Good Evening Aquinas Faithful,

I hope you’re all doing as best as you can in this lockdown.

I’ll just start with this…At times it’s OK, and at times it’s not…And that’s when a good friend, a team mate or someone you met at the club may just be the right person to have a chat with. Don’t be afraid to reach out to me or anyone else in the club and just say hi. You may be helping yourself and you may just be helping them too. Clubs have an amazing power in times like these so make sure you tap into it if you like.

Tonight I’d like to quickly raise 3 items with you:-
1. Return To Play Update
2. TAC ‘Band Together’ promotion – I NEED YOUR HELP!!
3. Team Photos
4. Presentation Night/Day/Etc.

RETURN TO PLAY UPDATE
As we don’t know when we’ll be allowed to come out of lockdown and in what form, the YJFL have been putting together proposals for what may occur. The original 14week season was set to be completed with finals played on 29th August. The latest update is based upon lockdown finishing on September 2nd with a return to play on the 5th September. At this stage a return to play on this date looks highly unlikely. Sadly, all game fixtures being discussed are for finals only.
What this means for Aquinas JFC is that neither our U14 or Youth girls teams have qualified for finals and as such, we have completed our season for 2021. The YJFL was able to schedule 10 of the original 14 games in season 2021 and for that we are thankful.

TAC ‘BAND TOGETHER’ PROMO – I NEED YOUR HELP!!
The TAC has been trying to hold a round of football this season as “A reminder we all have someone to drive safely for.” At the training night before this lockdown was announced I issued special armbands for each player to wear in the next game. This was to help the community support this message. Our club is a supporter of this message for all the many reasons. One of which is the very players we drive around and support and another is the players as they learn to drive. So I’d like to ask for YOUR HELP. This weekend we’re going to run a Facebook awareness program. We’re going to promote the TAC Program and proudly wear the armbands and submit our photos on our Facebook page in the comments field tagging #tacbandtogether . The TAC provided a .PDF file to print and cutout so we can use their bands….Let’s do this for the great message it delivers and also to thank the TAC from Aquinas JFC for their sponsorship. I’ve put a copy of the file in our TeamAPP documents section and you can also get it by visiting www.tac.vic.gov.au/bandtogether.

TEAM PHOTOS
It’s true we can’t get together, but we need to capture and celebrate our year. So I ask anyone who has worn the jumper, been on committee or held a game day position (including team managers and team first aiders) to take a photo to be used in a special team photo. We’ll then get cracking on making this the best team photo we could’ve imagined!! So we need all players to get into their footy gear and have 3 photos taken all outdoor and if you can on a footy oval! (That just means plenty of space in the background.) 1. Full Shot (boots to head) 2. Waist to Head 3. Handballing / Kicking / Holding a footy. (Your Choice!) Some of these may be used in an end of season video too which will only be shown within the club (not on our social pages) so enjoy them and give your best smiles.

PRESENTATION NIGHT/DAY/Etc.
At this stage we don’t know when we can get together as a group again so we have a few ideas on what to do. What we do know is with no more games, we can arrange our trophies and awards. These should be ready soon but it’s still too early to try and choose a date. Once we hear more from the State Government we hope to be able to propose a few dates. I guess we should also consider a VIRTUAL event depending on how long this lockdown will be, however the committee are leaving this as the least preferred at this stage. We all know getting together one more time for season 2021 is what we all want. If that means a sausage sizzle in a park or an afternoon at The Coach Hotel in Ringwood, all options are being considered. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.

That’s all for now, and I apologise for the length of communication. We love you all…We miss you all…BUT we are still a great club even though we can’t see you right now.
So get cracking….Print off your armbands for this weekend. Take your team photos and send them to me at mattslatt43@gmail.com.
Then take another with the armband on and submit it on our Facebook post on the weekend. Let’s show how string we are together and have a laugh.

See you all soon. Cheers,
Matt

Matt Slattery
President
Aquinas Junior Football Club
0407844942