Hi parents and club members,

Hello and welcome to our new Swifts interested in joining the club for the 2023 season. December is already here so our Tryout Tuesdays have finished for the year. We didn’t have much luck with the weather these past few months so it was great to see some new girls these past 2 weeks. Thank you for making them feel welcome and we hope to see you back in 2023.

Volunteer Lap of Honour at Matilda vs Sweden game
It was a privilege to be invited by Football Victoria to do a lap of honour around AAMI Park prior to the Matildas vs Sweden friendly match. This was to recognise the work volunteers do to keep community clubs going. Annelie, our Secretary, and Jennii one of our Technical Directors and I walked around the grounds taking in the scale and size of the arena. It was very exciting to see an international match in the purpose built stadium and to think forward to next year when the Matildas will return to Melbourne for the World Cup in 2023.

Juniors Coaching Course
We hosted the Skill Training Certificate coaching course – aimed at learning how to coach 9-13 years olds. Congratulations Michelle on completing the course and I know the U9 or U10 girls will be grateful for your coaching next year. With the volume of expressions of interest from the juniors and miniroos, we are definitely looking to recruit more coaches for our 2023 season. Parents are ideal coaches for our younger players, so please, if you have an interest in soccer and would like to support our young girls learning to play the game, please get in touch. We plan to run the Miniroos coaching course as well as the Skill Training Certificate again in Feb/March for any new Swifts parents stepping up to help us out.

Strategic Planning Workshop
We held a planning workshop last month looking at long term strategies and goals for the club. Thank you to those who spent the morning providing input and ideas. I’m finalising the draft and presenting it at our next committee meeting for endorsement, then I can share it with you all.

Go Soccer Mums
The Swifts entered a team for the Go Soccer Mums inaugural Knox Cup. I was convinced to put my hand up, to have a go and create a team and I enjoyed it more than I expected! It was good to observe how Football Victoria and VicHealth put on a football event and I hope to see more in the future. It was great seeing so many women and gender diverse folk of all abilities have a go at 5 a side football. You can see how much fun we had in the photos on our social pages.

Women’s Summer 7
The final round of the Women’s Summer 7s is on next Thursday 8th December. 8 teams across the north-west region have been playing on Thursday nights. Its been good to meet so many Swifts players, Leela the dog and players from other clubs. Come on down next week to observe the final games at 7pm & 8pm and then enjoy a sausage BBQ afterwards. Everyone welcome.

We will be finalising the 2023 season fees at the final committee meeting for the year next week. We expect to communicate details of fees and registration processes early in the new year. Expect registrations to open in January. We are planning to start pre-season training in the first week of February.

2023 is going to be a big year for football with the women’s FIFA World Cup coming to our shores. An exciting time for the world game.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday season. Go the Socceroos!!

Karen Cook
President MSFC