Season 2020 is one that promised an enormous amount for our club. Building on the good work of past years, at the threshold of the season we were looking to;
* Field 14 teams, with over 450 players
* Celebrate our new Women’s Premier Division team, including key signings from the AFLW
* Field a record number of Women’s teams (5)
* Evolution of very promising Men’s lists, as well as a resurgence in our under 19’s
* Enjoy finally being settled in to our new home ground with a vibrant North Shore community.
As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of all our lives, and the AFL’s announcement on March 23rd that all play and training would be delayed by a minimum of 10 weeks was a bombshell none of us wanted to hear.
The initial 10 week delay eventually became 15 weeks, but rather than feel lost in disappointment and frustration, our players and coaches challenged themselves to turn the negatives into positives and the general response has been amazing.
They’ve overcome the challenges of isolation and then restricted small group training to become arguably the best physically prepared North Shore group for many years. The season has begun with a significant lift in standards and some very strong performances, so 2020 might yet be a great year for us.
Apart from continuing our great on field work, the next big challenge for us is to achieve a stable financial position by the end of the season.
As you might have seen, recent surveys indicate that community sports organisations like ours around Australia have lost in the order $1.2billion due to the pandemic and it’s considered that something like 25% of them will struggle to recover.
We’re not immune to those pressures, with income forecast to be less than 50% of our 2019 levels and many of our costs well in excess of 50%. That said we’re determined not to be part of the 25% who don’t make it.
Continuing the theme of turning negatives into positives, we would like to introduce our North Shore Legends initiative to you.
We know that many people who’ve had strong associations with the club come down during each season, but they aren’t known to those of us who’ve come to the club more recently and because of that, we don’t feel they get the acknowledgment and engagement that they should.
The North Shore Legends initiative is intended to identify and to help connect these people to our current supporters and players, as well as to raise much needed funds for the club.
The mechanism for this is very simple –
The package that each Legends donor will receive includes a good quality red woollen jumper embroidered with North Shore, our Bears and Bombers logos and 2020. The jumper and the embroidery will identify the wearer as someone who is both connected to and a supporter of our club and particularly as someone who supported the club during the 2020 covid-19 crisis.
We will promote the significance of the red jumpers through our playing groups, as well as our broader community, and we will also encourage people engage with wearers of them; to thank them and explore their connections with the club.
By doing this we clearly hope to raise sufficient funds to put the club in a reasonable position at the end of the season, but probably more importantly we are looking to help our current members and supporters to become more aware of the history of our club and to help our past players and supporters to become more connected to it.
Negatives into positives.
In addition to receiving this very special jumper you will receive half price drinks every time you come to Gore Hill wearing the jumper during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
We are very aware that many of you have contributed already significantly in many ways to our club, but we hope that you can see the value in this initiative, both in terms of helping us get through this really challenging time and in connecting the past to the present to help ensure we appreciate and retain the history of our club.
Our target is to raise $25,000 and we have 25 North Shore Legends jumpers available @ $1,000 each. Get in early and lock in your favourite number!
To get on board, drop us a line at sponsorship@northshorefc.com.au
Regards,
North Shore Legends Committe
