Media Statement – Outer East Football & Netball, Women’s Football Competitions

Tuesday August 1

Media Statement – Outer East Football & Netball

 

Recently there has been much social media activity and some direct communication to Administration in relation to the Outer East Football & Netball, Women’s football Competition.

Much of this attention has come in relation to the lack of media exposure related to our Saturday Night Scoreboard not recognizing the Saturday Women’s results across the season.

By way of background, this service is provided by one of our partners and within the arrangement there are time restrictions on receiving results after a certain time and therefore the generation of social media activations.

While some Women’s matches are completed earlier in the day the majority are completed after the cut off time we have contracted with our partner, which does not allow for us to provide this service across our Women’s competition currently.

 

For the 2024 season we will be rectifying this matter and will be making certain that this recognition is provided for our Women’s competition, there is always room for improvement which we acknowledge.

With Women’s Finals scheduled for Sundays across the next two weekends we will be making certain a Sunday Night Scoreboard for Women’s results is produced and distributed in a timely manner.

 

Outer East Football & Netball acknowledge that the recognition, display and distribution of Women’s results has not been to an acceptable standard in 2023. We apologise for this and commit to making improvements across our Women’s finals and for the 2024 season to rectify this important matter.

 

While on the matter of Women’s Finals there has also been conjecture related to the timing of the Women’s Finals being fixtured for the following two Sundays, August 6 & 13.

We conduct a large competition catering for Senior Football and Netball, Junior Football & Netball as well as Women’s, Veterans and U19 competitions and the co-ordination of finals is always a balancing act.

We fully appreciate that there will be players in our Women’s and Veteran’s teams that volunteer across our junior competitions and acknowledge that there will be inevitable clashes of fixturing across finals. Unfortunately catering for every request is not able to be achieved and in planning while attempting to satisfy as many requests as possible we are not able to cater for all.

 

We will also do our best to schedule our competition Grand Final days on weekends that do not clash, so as to support clubs, volunteers and families. Appreciating that Grand Finals are the pinnacle of our competitions.

 

One aim for our Women’s finals is to have them participate as standalone matches to allow for greater recognition and so as not to get lost in the Senior Football & Netball home and away seasons. Another important factor in fixturing the Women’s finals on a Sunday is to allow for Senior Football & Netball clubs to be able to attend and support their women’s teams competing in finals, as well making important club volunteers available to assist with matchday roles at the Sunday Finals.

Scheduling Women’s finals on a Sunday also allows Outer East Football & Netball to maximise the number of available umpires to fill finals appointments. During 2023 Outer East Football & Netball have not been able to provide full compliments of umpires, at times, across the home and away season due to a lack of umpire numbers and availability to fill appointments at the scheduled times for Women’s home and away fixtured matches.

 

Overall Outer East Football & Netball have been and will remain committed to improvement. We are extremely proud of our Women’s Competition, all associated with it and acknowledge we do not always get it right.

 

In addition to the above statement, we would like to advise that Outer East Football & Netball are totally committed to providing an inclusive environment for all to prosper and look forward to continuing this journey with our clubs and stakeholders.

With initiatives such as our first “She Can Coach” session in early July, the appointment of a Women’s Coaching Ambassador, our planned Women of the Outer East Leadership and Networking luncheon (August 24) and planning around Women’s Coaching and Umpiring academies we are certainly headed in the right direction.

 

In closing we value the recent feedback on the above-mentioned topics to improve the service and offerings, we commit to providing better support to our Women’s Competition overall and look forward to working with all clubs to continue to make our Women’s Competition the best it can possibly be.

 

Brett Connell

Chief Executive Officer

Outer East Football & Netball

 

 

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