Start up for season 2013

The season is well and truly underway with a number of  things happening.

Planning for the season was greatly impacted by the timing of the court redevelopment and subsequent availability of courts. At worst we only have 8 courts during construction so game times have been adjusted hence you have seen a few empty courts. As construction gets underway this will change. The Board decided to set times for divisions from the start so we wouldn't have to keep changing them and confusing people.

Redevelopment construction starts in the velodrome from Monday 8 April. First stage is primarily for upgraded drainage and construction of temporary grass courts. I plan to record and upload a video log of redevelopment progress to a YouTude channel - search for Caboolture Netball.

Cost to the association for redevelopment is $115000. There will be additional cost for seating later on.

Upcoming courses and clinics;
Foundation coaching - 28 April (register on the NQ site)
Lynx player development - 12 May at a cost of $25 (registration form on CNA website)
Laura Geitz clinic - 23 September at a cost of $47 (register at www.laurageitz.com.au/clinics )

Our rep teams have been training well with their first day carnival played recently at Sunshine Coast Netball a success, five out of nine teams coming away with trophies. Next carnival is Southport on 21 April.

The  Mount Franklin Challenge competition has started with our U16s having a draw 38 all in their first game. Our Opens team had a bye first round and are yet to play their first game.

Monday and Tuesday night ladies competitions start soon - from 15 & 16 April. Further details are available on our website.

So let's get started..

It may be the off-season for some but the Association keeps on going.

In recent weeks Ian Heath our Operations Director and I have met with MBRC to finalise plans for the redevelopment of our courts next year. The immediate news is construction will start in April and we will not be playing at St. Columbans as fore-shadowed at previous meetings. It would be too expensive and the loss of revenue to the canteen, our major income source, would potentially create a high risk for the Association. Final plans and costings go to a Council meeting on 18 January.

Bottom line we will have a minimum of 9 and up to 11 courts available to us for the day season, including 6 additional grass courts in the adjoining velodrome.

The bigger issue will be training space for rep teams and clubs during the construction. I plan to hold the first meeting of a 2013 Competition working group in the near future to start the conversation and planning on how we run our competition next year.

For those of you interested, Caboolture had a team in the inaugural Netball Qld Men's Challenge Cup. Unfortunately, after being in the top two all season and finishing on top after the rounds, we lost the grand-final to SEMMNA 51 - 39 despite beating them in both rounds.

At the AGM, affiliated delegates voted by special resolution to adopt a new modernised constitution, subject to additional consultation with clubs. That consultation took place on the 10th October with some additional changes being made following that process.  A final version has been approved by clubs and will be forwarded to the Office of Fair Trading for approval.

Under the new constitution a smaller committee structure will exist with 5 of the proposed 7 positions filled at the AGM. Position descriptions for all positions are currently being reviewed with the remaining two positions to be advertised in the future. As an interim, Keren Frohloff is acting in the position of Development Director so we could effectively run the current club development program.

On the 25th November the Suncoast Region are running an Active After School Communities Program for potential coaches at the Caboolture Association Courts. This is a series of planned coach training with the outcome being you are accredited to coach within the AASC program - similar to the OzKick program I guess. This could provide clubs with direct access to new members so I think it is a great opportunity. Information has been provided to all clubs so if you're an interested coach or just a parent, contact your club secretary for a nomination form.

That's it for now, but as always email me if you have particular things you want to know about from behind the scenes at CNA.

Greg

Who would have thought...

It seems far more people read this Blog then I thought. I have to apologise for not keeping it up to date and I will try to do better from now on.
Also, make sure you comment or ask questions. I am more than happy to answer questions about issues impacting Caboolture Netball.
In coming weeks I will try to provide updates on;

• court redevelopment,
• a thursday morning ladies comp,
• our men's challenge team and a possible junior men's clinic and
• constitution modernisation and committee restructure.

Let me know of any other issues you might like me to provide information on.

Happy Netball

One down, one to go!

So, the first of the elections has passed. Steve Dickson: Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing has been announced. He is almost local coming from Buderim and we have a new local MP, Darren Grimwade who is also a local of Burpengary. Ex-rugby League referee Tim Manderhas been named as the Assistant Minister for Sport and Racing, so maybe we will see more of him than Steve Dickson.

Either way, I look forward to meeting all of them if the opportunity arises, particularly Darren. I will look on with interest as the LNP sports initiative Get in the Game unfolds given our current redevelopment proposal advancing to final detailed planning and costings by mis-April.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Mark Ryan for his contributions to the community as our local member over the last 3 years. Mark has been a hard worker and has been there to help out Caboolture Netball Association on more than one occassion, particularly following the floods in 2011.
It was Mark that brought the then Minister for Sport and Recreation, Phil Reeves out to Caboolture to inspect the damage first hand when all the news outlets were talking about Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and every other part of the state but Caboolture. This led directly to the funding for repair of our courts, so thanks Mark.

Now, probably more importantly we wait to see how the Council elections pan out.

So, some quick updates;

March-past on 17 March was a great success with great weather (meaning no rain) and a huge turnout of both players and family. We have grown again this year with an extra club, Naranga Dynamos moving across from the Pine Rivers Netball Association. This gives us a total of 96 junior teams playing on a Saturday. Netball Queensland tells me we have grown 23% since 2008, keeping ahead of state averages so we may be one of the 10 biggest associations in Queensland by now.

Last Sunday, the 25th March we took almost all of our rep teams (U17s didn't go) to their first carnival of the season at Metropolitan Districts Netball Association at Cooparoo. Again we had great weather,teams generally performed well for their first outing and we came away with one runners-up trophy in nine divisions, but had two others that missed out on count backs. This was also the first outing for our new rep uniforms and all the girls looked fantastic. Our gold colour is unique amongst all of the reds, greens, blacks and blues which certainly helps them to stand out.

Both the ladies night comps have had their Summer Finals now, with Monday Indoor already into their Winter season. Outdoor starts on the 17th April.

We have two teams playing in the Mount Franklin Challenge (previously Schweppes Challenge) comp at the State Netball Centre this year - U16 will play Division 1 and for the first time we have an Opens team that will compete in the 2nd Division. That comp starts in a few weeks, after Easter.

Don't forget Laura Geitz, star defender of the Firebirds and Australian Diamonds is coming to Caboolture on 17 May from 4.00 - 6.30pm. You can register for the clinic on Laura's website. Cost is $45 per player.

Upcoming Netball Queensland coaching accreditation clinics hosted at Caboolture;
13 May -  Foundation Coaching
2 June - Development Level Coaching

That is about it so enjoy your Easter break and see you for round 3 of fixtures on 14 April.

Council budget not so good.

MBRC budget came down this week. I have been waiting to see if any major funding had been allocated to the court redevelopment. Unfortunately it is all disappointment - no major funding has been put towards our project.

Council did allocated $905000 to extend indoor netball courts & carparking at South Brendale. This follows the $1.2 million invested in that complex and the $380000 to resurface the courts at PRNA last financial year. They are also spending $11million odd on the Burpengary Sports Park next year but that is primarily to relocate the AFL from Barr Oval near the showgrounds. I don't think any other sport get any benefit so good luck to the Lions.

Today I have received a letter from Greg Chippendale to inform me that MBRC has provided $25000 in the budget for detailed planning. I guess that is a step in the right direction and we just have to wait our turn; meaning another year. Apparently there is some committment to funding in the following 2 budget years. I am not sure why that is. I just hope they don't think they can stage the development, courts one year and light the following year. That would be devastating to our night competition, club training and rep training, not to mention the stress it would put on the association's income stream. I will no doubt bring this up with Council at the first opportunity.

So, what does this mean in the short-term?

First up, we resurface at least courts 1 - 4 with grant money I was successful in getting from the SRQ Flood Fightback fund. Hopefully that can be done during the September school holidays. At worst we may not start the summer comp until mid-October, which is probably about normal time anyway.

Secondly, in the new court layout we demolish the little shed at the western end of the complex. I intend replacing it with another larger shed at the eastern end (behind the practice wall), possibly at the same time as court resurfacing so we only have trucks coming in over grass courts once. It will depend if the trucks can actually get to the site.

Third project, would be to do some design work to extend the clubhouse at the eastern end, providing additional storage, an umpires station, elevated viewing platform over court 5 and access to intended terracing of the hill behind courts 6 & 7. The aim would be to do the ground works at the same time the courts are being re-built.

I am happy to take on any other suggestions from members so please come and talk to me or email me.

Court redevelopment news

I recently spoke to the MBRC facilities management staff who informed me they have the final proposal from the consultants that we have been working with. Final plans include 14 correctly spaced courts with full competition quality lights and new drainage. I hope to have a copy of the final report by the end of this week.

They also informed me that Council should be deciding on budget allocations for next year by mid-June so fingers crossed we are included.

We received $52 000 (ex GST) from Sport & Rec Qld last month to repair & resurface courts 1-4. I had originally considered trying to do that repair work in the July school holidays but the executive committee have decided that is too risky, particularly as we have our annual rep carnival on Sunday, 10 July, the last day of the holidays.

Council have agreed it may be wiser to wait until the September holidays. I have spoken to SRQ and they are aware of the delay. The funding has to be acquitted by end September so we are on track to do that.

Will provide a further update after I see the final report.