2025 Annual Report & Summary of the Year

November 13th, 2025

The Altona Hockey Club is proud to present the 2024-2025 Annual Report:

President’s Year in Review

The Altona Hockey Club entered a new era in 2025, welcoming our long overdue pavilion upgrade. We must use this as a catalyst to enter a new phase of growth for this club, increasing our membership and raising our profile in both the Hobsons Bay and Hockey Victoria communities.

Our famed stoicism enabled us to perform on the pitch and foster a close knit community atmosphere, despite the previous aging and outdated clubrooms. However, the way we’ve cracked on post the new pavilion opening, after the joy and relief, has demonstrated that we can lift to a new level, befitting of a best-in-state facility.

We must thank our partners on the project, the Hobson’s Bay City Council and the Victorian State Government, for their funding. In particular, we must thank Lauren Dick and her team from HBCC for managing the project and their guidance throughout the build. We also are grateful to the Honourable Melissa Horne MP, Hobsons Bay Mayor Daria Kellander her councillor peers, and HV CEO Andrew Skillern for assisting us open the new pavilion.

There are many members to thank for their contribution to this project, with Richard Samuel and Riley Faulkner providing professional advice along the way. Numerous members were involved in the pack down of the old rooms and the unpacking into the rooms, but in particular, we must thank Ian Bartlett, Steve and Lisa Brennan and the Whitford family. Many others assisted including Greg Jones, Danny and Carmel Brennan, Lauren Winship, Tim Grunwald, Kellie Roadley, David Burns, Jesse Gatt, Benn Henderson, Peter and Kieran Symons, Bronte Kerley, Kayla Williams and Andrew Scanlon. Thanks to all I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

Andrew Meiers was deservedly awarded the Cyril Turner Award for 2025, for his outstanding contribution to the new pavilion project. Andrew was the club’s project manager, committing hundreds of hours to meetings with council and the builders. He also managed the fit out, sourcing trades people and materials, and was present for all working bees to pack up and unpack the club’s equipment and gear. We thank ‘Harry’ for his immense contribution.

The Club is focused on growing our membership, and continue to promote the sport of hockey in our local Hobsons Bay community. We have restructured the Junior Committee to enable a focus on both retaining our current numbers, and continue the growth we saw in 2025. We have strengthened the committee with experienced hockey coaches and administrators to continue to offer a strong skills based curriculum, avenues for elite development and to kick-start an era of growth in quality and quantity.

We experienced growth of 19% in our junior girls participation in 2025, but our senior womens participation declined by 6%, and we had to withdraw a senior female team. The Club will be refining the junior to senior transition process over the summer for both male and female players, but we have a particular focus on growing our womens and girls numbers in 2026 and beyond. Our Tommy Thompson Award winner, Albee Damnics, played a crucial role in coaching girls this season, but also remains a strong role model for that cohort. Along with our senior coaching staff, led by Danielle Schubach, Steph Young and Tracey Drake, our elite on-field leaders, Bronte Kerley and Josie Erbsland, we have the foundations to become a force in Victorian Womens Hockey in the near future.

While we look to the future, we also honour our past, and acknowledge that we can learn from our past successes, and contributors, on and off the field. Our second Reunion Round coincided with the pavilion opening, and was a great success. We had numerous life members, past players, coaches and former administrators in attendance, with some even flying in from interstate! We will spend the off-season looking at ways to incorporate our proud history into the new Clubroom fit out. We will continue to hold the annual Reunion Round, inviting back all past members and friends of the club to celebrate the past, but also to embrace our exciting future.

This year was not without its challenges. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank all members for their patience while we operated without club rooms for the first half of the season. Thank you in particular to all the administrators, volunteers, coaches and team managers who were the glue keeping the club together when we had just some shipping containers, a site office and each other!

One of the main challenges was the lack of revenue from our on-site food and beverage sales for the majority of the year. Thank you to all those who worked hard to maximise our revenue opportunities when we did have them. Thank you to Caelen Jansen, Merryn and Kevin Brennan for their help running the canteen and bar respectively. A big shout out to Barry Fox, who in addition to his game day work with the Womens teams, also was the driving force between our sponsorship efforts, and a huge part of our Bayfit fundraiser campaign.

Summer is a time of rest for some, but it is also a time when the foundations for 2026 and beyond are being laid by many in the club’s administration and coaching staff. I implore all members to continue to support the club in any way you can – volunteering, supporting our sponsors and contributing financially to our coterie or fundraisers.

We are a family club, and this club is our family – let’s continue to support and work hard for each other. It’s the Altona Way.

Brian Fanning, President, Altona Hockey Club

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