End of Year Report – President Haydn Raitt

Please accept this as my final President’s Report. It has been a great pleasure serving as President of this wonderful club for the past 10 years.

There are many people, both groups and individuals, that I would like to acknowledge for their assistance and support.

Firstly, to Brian Ciccotosto. Thank you for having the confidence in me to suggest I should nominate for the Presidency a decade ago and to Terry Dean for the guidance and help he has given me during the journey.

To our outstanding members. Many thanks for the great support you have given me and my board during the highs and lows our club has experienced.

To our Friday night members especially, over my 21 years at the club you have been truly magnificent.

To our sponsors, many thanks for your continued support.

To Eileen Bond, Peter Johnson and Steve and Dorothy Buttery, your generosity is unsurpassed.

I would like to acknowledge the many players who have come through the club during that period in all three grades. They have been a fine group of young men of whom we can all be extremely proud.

The coaches and support staff have worked extremely hard to develop the players to enable them to achieve that elusive premiership.

During the decade there has been a number of achievements of which we can be extremely proud. In my first year as President one of the club’s most successful coaches, John Dimmer, delivered us the 2009 WAFL premiership.

After winning a flag in my first year I thought it was easy, only to find out how difficult it is to achieve the ultimate success. In its 118-year history our club has only been premiers 13 times.

The introduction of the Hall of Fame was a great initiative of our past CEO, Brian Ciccotosto. This saw some of our great players of the past recognised for their outstanding contributions to the club’s proud history.

I was also very proud to attract a past great player Tom Bottrell back to lead our club as CEO. Tom had previously served in a similar position at the Swan Districts.

Another achievement of which we can all be extremely proud was the formation of the Stephen Michael Foundation. This will help improve the lives of so many young people, male and female in our country and metropolitan zones.

I would like to thank Stuart Kemp, Gavin Jahn and Tom Bottrell for their commitment to bringing this project to fruition. The Foundation will enable the club to give something back to our zone which has given us so many great players over the years.

To the board members that I have served with over the journey; many thanks for the time you have put into the club and for the support you have given me. To my Vice President, Peter Christie, our boards nominee for the vacant President’s position many thanks for your support, you do an outstanding job.

Another great initiative has been two ladies joining the board. Both are doing a great job, many thanks to Jane Grljusich and Liz Houston. Sal Capolingua has decided to step down from the board after 29 years looking after the Club’s finances. Well done and thanks mate.

I leave the special one to last. Susie, many thanks for your great support. You and you alone have been unbelievable in helping me do the job the way it was meant to be.