President’s Message – COVID Return

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all keeping well.

This has been, and remains, a very challenging time for all of us. All activity at the club was stopped in March by government directive, suddenly and without any ability to plan properly for it. This was a huge financial, social and psychological blow to employees, footballers, coaches, the club itself and all families associated so closely with the club. As well, social restrictions are having an enormous impact on so many aspects of our lives, perhaps in ways we do not yet know or understand.

However, nothing can keep a good club down! An enormous amount has been done, practically speaking and in terms of planning for trading in a socially restricted environment, behind the scenes in a quiet, composed and considered manner, with a view to putting us in the strongest possible position to resume club activities on and off the field.

We were able to put 34 employees on JobKeeper, which, while it is easy to say now, was quite complex to implement in the early days when there was a lot of uncertainty. The club, I believe, has benefited from doing this both in the venue itself and in relation to football activities.

The venue has been cleaned in preparation for re-opening. The carpets have been steam cleaned, offices and boardroom tidied. A stocktake has been done. The outside grounds were maintained and mowed.

The bistro will re-open for the first time for dinner on Thursday 25 June 2020. Bookings are preferred as it makes it easier then to comply with distancing requirements. Please support the club. We do have capacity to sit quite a few people for meals. More about this will be posted on our various social media platforms.

Our junior and senior footballers returned to non-contact training three weeks ago. We were the first NPL club in Victoria to do so and, I think, probably one of the first football clubs generally in Victoria to return to training.

It is expected that the junior football season, NPL and community teams, will commence in late June and early July.

Seniors at this stage are expected to commence playing competitive matches in mid-July; however, many of the other NPL clubs have not been willing to resume playing this season so the form of the competition to be resumed remains uncertain. Green Gully SC, however, will be participating in a competition.

Today, the Premier made an announcement that allows us from 20 July to re-open the whole venue, with strict distancing, cleaning and hygiene requirements. I know that we had already started planning for a reopening of the entire venue but now having a target date will be very helpful.

I can proudly say that all these things happened, and are continuing to happen, because we have loyal, caring, intelligent and hard-working employees, in all departments and at all levels in those departments, who appreciate and understand the importance of team work. I thank them for their effort and leadership.

I hope to be able to see more faces around the club in the not too distant future. It is time for us to show that we are all Green to the core! C’mon Gully!

Anthony Klotz

President