Dear Members,
Firstly I just wanted to thank outgoing President Norm Fawcett for all his diligent work over the last 18 odd years on club committees, coaching and 5 as our fearless leader, thanks a lot mate for all your work and I look forward to sharing many great moments with you in the coming years!
I joined the Wanneroo Districts Cricket Club in season 1998/99 following my family’s move to Perth from Townsville in North Queensland and have stayed with the club ever since, other than a short sojourn in England between 2003 & 2005.
I don’t actually know how many games I have played, but it would be under 150 games for our great club, while also captaining the Fourth Grade for a number of years, as well as winning, what I believe to be the greatest individual honour at the club, the Paul Lucas Medal. I have also spent a number of years on the Committee looking after, in the main, sponsorship. I have done that for 5 years, in two separate stints, bringing in many great new sponsors to our club. Also at the start of the season just past, I was honoured to be voted in as Wanneroo Districts Cricket Club Vice President, which was a great experience and something I learnt a lot from.
In 2009, I volunteered and started a radio show on Sport FM which lasted for 6 years (Longest standing Grade Cricket show on Sport FM), called Roo’s News on Monday nights. Being the radio show’s host, it was a great opportunity for us gain interest in our club and obviously wonderful to give something back to the sponsors and fellow supporters/players. From all I spoke to, the show was a great success. With not having a co-host, once Life Member and club legend Ian Purcell moved south, the show had to cease, but I do hope with support, we can bring it back!
Over my time at our great club, I have also been instrumental in bringing in people such as Mitchell Johnson and our last Sheffield Shield representative, John Rogers to the club, while also organizing and getting former Australian T20 representative Travis Birt, contracted to play and be assistant coach at our great club for a minimum of the next two seasons.
In my first season as Vice President, this year, I also managed lure former South African Test Cricketer and Level 3 Coach – HD Ackerman as our batting coach, we certainly hope to have HD around the club in the future, as he was a great foil for Joel during the past season.
At the end of 2016-17 season the club was in a very precarious position. We had another really disappointing season on field, while events, such as the Paul Lucas Medal were a mere shadow of the great night it had been in years before, which was incredibly worrying and sad to see for a lot of long time members and players at the club. Financially we have been in a strong position due to a myriad of reasons, but especially a frugal, professional treasurer in Karen Dzodzos.
Sadly the on-field performances have not matched this. This was the catalyst for myself, Coach Joel Charles and others to want to be involved and take more responsibility with the direction and help with creating a successful blueprint for sustained success, again at our club.
After many discussions with various persons involved at our great club, I was approached to run for the role of President (Chairman) over 12 months ago. Because of this I decided to run for Vice President for the 2017-18 season to make sure I understood where the club was at and the responsibilities involved with being club President, a role I definitely do not take lightly.
I believe it is a time for revitalization at the Club and the changing of the guard to a younger generation. My first goal is, with the new committee, is take the club forward following a couple of disappointing seasons where we have lost a significant amount of young talent. We need to keep hold of these players and work to achieve the club’s vision of developing more Shield cricketers, which in turn will lead to greater success on the field for the club we all love.
Another really important goal of mine is to have a much better integration between the seniors and the juniors within the club, we are one club and need to demonstrate this on and off the field, this includes consistent dialogue with junior parents and volunteers, to make sure they have a voice on the committee and the ability to express their views and opinions, as their continued support is one of the most important keys to the future at our club.
Encouragement of junior parents to get involved on committees, is needed also, it is so important from what the junior parents that I have spoken too have said. Last year they helped our senior bunch out a lot and I saw this at close quarters captaining the 4th Grade.
We also have to continue to improve the facilities at our club, which includes continued improvements to the club rooms, changing areas and the shed. To pay for this, we will need to continue our lobbying of local government, as we have done so well with Craig Nylander & Graham Burton with the relaying of the wickets, minus some minor issues out of our control. Whilst also raising monies through sponsorship and club events.
These are assets of our club and need to be maintained and improved.
Let’s build on a wonderful 20/20 win last season and be pushing for two day and one day honours this season, with the recruits, current players, juniors & all important committee/support staff/volunteers. I feel we are on the cusp of something special.
Thank you again for this opportunity to help our great club move forward.
Kind Regards,
David Minear