return to AFL after the pandemic and bring their friends. This enthusiasm and welcoming environment has seen the footy club continue to grow.
This week was pretty exciting to see the announcement of the growth of the game with another AFL team to be created in Tasmania. I think the AFL announced a new CEO as well, a lot is happening nationally with the code.

Thank you
As a club, we are trying to change the way allocate volunteers to game day tasks. Thank you to everyone who has said ‘yes’ and assisted, the tasks are easy to do and you will be supported to know what to do. Last week we had a grandpa doing the scoreboard, his first quarter was okay, with a little bit of guidance, by the end of the game he was exceptional. Thanks everyone for your service and for helping the club to function.

Dad joke – Why can’t you swim at GWS Giants beach? They have no flags to swim between (Thanks Mason)

I hope that you have a great weekend, wherever you are playing.

Go the Bombers

Tod
President MAFC