Dear SKOBFC Community,
With 2023 coming to a close, it is with great pleasure we can look back at yet another great year for our club. Fielding a total of 10 sides (7 x men's and 3 x women's) is a huge effort logistically. I cannot thank enough the hard work put in by our committee, club management team, coaches, team managers and volunteers to make this possible.
The clear highlights for the year were:
the historic "three-peat" Premier division premiership from our Women's Senior side, led by coach Tom Purcell and inspirational performances from co-captains Bree Doyle and Margaret Gleeson.
the club being awarded the VAFA Club Championship for the second year in a row and for the fourth time since it began in 2010.
our Senior Men's side becoming just the third team in history to make 5 VAFA Premier/A-Grade division Grand Finals in a row. A tremendous achievement for the group, who once again were led admirably by coach Anthony "Plugger" Lynch and captain Sam Critchley. Full credit to our Grand Final opponents, Collegians, on their incredibly successful season and well deserved premiership win.
a huge improvement from our Under 19 Premier division team to not only climb back into finals but finish with the minor premiership and ultimately a Runner Up result for the year. This will provide the group with plenty of fuel to go one better in 2024.
a return to finals football for our Men's Reserves and Thirds (Academy) sides. The Reserves had a thrilling 4 point win in the 1st semi final over Old Melburnians under rookie coach Andy Clough before bowing out in the Preliminary Final. The Thirds had a great season under coach, Simon Olive, and were desperately unlucky to go down in the 1st semi final by 2 points to Old Scotch with the last kick of the day. Both sides will be very keen for further improvement in 2024.
A massive thanks to Paul O'Shannassy who led our membership drive this year and thanks to all who signed up - https://www.skobfc.com/weeping-willows-list We look forward to growing our membership base even further in the coming years.
The St Kevin's Football Foundation (SKFF) under the stewardship of Stephen Kerr continues to grow and build funds which will be vital to ensuring the long term financial viability of our great club. A big thank you to those who have already committed funds and we ask all in our community to consider supporting the SKFF either via a tax deductible donation or a bequest. Further details available via - https://www.skobfc.com/foundation
We would also like to pay tribute to our fantastic sponsors without whom we simply could not function as a club - https://www.skobfc.com/sponsors. 2023 saw us welcome new key sponsors - SGS Logistics, Hadley & Home, Vetta Pasta and Byron Bay Cookies. We are also pleased to announce that we have just secured Run Ready - https://runready.com.au/ as both sponsor and physio provider for 2024 and also Garvey & Company Real Estate - https://www.garveycompany.com.au/ as our principal real estate sponsor for 2024. Led by Adam Garvey (brother of former SKOB champion Ben), the Garvey family have been associated with SKOBFC for many decades and we are very excited to welcome them on board in this role. Adam said
"Garvey & Company are very proud to come on board as principal real estate sponsor of SKOBFC and continue a close family connection that dates back over 30 years."
With our eyes fixed firmly on the 2024 campaign, we encourage all in our great community to consider ways in which they can assist moving forward either as members, sponsors, volunteers or even just coming along to enjoy a match day. All help and support is warmly welcomed.
On behalf of the club, I would like to wish all in the SKOBFC community a safe and relaxing Christmas & New Year break.
Pat Mount
President - St Kevin's OBFC
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