Dear Bullants,
The 2024/2025 Senior Presentatrion Night was held at the Veneto Club on Saturday 10th May.
It was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the season and recognise the team and individual achievements. We celebrated the 2nd X1 win in the B grade Grand Final and recognised each of the senior teams’ award winners.
We also inducted two Life members on the night. Joseph Paolucci and Lee Woolcock were formally inducted as Life Members of the Bullants. On behalf of the Committee and club members, I would like to congratulate Joseph and Lee for their outstanding service to the Bullants.
We welcomed our new 1st X1 captain, Marcus Adams. Marcus is a passionate and experienced cricketer. Marcus can’t wait to hit the ground running in his role as captain. He will nurture and help develop our young but determined playing group into a force to be reckoned with.
Presentation Night is also an opportunity to thank the members of the club who have rolled up their sleeves and helped run the club.
We hit the ground running for 2024/25, after the previous season’s AGM in April 2024. Other than Santino, as Facilities Manager, every position on the Committee changed.
We said farewell to Harrison Free, our 1st X1 captain, Jessie our senior coach and Clayton Howard, our Junior Coordinator, and a number of Committee members.
A huge amount of work happened during the off season to appoint Matt Agrotis as 1st X1 Captain, generate sponsorship and put 5 senior and 6 Junior teams on the park. In addition to this, we appointed John Dinneen as our Coach, Tim Moran as Junior Coordinator and Daniel Martino as our Woolworths Blast Coordinator.
Clubs don’t just run themselves. It takes a small army of dedicated volunteers to make things happen.
A thankyou goes to every member of the committee, and non-committee members, who have managed to juggle work and family commitments to support the club.
I want to thank members of the executive committee, Scott Boyd, Matthew Leggio and Pino Paolucci, who have pulled up their sleeves this season to help it run as smoothly as possible.
Matthew as Secretary, has often gone well beyond his role description supporting all members of the club. From organising permits, player registration, uploading scores to Play HQ, and supporting Pino as Treasurer, the club would not have been as successful, on and off the field, without his dedication. On behalf of the Club, I thank Matthew for his tireless efforts over this past season.
Having Scott as Vice President has been very important. He has been an invaluable sounding board throughout the season. His experience and advice have been incredibly helpful when important decisions have had to be made. Scott’s efforts, alongside Jen McMahon, Narelle Vogels, Bernadette Dinneen, with Pink Stumps Day have seen this significant event grow and become the largest and most noteworthy social event on the Bullants social calendar. More importantly, this year the club’s Pink Stumps Day raised over $7000, making it one of the largest fundraisers for a club of our size. Scott contributed all his efforts without even bowling or hitting a ball.
Pino stood up at the last minute, at the start of the season, to take up the role of Treasurer. As part of the executive, he has also been an important sounding-board when decisions have had to be made. On top of his role as Treasurer, Pino Captained the Thirds. We all know that, at times, especially at the start of the season, it was a challenging position to be in.
Like Scott, Santino has continued in his role as Facilities Manager without putting on the whites. Santino’s role is incredibly important. From marking the lines on the grounds, cleaning the clubrooms, ordering food, stocking the bar and cooking on a Thursday night, Santino’s support around the Club is invaluable.
Thank you to Tim Moran for taking on the role of Junior Coordinator this past season. He filled huge shoes with Clayton Howard leaving after a long stint as Junior Coordinator. Organising junior coaches and players, organising team managers and managing parents is a huge responsibility. In addition to this role, Tim coached the Women’s and U14’s teams and supported them throughout their season with umpiring and coaching. On behalf of the Committee, thankyou Tim for his incredible dedication in this role for this past season.
On behalf of the committee, I thank John Dinneen, Our Coach and Chairman of Selectors for your wisdom and experience this season. You have had to make some tough decisions in your role and have had some honest conversations with people over the last 18 months. John has been a fantastic person to have around the club, pitching in behind on the bar, cooking gourmet hamburgers at the Women’s Semi Final and being a reliable sounding board for me in my role. And all it took was a few slabs of the green Coopers.
I would also like to thank the Junior Coaches and parents who have supported their children this past season. A big thank you goes out to Luke Mason, Patrick McInerney, Jack Muir, Dan MaNamara and Matt Vogels. Junior parents and coaches play a very important role in nurturing young players interest and enthusiasm towards cricket.
To our General Committee members:
We thank Patrick for maintaining our social media pages and posting information and photos on these platforms. The club has also appreciated the times when you’ve pitched in and helped behind the bar.
Nicholas, thank you for jumping behind the bar and helping out around the Club when you could. Hopefully, we’ll see you back playing cricket next season.
Les Pataki, thank you for captaining the 2nd X1 this season as well as being our “net” captain and helping to organise and facilitate weekly training sessions. Your experience and wisdom have been incredibly valuable when important decisions have been made during our committee meetings.
Thank you to Daniel Martino who stepped up this season as our Woolworth’s Blast Coordinator. Along with Hamish McClean, the two of you, with some help from other senior players, made this important program come to life for our budding young cricketers. Woolworths Blast is often the first step into cricket, and making these young cricketers feel welcome around our club is a great memory they will have.
I also want to recognise the support and commitment other members of the club have shown this past season.
Joseph Paolucci: Thank you for helping the club create our new website and upload important information to our social media platforms. You have also provided important words of wisdom and advice to our young playing group.
I also would like to thank John ‘Frizz’ Cochrane who has continued to support the club in so many important ways. John has continued to be our chief statistician, maintaining players’ statistics and updating these regularly.
John organises certificates for player milestone games that show a variety of important information. John has also helped score for the first X1 this season and was a great support providing cold towels for our teams during hot playing conditions.
Thank you to Ian Simpson who has generously provided the club with dozens of practice balls this season. Also, a big thank you to Maurie O’Dal who continues to support our club and presented an informative presentation this season to our playing group about umpiring.
A big thank you goes out to our Sponsors:
- 774 Euro Motor Works,
- Essential Fire Safety Services,
- Bulleen Eyecare,
- Jackson Court Charcoal Chicken,
- TileTeknician,
- Fitness Fernwood and
- Terranova Digital.
We are grateful for the financial support you provide our club. It helps us purchase equipment, merchandise and run the weekly needs of the club.
On behalf of the club, I want to thank our Senior Captains:
- Matthew Agrotis 1st X1,
- Les Pataki 2nd X1,
- Pino Paolucci 3rd X1,
- Fiona Moran Women’s Captain,
- Jack Muir Vets Captain and
- Hamish McClean T20 Captain.
We are grateful for the time and energy they spent organising and preparing their teams each week. For some of you, securing a full team by Saturday or Sunday morning has been a challenge, let alone organising the bowlers and batters and fielding positions and trying to give everyone a fair go.
Thank you to all the players who have played for The Bullants in the past year. Some of them travel long distances and sacrifice work and family time to play for the Bullants. Many of the players have played over 100 games for the club and your commitment and loyalty is greatly appreciated.
I want to thank all the partners of our players and committee members. I understand at times your partners’ commitment to our club can be an inconvenience to you and your family. However, we all have passions and interests, and it’s important that these interests are pursued to support our own satisfaction and mental health.
Our AGM is on Monday May 26th at the Ted Ajani Club rooms starting at 7:30pm. Every position on the Committee will be up for re-election.
I invite and encourage members of the club to put their hand up and step up into a role on the committee. It would be great to have some of our mums and women’s players take an active role at a committee level.
It’s important to have a variety of voices and experiences on a committee to ensure all members of the club are engaged and made to feel welcome. We already know that three important roles will need to be filled, including Secretary, Junior Coordinator and a General Committee member.
I encourage people to step up and be involved in our club. Volunteering is an important service to your local community.
As President, it has been a privilege to oversee the running of the club. I’m excited for the future. To be successful, it will take a commitment from all members to roll up their sleeves for the benefit of the Bullants.
Don’t ask what Bulleen Templestowe CC can do for you.
But rather, what you can do the club.
Kind Regards,
David McClean: President Bulleen Templestowe Cricket Club
