Season 2022
As we ready ourselves for the 2022 season, here is an in depth look at the exciting changes you can expect at Hale Hockey Club this year. If you just want to get straight to registration – follow this link.
New Major Sponsor
We are delighted to announce a new major sponsor – Link Plumbing and Gas. Link is a family business owned by our very own Adam Klages. They join Dankz Furniture as the club’s major sponsors.
Please do all you can to support Link Plumbing and Gas with all your domestic and commercial needs – and do pass the message on to friends and family. Their support of the club is extremely valuable
Check out their website at https://linkplumbing.net.au/. For enquiries and bookings please call 0862520326
Looking Good – New Shirts
New major sponsor……… so new shirts across the entire club. This year, included in your fees, you will receive a new Hale shirt with the new major sponsors logo. You’ll also find some arm art with logos from kit sponsors Flow (Darryn Flood) and Endeavour Homes (Dave Whitlock).
It is important that all players are dressed in the new kit as this is what our sponsors pay money for!
The new shirts will be exchanged for your old ones. We are conscious of the 1000 shirts that are currently in use and we will be collecting these shirts back in so we can donate them to disadvantaged communities that are seeking sports kits. Please support this initiative.
Looking Good 2 – Off Field Gear
The clothing doesn’t stop there. We will have a new range of off field gear for members and supporters to buy as the season approaches.
This will be held in limited stock quantities at the club for instant purchase.
First Class Coaching – Across All Grades
We are delighted to reappoint Madonna Blyth to run the Women’s First Team. Adam Klages and Michael Cake will continue their excellent job coaching the Women’s 2s.
Last year we said a fond farewell and thanks to Dave Staniforth and Stu van Selm from leading the Men’s program. We also received lots of feedback about getting coaching for the lower grade senior programs. We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Des King to the Men’s Premier 1 coaching position and that he will also be running Lower Grade Training for the Senior Men and Senior Women.
Des King joins us as one of the most highly rated coaches in Australia. A former Kookaburra (1990-93), Des has been an Assistant Coach of the Hockeyroos, a Junior World Cup coach and Head Coach of the Queensland Women’s Program collecting 8 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 bronze from 12 tournaments over 4 years.
For lower grade Senior training, Des will plan and take training sessions for the Mens and Womens programs. He will be assisted at each training session by Men and Women from the Elite squads. Captains will be able to work with Des to help get specific training drills relevant to their groups.
In the Men’s Elite Program Des will oversee the Mens Premier 1 – 3 coaching. He will be assisted in the first team by David Guest (pretty sure no Hale member needs his back-story) and 2010 Premiership winning captain Kane Greenaway. We’re delighted that after a celebrated career at the AIS on the East Coast, Dale Chapman rejoins the club to provide a fitness and conditioning program to the squad.
Technical Direction
While on hockey related changes, we are delighted to welcome David Guest onto the Hale board in the role of Technical Director.
Our club survey highlighted our strength in coaching particular at Elite and Junior levels. The addition of coaching to the lower grade Senior programs extends this.
After a period considering where the club is currently at, Guesty will be looking to help coach coaches, set up systems of play and help with player development so Hale becomes a real centre of excellence for hockey development, no matter your age or standard.
To complement this, we are also looking to ramp up our goalkeeper training and umpiring training programs – subject to available volunteers.
Change To Training Times
We received by clear feedback from club members, that lower grades would like access to earlier training times and not be put in the 8:30pm slot year after year.
We have changed the training times to the following schedule to reflect these wishes. This also allows us to provide the enhanced coaching program for lower grade teams.
The club will be running specific goalkeeper coaching on Monday – details will be communicated shortly.
There are no changes to junior schedules.
Tuesday
6.30 – 7.30 – Mens 4s/5s/6s/7s
7.30 – 8.30 – Womens 1s/2s/3s
830 – 10.00 – Mens 1s/2s/3s
Thursday
6.30 – 7.30 – Womens 4s/5s/6s/7s
7.30 – 8.30 – Mens 1s/2s/3s
830 – 10.00 – Womens 1s/2s/3s
We’re Growing – New Team
Our junior programs are seeing the benefits of the Minkey program set up by Kane Greenway more than a decade ago. With these numbers now graduating to senior hockey we need to start adding more teams. This year we will be adding an 8th Senior Men’s side to our portfolio.
We will also be running Men’s trials this year as we seek to place players in appropriate teams prior to the start of the season. Keep you eye out for the dates.
2022 Membership Fees
The board have been steadily reviewing fees over the last couple of years. Our aim is to sustain the facilities of the club while making hockey as affordable as possible for our members. Part of these reviews have already included reductions in fees for playing both Midweek Masters and weekend hockey, and also Minkey. We are also continuing our policy of family discounts.
This year we have reduced Senior Grass Fees to $363 + the Hockey Australia levy. This move is designed to reflect that these members do not use the turf facilities.
There are some minimal changes to other fees. All membership fees have been vetted to check they are in line with other clubs and we are pleased to be at the lower to mid end range of similar clubs to ourself.
Registration Headaches – Solved
To try and make registration easier for our members, this year we are including the Hockey Australia charges in the membership fees. It means you only make 1 transaction and we pay the fee onwards to Hockey Australia for you. It’s also the reason your fees look higher!
You can really help us by registering for before the end of February. It might not be important to you, but it is to us – as we have to nominate the number of teams we want to Hockey WA by then. So it helps to know numbers.
Fees must be paid in full before the start of the season, and members registering after February are not guaranteed a position in a team.
If you have any questions about the new registration system please contact our new Registrar Cam Brook (registrar@halehockey.com.au – 0416 215 415) and he’ll be happy to help.
Bar Prices
The good news was that we held bar prices for the last 2 years, despite the rising costs we were facing. The bad news is that we can’t afford to do that any longer as the cost of product continues to rise.
From February 1st, you will notice a small increase to all bar prices. We’ve kept the cost increase to the minimum we could.
Maintenance
There is a fair bit of work happening around the club. This has included some new fencing, the unblocking of the drains causing the turf flooding and ordering of new sprinkler parts for the watering system.
We’ve also opened a new dialogue with the school to ensure the at the hockey grounds are well maintained across the year.
A Focus on Facilities
As mentioned in previous communications, from the end of January we’ll be allowing Adam Hutchinson to focus on the facilities and bar management component of his role. To allow this to happen we have been recruiting volunteers to step into the roles that Hutch had ended up filling as there was no one else to do it.
Thanks to Hutch for carrying the club on these roles and thanks to the new volunteers for stepping up to the plate.
Yes, We Said Volunteers!
70% of club members said they were happy to volunteer and not pay higher prices. If that was you, then now is the time to step up as we still have volunteer roles to be filled! If that wasn’t you, we added a part to the Registration process so you can make a donation 😊
If you would like to volunteer, please email board@halehockey.com.au . We currently have no one to coordinate social events for example…………………
Key Dates
There are number of key dates coming up. Keep your eye on the website, social media or email for news.
Please mark in your diary:
- The club busy bee on Saturday 26th
- The summer sundowner on Sunday 27th Hockey and turfball for the kids. Adult refreshments on the deck for those who are keen.
If you are still with us, thanks for making it through. We’re looking forward to a wonderful year.
Blue is the Colour.
The Board.
Hale Hockey Club
