Dear Members,

If you had of asked me three months ago where I thought the club would be situated at the end of May I would have hoped that all teams were still in the running for a finals birth. As it currently stands the senior and reserve teams are undefeated the 19’s have lost one and sit atop of the ladder and the womens team is still very much in the hunt for a finals birth. As a president I could not be prouder of how each team has applied itself in over the first 7 weeks of the season. The best example of this has been the under 19 group. This year I have been lucky enough to see the boys in action 3 times and the comoradory they have developed in such a short space of time amazes me. After playing with each other for such a short period of time they can only improve as individuals and as a group which is a real positive, both for the club and the boys participating each week. As a side note it has been great to see many of their parents down watching through out the early rounds.

Since I last wrote many exciting things have been occuring around the club. The highlight being the success of our recent family friends/flag raising day. With about 100 supporters in attendance the club was able to celebrate the enormous success of 2009. At the sametime we were able to showcase our future with all three male teams playing on the one day. Each team had a win however, it was the gritty come from behind victory by the unders that caught most people attention. I think it shows that the future of the club lies in the youth. The La Trobe University Football Club aims to climb the amatuer grades over the next 5 years. The club will only be able to do this by brininging in new blood to put pressure on current senior and reserve players. Th addition of Jack McMeel and Brendobn Wood into the senior line up this year only lends support to my theory both are only 20 but have been playing some excellent senior footy over the first few rounds. Additionally current under 19’s player Karl Joyce played his first senior game on the weekend and feature in the best. This should send a message to all players that with the rite attidude and a little application veryone can and should be trying to play senior football at La Trobe.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to announce an exciting new joint initiative between the footbal club and the University: The offical La Trobe University Football Club Alumni chapter. This will be an official database controlled and maintained by the iniversity of all the players who have pulled on a LTUFC jumper. The chapter will be launched officially on the 31st of July at our round 16 match (more details soon) in the mean time we would like all people who have played at the club to update thir details on the University database this can be done by following the link attached to this newsletter. Additionally we would like all past players of the club to keep this date free as we would like to have as many football club alumni as possible in attendance.

Brad Van Ooi