PRESIDENTS REPORT 2018

Welcome to the 2018 AGM of the Griffith Australian Football & Netball Club, thank you all for making time to come along and taking interest in the running of your club.
From a whole club point of view season 2018 saw some of the rewards of many years of work put in by various people over the years. Coming from a fantastic base the Auskick program managed to grow by 20% with an additional 70 girls taking part in the Girls  Auskick summer program. NetSetGo continued its growth and interest after its introduction in 2017 and our South West junior football and netball numbers remained healthy with good depth and player development. 
Our senior netball saw great benefit from the introduction of a coaching co-ordinator role and the competitiveness of the netball sides with four out of the five playing finals was a fantastic achievement. To see also the U17's pathway bringing the junior talent into the A Grade side this year was a real highlight.
Following on from our clubs very own summer social Women's AFL competition which saw over 80 women participate we also saw the introduction of our first ever open women's team competing in the inaugural Riverina based competition. The women's AFL space is a great opportunity to continue to grow our club and sport and to be at the forefront of it in our region is exciting.
Our senior football program highlighted the depth of talent our club has developed with our first-grade team showcasing so much of our organic talent. To have these pathways right is critical to the ongoing success of our senior teams, this year we managed to have the lowest player points average in the entire competition which further supports that we have a balanced approach to player recruiting. This will be important as the competition will likely see continued lowering of the players point cap and the introduction of a salary cap in 2019 to improve community football sustainability.
All in all, we managed to have 19 of the club's 22 sides complete in finals while still having the club's culture and wider football and netball interest at heart. We have successfully built a club environment which has allowed us to continue to grow our player participant numbers to now be in excess of 700 each year.
The work done by so many to accomplish what is hopefully viewed as a successful and healthy club must be acknowledged and I give special thanks to all those volunteers that have helped along the way. It really does take a small army and we continue to be fortunate enough to have people that are so passionate about our sports and the Griffith Swans that they give up their time to make it happen, so thank you all. 
I look forward to seeing what we can achieve again in 2019.
Thank you and go Swans!
Jeff Harris