To the passionate and loyal supporters of the Ringwood Football & Netball Club,
We are officially at the halfway point of the 2024 season, a season that has had lots of ups and downs, but overall has been an exciting year for the club. I wanted to take the time to give an update on what has happened this season so far and what is in store for the second half of the season.
Football & Netball Teams –
On the football field, our senior men are 6th on the ladder with a record of 5 wins and 5 losses. Our reserves are equal 6th with a record of 3 wins and 7 losses. Our senior womens team are currently without a win, but have battled away incredibly well all year are being graded incorrectly.
On the netball court, we have two teams currently sitting on top of the ladder. Our Ringwood Black team are undefeated on top after starting the season with an incredible 9-0 run, our Ringwood Red team are also in the same division and have started the season with a record of 1 win, 5 losses and 2 draws. Our Ringwood White team have started the season extremely well and are also on top of their division with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss. We are looking forward to cheering all our netball teams on in the second half of the year as we look to win our first ever senior netball premiership since becoming the Ringwood Football & Netball Club. Our netball teams train at Jubilee on Thursday nights in our indoor training facility alongside our footballers, with all players joining together for dinner and team selection after this. This ability to have our netball teams train alongside our football teams continues to see our netball numbers grow year on year and keeps improving our club culture. The strength of netball program is in large part thanks to the great work of our netball coordinator Nicole Stagg.
Senior Men –
After missing out on finals in 2023, our senior men started the season in empathic fashion with a 3-0 start, with the most impressive win coming as we beat last years grand finalists Heathmont by 48 points, keeping them to only 3 goals! After suffering some key injuries, we lost to Waverley and Croydon by two goals each, two impressive performances against the second and third placed teams. We are confident that with a full strength team we can beat both clubs on the run home. Another strong sign for the second half of the season is our game against premiership favourites Boronia. Despite losing, we fielded a very under manned team and kept Boronia to their second lowest score for the year, going down in a close game.
This year we have seen several of our younger players develop and grow to thrust us right back into finals contention. Younger players such as Josh Meerkotter, Jacob Bell, Tom Murfett and Josh Matthews (to name a few) are having standout years. Star ruckman Jett Latchford has also been featured in the VFL twice in the last month and is going to be a big factor in the second half of the season.
Coming into this season, we added new assistant coach Cameron Crowley from Premier Division team South Croydon. The addition of Cam, along with senior coach Brett Rowe and assistant coaches Jason Reynolds and Ciaran Burgess has made for an extremely strong coaching panel that is producing great results. We are confident of where this group can lead us in the second half of the season.
Reserves –
Our reserves started the season with an absolute bang, defeating 2023 grand finalists Templestowe in round one. Since then, they have had an up and down season showing that they can absolutely match it with the best when required, but consistency will be the focus area for the reserves in the second half of the year. Leader James Shambrook has had a great start to the year in front of goals, he currently sits second in the league goal kicking. Young players in this team continue to lead from the front, with Lachlan Stewart and Luke Haddock having massive starts to the year. We have also had several of our under 17.5s players step up and play reserves, showing a strong pipeline of players coming through the ranks.
Senior women –
Our senior women’s team were unfortunately graded incorrectly by the Eastern Football Netball League, the team has battled in an incredibly positive way each and every week. The team are yet to get a win on the board, and as a club we have pushed the league hard to re-grade the team to make for a more competitive year, unfortunately these requests have been repeatedly refused. Despite this, senior coaches Zoe Cant and Zoe Price have led the team extremely well and have a positive group who continue to put in competitive performances each week. As a club, we could not be more proud of the perseverance and strength of our senior women’s playing group!
The lowpoint of this season for our senior women’s team has been the retirement of Zoe Cant due to concussion. Zoe was an inaugural member of our senior womens team, the assistant coach of our 2021 premiership team and a league and club best and fairest winner. Zoe is a champion of our club on and off the field and we are extremely sad to see her time on the field end, yet we are grateful for her continued contribution to women’s football at Ringwood through her coaching and commitment to improving the club off the field.
An update from assistant coach and football operations support Duncan Cant was recently published and can be found by clicking the link below.
https://www.ringwoodfc.com.au/blogs/news/senior-women
Netball –
With six rounds left for netball, our Ringwood Black and Ringwood Red teams are setting themselves for a strong finals campaign with the two teams both sitting on top of the ladder. After finishing as runners up in the summer netball league, we’ll be looking to go one better in 2024 and finish the season with one, if not, two premierships! Make sure that you pay attention to these teams in the second half of the year, and we need to make sure as a club we get around and support our netballers as they head into finals. We also have our Ringwood Red team who will be looking to have a big second half to the season to jump into finals contention. Beyond the results, we have welcomed a great number of players to the club in 2024 through our netball teams and this is a great positive for the club as we continue to grow all areas of the club.
Pay attention to our social media channels for updates on where the teams are playing.
Life Members –
In the second half of the season, we will be celebrating 200 games for two stalwarts of our club. 200 games for the club entitles a player to life memberships, which will be awarded the night of the game for the player. Aaron Boone became the first player in 2024 to reach this incredible milestone and in doing so, became the 73rd life member of the Ringwood Football & Netball Club. It was great to see the clubrooms absolutely packed to celebrate Booney on Saturday night!
Scott Laing and Declan Hill are also closing in on this milestone. 200 games represents at least 12 years playing for the club (with two covid interrupted seasons thrown in there!). This milestone is a testament to the dedication that these players have shown to our club. Impressively, Scott will celebrate 200 senior games for the club, just the 5th player to achieve this feat, joining John McKenzie, Brett Cairns, Cameron Parker and Tim Burmeister (some very important names in the history of our club). Declan is set to play his 200th game on Saturday 27 July v Lilydale, while Scott will reach his milestone on Saturday 10 August v Mulgrave. We will be holding a ceremony for each player at 6pm in the rooms after the game, we expect both occasions to draw big crowds as we celebrate two champions of our club.
On top of these milestones, Luke Way and Jamie Atkinson are closing in on 250 club games. No player has ever played 300 club games for Ringwood, so we may be seeing history unfolding with these two club champions.
We also retrospectively awarded John ‘Impy’ McKenzie life membership at our past players day earlier this year. Impy is a legend of the club and one of only four players to have played 200 senior games for Ringwood. The rooms were packed with past players to see Impy receive his much deserved recognition.
Finals –
We will once again host finals at Ringwood in 2024. Last year we hosted the Division 3 finals series, as well as some Premier Division finals. We will again be hosting these games, with dates to be confirmed. We will be putting the call out for volunteers in coming weeks and we will need help from all of our supporters to run finals again successfully.
The feedback from the EFNL and Maroondah City Council regarding our hosting in 2023 was glowing, as we once again set the benchmark for how a club should have a welcoming environment to host finals.
Hosting finals continues to be very important for the club to give us a financial injection to support everything else we do. The cost imposed by the EFNL to host, however, is significant and the cost of stock (alcohol, food etc.) has only increased this year. As a rule of thumb, the first 2-3 days of finals that we host go to just paying for the cost of hosting the finals and the stock itself, so we are reliant on good weather and big crowds to make a finals series financially successful for the club. The majority of the profits from finals are reinvested back into our junior club so that it can continue to grow, and we can continue to see great success for Ringwood into the future.
Steve Bricknell & Rick George will be rostering our finals, we will put the call out to volunteers in July.
Beyond this season, we are continuing to work with both the EFNL and Maroondah City Council to bring the highest-level finals to Ringwood. With the best ground and facilities in the league, we want to see the best possible games being played at Ringwood and we remain committed to that goal.
Juniors –
Coming off being awarded junior club of the year in 2023, both our junior and senior committee have remained focused on continuing to grow our junior club this season.
Our Auskick is the backbone of our quickly growing junior club again this season. Meg Corbett continues to build a strong auskick program that feeds into juniors with big numbers each Friday night at the club.
The under 8s and under 9s are having a great season with strong numbers. Both teams are non-competitive and are having lots of fun representing Ringwood for the first time for many of them. We are seeing several ex players who are now taking on roles in these junior teams and others as their kids begin to play for Ringwood. It is great to see these young teams continue to grow year on year as our junior club builds.
The under 12s girls team is a new team in 2024 and they are doing incredibly well! The team is a merged team with Boronia and we are thankful for Boronia for being so easy to work with to get the team on the park! The team is made up of three quarters Ringwood players and overall numbers have grown throughout the year. Based on this growth and the positive vibe amongst the group, we are confident of fielding not only an under 12s Girls team in 2025, but also an under 14s Girls team – both as standalone Ringwood teams. Thanks to everyone who has made this team happen, we are excited to keep growing our junior girls program at Ringwood! On the field, the team sit 5th on the ladder and are just out of finals. They are getting better each week and are exciting to watch in action.
The under 15s boys are having a fantastic season so far, currently sitting on top of the ladder with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss. After winning only 2 games last year, the team has bounced back in a big way and have their eyes squarely set on premiership glory. With incredibly strong numbers, the teams depth has proven a big factor in their winning ways in 2024. This team is stacked with talent, as shown by Josh Buratti being named interleague captain and the team boasting two of the top three goalkickers in the division. With four rounds to go, the under 15s will be a team to watch as they head into finals full of confidence and talent. There are several players in this team who will go on to make a big impact in our senior team in the future.
The under 17.5s boys have also had a great season so far. They are sitting 4th in B division, with only one game separately 1st from 4th. The top four is so tight that this team beat top of the table Knox last week by 4 goals. With four games to go against teams all in the bottom half of the ladder, the 17.5s are well placed to finish 1st or 2nd and secure a double chance heading into what will be a tight finals series. After just missing finals in A division last year, this team is stacked with talent, and they are going to form a very strong under 19s team in 2025. So far this year, seven players from this team have made their debut in the reserves, with one playing a practice match in the senior side. With extremely strong depth, this group of 17.5s are going to make a big impact in our senior team in future years. There already looks to be a future senior captain in their ranks.
Growing the juniors continues to remain an area of focus for the club, with great attention and resources placed on this area of the club. The junior committee led by Sarah Dalton has done an excellent job to continue to grow our juniors. We again except to add more junior teams in 2025. Reflecting on where the club was nine years ago with no junior teams and small auskick numbers, we have come a very long way and continue to grow at a rapid pace. We are on an exciting journey for our juniors, and it will only get better as we continue to grow.
Financials –
The cost of running the club continues to increase, with council and EFNL bills totaling more than $60,000 for the year. On top of that, the cost of goods such as alcohol and food has increased significantly. The senior club also continues to subsidise the junior club so that they can continue to grow, this will remain a commitment from the senior club as we remain focused on growth in our juniors. The club also subsidises the cost of running the senior women’s team, with significantly reduced fees so as to encourage female participation in football and to grow our club. Combining all of this, we continue to incur large amounts of debts as we focus on reinvesting all profit back into the club. Overall, we are tracking to finish the season in a similar financial position to 2023 with a modest profit. This will be very much contingent on several factors though:
- Crowds/weather for finals
- Attendance at the $5000 draw (this was lower than expected last year)
- Crowds for our remaining home games in the second half of the year.
If we did not have the support of our great sponsors, our financial position would be very dire. We are still heavily reliant on the support of our sponsors to run the club each year. Ensuring financial sustainability was a key focus area for the committee over the past few years, and we want to keep that focus moving forward, while reinvesting any additional profits into our junior club and women’s program to grow both areas of the club so that we can return to being a powerhouse in all areas of the club.
Events –
So far this year we have had some very successful events at the club including: Season Launch, ANZAC night game v Heathmont, past players and officials day, Ladies Day, Juniors Day, Aaron Boone’s 200th game and life membership, and Zoe Cant’s Worlds Greatest Shave. These events have been well supported by our supporters and we are incredibly grateful for that. We have also been able to use these platforms to raise large amounts of money for some of our charity partners such as Share the Dignity, Breast Cancer Network Australia, Leukemia Foundation and Fight MnD. One of the most notable of these was senior women’s coach Zoe Cant’s recent World’s Greatest Shave event where she raised more than $7,000 for the Leukemia Foundation by shaving her head at the club. Congratulations Zoe, this was an incredible effort from you to raise a lot of money for a very good cause.
In the second half of the year, we have a few big events to come that we would love to see as many supporters at as possible. These include:
- Footy Ball – 6 July
- Pride Cup – 27 July
- Declan Hill’s 200th game and life membership – 27 July
- $5000 Draw – 3 August
- President’s Lunch – 10 August
- Scott Laing’s 200th senior Ringwood game and life membership – 10 August
- Presentation Night – 26 September at The Coach
Tickets for the footy ball, $5000 draw and the President’s lunch can be purchased online within the next week. All other events are at the club on gameday, and we would love to see the club packed for them!
TAC Campaign –
In 2023, committee member and football and netball player Olivia Ashcroft took it upon herself to promote the message of road safety within our club and help the TAC with their Towards Zero campaign. Olivia’s effort was so good that the club was recently acknowledged as having been the best club in Victoria in spreading the message of road safety by AFL Victoria and the TAC. As such, the 2024 TAC Road Safety campaign was launched at Ringwood last month with Olivia front and centre in the video campaign thanks to her efforts. Congratulations Olivia on the amazing job that you did! Olivia will again be running the road safety campaign in 2024, please make sure to support and congratulate her when you see her at the club.
VFL/AFL –
This year we had two Ringwood players make their VFL/AFL debut. Star ruckman Jett Latchford made his VFL debut for the Box Hill Hawks after a strong pre season with the club. Since making his senior debut straight out of under 19s in 2021, Jett has worked harder than anyone at the club to improve his game and he is being rewarded for it. Jett continues to improve each week and it’s great to see him playing alongside some of the best players in the game! When he is not selected for Box Hill he is back at Ringwood and is a dominant force all over the ground.
Son of a Ringwood legend Wil Parker made his debut for Collingwood in the AFL this year. After committing to Ringwood in 2021, Wil decided to pursue cricket and was signed for Victoria as a professional cricketer, going on to play for Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL. After deciding earlier this year to move back into footy, Wil was quickly picked up by Collingwood and made his AFL debut not long after. It’s safe to say that we won’t see Wil running around Jubilee soon as his AFL career goes from strength to strength, but as a club we are so proud of him and the entire Parker family! We look forward to seeing him play for Ringwood after he has had a long and successful career for Collingwood.
Merchandise –
We have stocked up with fresh merchandise for the second half of the year. All merchandise is available for purchase at our home games, simply head upstairs to our merchandise stall. If you are looking for a way to help the club on gameday, manning the merchandise stall would be a great help! We want to see all our supporters decked out in Ringwood club gear. It sends a strong message to opposition teams about the great support that Ringwood has.
Honour board –
We are currently working closely with the council and our co-tenants at Jubilee to get an honour board up in the pavilion acknowledging the great financial contribution from so many of our supporters to donate to the pavilion build. We were hoping to have this done last year, but it has proved to be a more drawn out task than expected. I am hopeful that we can have an honour board up before the end of the year to acknowledge all the great people that build our new pavilion.
Sponsors –
As I mentioned already, sponsorship makes up the majority of our current income and we could not survive without our sponsors, most notably The Coach, Noel Jones Maroondah, The Ringwood RSL, JP Flynn and Ringwood Mazda. These five are the major sponsors of our senior and/or junior club and are crucial to our success.
A list of all our sponsors can be found on our website by using the link below. The majority of these businesses are doing it tough in the current cost of living crisis. So, we need to make sure that we support them, if we don’t support them, they can’t support us. Thank you to all these local organisations, they have helped to build our club up from where it was!
https://www.ringwoodfc.com.au/pages/sponsors
Committee –
I’d like to give a big thank you to the work of the current committee who have continued to put in a mountain of work to ensure things continue to run smoothly at the club, the current committee consists of myself as President, along with:
Junior Club President: Sarah Dalton
Vice President – Football Operations: Trent Bartholomew
Vice President – Administration: Jaime Pope
Treasurer: Gary Phillips
Secretary: Karen Murfett
Women’s Football Operations Manager: Abbey Jordanov
Marketing Manager: Jayden Cairns
Netball Coordinator: Nicole Stagg
Head of Commercial operations: Rick George
Welfare Officer: Matt Riley
Social Events: Jacinta Collier
Players Representative: Olivia Ashcroft
General Committee – Mick Gray
If you have made it all the way to the end of this update, you are a true hardcore Ringwood supporter and I thank you dearly for your dedication to our club.
Thank you to all our great supporters, you are the lifeblood of our club and are the reason that so many of us volunteer our time. The club is bigger than any of us individuals, and exists to make our community a better place and create a space for people to come and feel at home – thank you for making that happen.
Go Redbacks!
Jake Keogh.
Ringwood Football & Netball Club President.