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Sydney Women’s Hockey League Inc.

2019 Annual Report

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2019 Sydney Women’s Hockey League Committee

Position Held by Chairperson Robin Gorton

Treasurer Rebecca Teece Secretary Tracy lane

Fixtures Convenor Sue Briggs Registrar (ML1-3) Micheal Gunner Registrar (ML4-6) Donna Parsons

Registrar (Masters) Emma Thuell Umpires Convenor Lisa Roach

Publicity Officer Gil Burns Website Co-Ordinator Paul Economides

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Chairperson’s Report

SWHL continues to be the premium women’s hockey competition in Sydney.

As we reflect on the past season, I look at our volunteers and I see commitment and longevity to our sport. The committee has a combined service of 157 years. The competition itself in its current form dates back 25 years to 1994. This trend can also be seen in our umpires and club personal. A strategy needs to be developed to harness more volunteers and promote the future of our game. We are seeing the growth of women in traditional men’s sports such as soccer, rugby, league, cricket and AFL which are becoming higher profile and have more funding available to them for promotion etc. Please encourage people you know to lend a hand to keep our sport out there!!!

Revolutionise has been bedded down and has seen the sharing of resources as teams now record their results and team lists directly into the platform. This in turn will relieve some onerous duties on the registrars. With HA taking up this platform Australia wide it will be around for a few years to come.

Results of the open competition - the Gorton/Briggs Cup for ML1 was won by Ryde Hunters Hill, Sydney University won ML2, Sydney University ML3, Moorebank Liverpool ML4, Sydney University ML5 and UNSW ML6.

Division 1 Masters was taken out by SEHA, Division 2 North Shore and Beaches, Division 3 Metropolitan South West and Division 4 Sydney South.

Congratulations to all those who participated in the final series and the eventual winners. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped make the competition possible.

The Loretta Dorman Medal awards evening was once again a success due to the organisation of Gil Burns. This year’s winner was Mikaela Patterson (Ryde Hunters Hill), Caroline Davis (GNS) was recognised for her achievements in umpiring, receiving the Carol Morris Umpiring Award. The Angela McCann Memorial Award for Goalkeeping was awarded to Georgia Graham (UTS), whilst the Club Championship was won by Sydney University.

Once again, I would like to thank the Committee for their support and dedication throughout the season. Tracy Lane - Secretary, Rebecca Teece - Treasurer, Sue Briggs - Fixtures, Lisa Roach -Umpires, Micheal Gunner, Donna Parsons and Emma Thuell - Registrars, Paul Economides - Website Coordinator and Gil Burns - Publicity.

I would also like thank Just Hockey for their continued support and the staff at Sydney Olympic Park Hockey Centre and other venues.

Yours in hockey Robin Gorton Chairperson

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Secretary’s Report 2019 was another successful and progressive year for the SWHL competition.

Promotion and relegation were applied again across all grades, allowing SWHL to maintain a consistently high playing standard.

Phase two of introducing the RevolutioniseSports platform for administering our competition, was completed successfully. The additional functionality of allowing team coaches or managers to enter their scorecard information - players that played, results, player goals and cards issued – was successful and reduced a lot of the administrative work required by the Registrars as the season progressed. We had some teething issues to start, making sure the coaches or managers had the required access to enter scorecard information. However, once this was sorted, the process seemed to run fairly smoothly, other than the odd unexplainable systems glitch.

The running of the Derby Days and the corresponding umpire allocations seemed to have improved in 2019. The request for all clubs to advise me of the venue and game times for the agreed dates once confirmed, seemed to do the trick. It allowed us to update the draw accordingly and advise the umpires conveynor so allocations could be completed where required.

The changes made at the start of the season to the Conditions of Play seemed to alleviate some of the previous season issues and misinterpretations especially around Sections 4.16. To avoid penalties, I encourage clubs to continue checking with either myself or the registrars if you are unsure of the meaning or implications associated with any section of the Conditions of Play.

The eligibility requests for the finals series was not as stressful as the previous year, I think largely to some of the changes we made in the Conditions of Play at the start of the season. However, there are still clubs trying to push the boundaries of eligibility to get player onto the pitch for the final games of the season. I understand that everyone wants to play in a grand final etc. However, there is not one rule for some and another rule for others. I will reiterate that it is the responsibility of all club delegates, team managers and coaches to understand the eligibility requirements under the Conditions of Play at the start of the competition and manage your players accordingly throughout the season. Having ineligible players at the end of the season is your club/teams’ fault not the SWHL Committee’s. Please remember that SWHL Committee applies the rules fairly and consistently as they are written and where precedence exists.

I’d like to thank the SWHL Committee for again doing an amazing job of running our competition. We all volunteer our time willingly because we love our game and want to see SWHL grow and prosper. Congratulations to all clubs and their members for another successful season. The SWHL Competition continues to maintain a high quality and standard of hockey providing the strongest competition in NSW with pathways to develop and represent at the highest level.

Best wishes to you all for the off season.

Tracy Lane Secretary SWHL

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Fixtures Convenor Report Preparation for the upcoming season starts in earnest 5-6 months in the preceding year. 2019 was no different with predictive venue bookings being submitted from November 2018. Alterations to these bookings subsequently were required as a result of change in circumstances such as unavailability of pitches, major events or changes to the SHA match schedule. This rework just adds to the workload for the Fixtures Convenor and Bookings Officers.

The fixtures were available to all teams prior to the commencement of the season.

Whilst Club days are recognised to be an important aspect of the competition they continue to be a challenge to setting down fixtures. I am sure most of you do not understand the difficulty in scheduling all the requests. Until the SHA competition structure mirrors the SWHL structure difficulties will continue.

A consultation occurred with representatives of the Masters teams to ascertain their views on dealing with the impact of the Masters World Cup next year and consideration of an age criteria in the lowest division. In regards to the World Cup, it was decided not to play during the mid-year Australian Championships. It has been decided that there is minimal impact on players involved in the World Cup in Nottingham so games will continue during this time. The meeting did not support the introduction of an aged structured competition.

I would like to thank all clubs for their cooperation this season, especially those providing venues for our competition. Kathryn Recce and her team at SOPHC do a great job to support our competition.

Many thanks to the SWHL committee for their support and hard work again this season.

Sue Briggs Fixtures Convenor

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Registrar ML1-3

Another successful year has come and gone, thank you to all the players, coaches, managers, officials and committee who all contributed to this season’s success. This year saw SWHL introduce the Revolutionize online competition management system and relatively speaking it was successful with most clubs understanding the system with a minimum of fuss.

In the Metro 1 Grand Final Ryde turned around their semi-final defeat to account for minor premiers Sydney Uni 3-1 for the second time in three years. In Metro 2 Sydney Uni defeated minor premiers Moorebank in tight 3-2 tussle and congratulations to Sydney Uni in Metro 3 who defeated Mosman 1-0 to secure their 4th consecutive premiership in this division.

The final point’s tables are as follows below:

Points Table - Metro League 1 Team P W D L F A GD Points Sydney Uni 1 18 12 2 4 50 20 30 38 RHH 1 18 11 4 3 67 34 33 37 GNS 1 18 11 3 4 50 17 33 36 Moorebank 1 18 9 5 4 47 29 18 32 UNSW 1 18 7 5 6 50 38 12 26 WD 1 18 8 2 8 43 35 8 26 ND Strikers 1 18 5 4 9 29 47 -18 19 Mac/Btown 1 18 4 2 12 34 76 -42 14 Briars 1 18 2 7 9 19 56 -37 13 UTS 1 18 3 2 13 23 60 -37 11

Points Table - Metro League 2 Team P W D L F A GD Points Moorebank 2 18 11 6 1 42 18 24 39 Sydney Uni 2 18 10 5 3 39 16 23 35 Glebe 1 18 10 2 6 29 19 10 32 GNS 2 18 9 5 4 34 26 8 32 UNSW 2 18 8 5 5 37 24 13 29 Macquarie Uni 1 18 7 6 5 26 20 6 27 UTS 2 18 5 3 10 11 33 -22 18 Mac/Btown 2 18 5 1 12 18 30 -12 16 RHH 2 18 2 7 9 24 37 -13 13 WD 2 18 2 2 14 5 42 -37 8

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Points Table - Metro League 3 Team P W D L F A GD Points UNSW 3 18 11 3 4 24 11 13 36 MosHarbour 1 18 10 5 3 36 20 16 35 Sydney Uni 3 18 9 7 2 30 12 18 34 Briars 2 18 9 6 3 37 27 10 33 Moorebank 3 18 6 6 6 17 23 -6 24 ND Strikers 2 18 5 7 6 33 24 9 22 Wenty 1 18 5 7 6 19 26 -7 22 Manly 1 18 5 3 10 26 23 3 18 Glebe 2 18 3 5 10 14 34 -20 14 GNS 3 18 1 3 14 7 43 -36 6

Congratulations to Mikaela Patterson from Ryde in winning Loretta Dorman medal. Also, congratulations to the other finalists: Morgan Blamey (Ryde), Tahlia McKenzie (GNS), Kim Patterson (ND Strikers) and Ashleigh Wright (Moorebank).

Congratulations to Phillipa Hyde (Moorebank) who won the ML2 best and fairest and Alix Townsend (Wenty) who won the ML3 best and fairest. Also, congratulations to Abby Wilson (Ryde HH) who won the Open’s Leading Goal Scorer for the second year in a row, to win it once in Metro 1 is a great achievement but to win it twice consecutively would be very hard to match and congratulations to Georgia Graham (UTS) who won the Angela McCann Memorial Trophy.

Unfortunately, as easy as it is we still have managers failing to record best and fairest on the online system, this results in players from your club missing out on the opportunity to win best and fairest for the grade or be in running for the Loretta Dorman medal. I formerly used to chase these but going back through my previous reports I say the same thing every year and this year I did not chase them.

In closing I would like to thank all the team managers for all the efforts this year and the SWHL committee for their continued support and assistance. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe and prosperous New Year and I will see you all in 2020 and we will do it all again.

Regards,

Regards,

Micheal Gunner ML1-3 Registrar

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Registrar ML4-6

This year saw all clubs use the Revolutionise portal to a greater degree and as a Registrar it created less work for us so win, win in my eyes.

There are just a few reports that I would personally like to see included and streamlined a little more, but a success with the use from all managers so thank you.

Congratulations to all the Grand Final winners, Minor Premiers and all teams that made the finals.

Grand Final Winners

ML4 – Moorebank

ML5- Sydney Uni

ML6 - UNSW

Congratulations must also go the individual players who won their Division’s Best & Fairest.

ML4 Best & Fairest Joanne Lester – ND Strikers

ML5 Best & Fairest Laura Simpson-Helman – St George

ML6 Best & Fairest Delfina Bugge - UNSW

The final points tables are as follows:

Ladder – ML4

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Ladder – ML5

Ladder – ML6

Thank you Donna Parsons ML4-6 Registrar

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Registrar - Masters Report

Wow another year over, but what a great year 2019 was. 2019 saw the introduction of teams entering their results and players game count into Revolutionise. Overall, this was very successful with only a few kinks. Congratulations to SEHA 1, NSB 2, MSW 2 and Sydney South on their grand final win. Congratulation to all players on a great season but in particular to the following players who won Best & Fairest: Leigh Pasfield (Masters 1) - NWSHA Gold 1, Sue Bessell (Masters 2) – NWSHA Gold 2, Linda Viles (Masters 3) – Nepean 2 and Emily Moylan (Masters 4) – SEHA 4. Also, congratulations to Tiffanie Blanford - MSW 2, for being the highest goal scorer in Masters with over 20 goals for the season!

Final series results:

Grand Finals

Division 1 - SEHA def. NSB, 2-1 Division 2 - NSB def. MSW, 1-0 Division 3 - MSW def. NSB, 4-1 Division 4 - Sydney South def. SEHA, 1-0 (in extra time)

Semi Finals

Division 1 Major Semi - SEHA def. NSB/UTS 1-0 Minor Semi - NSB drew Sydney South 2-2. NSB win shoot-out 1-0

Division 2 Major Semi - MSW def. NSB 2-1 Minor Semi - Nepean def. SEHA 1-0

Division 3 Major Semi - MSW def. NSB 5-2 Minor Semi - NSB/UTS def. NWS Blue 2-1

Division 4 Major Semi - SEHA def. Sydney South 2-1 Minor Semi - NSB def. Nepean 1-0

Finals

Division 1 - NSB def. NSB/UTS 3-2 Division 2 - NSB def. Nepean 2-1 Division 3 - NSB def. NSB/UTS 1-0 Division 4 - Sydney South def. NSB 1-0

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Table results:

Masters 1

Team Played Wins Draws Losses For Against Diff. Points

NS&B/UTS 1 10 8 1 1 27 10 17 25

SEHA 1 10 8 0 2 37 6 31 24

NS&B 1 10 5 1 4 21 18 3 16

Sydney South 1 10 4 2 4 26 21 5 14

NWSHA Blue 1 10 2 1 7 12 27 -15 7

NWSHA Gold 1 10 0 1 9 9 50 -41 1

Masters 2

Team Played Wins Draws Losses For Against Diff. Points

NS&B 2 10 8 1 1 31 5 26 25

MSW1 10 5 3 2 17 12 5 18

SEHA2 10 5 2 3 15 10 5 17

Nepean 1 10 5 1 4 15 15 0 16

NWSHA Blue 2 10 1 2 7 8 24 -16 5

NWSHA Gold 2 10 1 1 8 5 25 -20 4

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Masters 3

Team Played Wins Draws Losses For Against Diff. Points

MSW2 15 13 1 1 58 18 40 40

NS&B 3 15 13 1 1 47 13 34 40

NWSHA Blue 3 15 4 5 6 15 26 -11 17

NS&B/UTS 2 15 2 4 9 23 34 -11 10

Nepean 2 15 2 4 9 14 38 -24 10

SEHA 3 15 3 1 11 20 48 -28 10

Masters 4

Team Played Wins Draws Losses For Against Diff. Points

Sydney South 2 15 12 3 0 44 6 38 39

SEHA 4 15 12 2 1 48 9 39 38

NS&B 4 15 7 2 6 30 22 8 23

Nepean 3 15 6 2 7 27 25 2 20

NWSHA Blue 3 15 1 2 12 8 49 -41 5

NWSHA Gold 4 15 1 1 13 3 49 -46 4

Thank you,

Emma Thuell Registrar Masters

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Publicity Report

The Sydney Women’s Hockey league in 2019 has been again a very successful one.

The SWHL have worked hard to make this competition the success it is and again each division went right down to the last round to define the semi-finalists.

The Derby days that Briars Glebe and UTS continue to play each season continue to be competitive between these clubs and the support seems to grow each year from the spectator point of view.

The SWHL presentation night that incorporates the Loretta Dorman medal was again a huge success.

Congratulations to Mikaela Patterson from Ryde on winning the Loretta Dorman Medal.

The medal count again went down to the last round of the competition in order to finalise the final five players.

It was pleasing to see all the award winners at the presentation from each division.

Hopefully this awards night will continue to grow in stature. It was good to see so many new faces at the medal this year and from all reports everyone enjoyed themselves.

Finally, I would like to thank the SWHL committee members for their support throughout the year.

Also, a big thank you to Richard Maher for being the host of the Medal presentation for the last 17 years. Richard has retired to South West Rocks to live and I know he will be missed in his support of the Sydney Women’s Hockey League, especially in the umpire ranks.

Gill Burns Publicity Officer

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Website Coordinator Report

The use of the Revolutionise platform was expanded this year, with Clubs now able to upload results and player data directly into the system each week. This meant that results and point scores were updated quickly after the conclusion of each round. Player participation in each game was also visible to all site users and made it easy for the Registrars to confirm against the official Match Cards, which were also now submitted via Revolutionise. I am advised the Revolutionise are working on updated systems for player verification and dynamic match cards (created by players electronically ‘signing in’ prior to games) that will benefit the competition in the future. Paul Economides Website Coordinator