From the far boundary…
With the club’s promotion to ‘B’ grade after appearing in last seasons C1 Grand Final the Cougars have a lot to look forward to in season 2023!
As well the club’s two Colts sides excelled last season, with the IDC team winning its Grand Final and the BJC team reaching the finals.
The C1 Reserves played off in its finals and the E1 grade were ‘runners-up’ in their Grand Final.
The E2 side and the ladies were not as successful in 2022, however they were great contributors and supporters of club activities throughout the season.
During the season the club had many players and members who reached milestones in their football careers. These players are featured in Alex Haight’s reports in this blog.
Our clubs coaching staff are currently supervising pre-season training with the six men’s and the lady’s side participating. Profiles of our coaches will appear in later posts.
Don Benson also continued to provide great photos of our milestones in 2022, we trust he will enhance the posts and pages in our weekly reports again this season.
Our President Andy Mann and his committee in conjunction with the football direction team are looking forward to another harmoniously and successful season.
Their efforts were made particularly difficult last season as the facilities at Ray Owen Oval have become completely inadequate for six men’s and a lady’s side.
The club desperately needs to upgrade and add to its existing change room facilities particularly for ladies, as well as medical rooms, toilets and umpire’s rooms. Storage for efficient operation is also completely inadequate with club officials having to store essential equipment and other club material in their own homes!
The surface of Ray Owen oval cannot handle the heavy workload placed upon it by our expanding club, plus junior football and use by surrounding schools. In 2022 two of our grades were forced to train on alternative ovals throughout last season!
In the latter part of the 2022 season the oval became unusable and dangerous to play on, necessitating additional changes in training venues leading to disruption in the clubs 4 finals campaigns.
During the cricket season complaints about the dangerous surface of the oval were also made by umpires in their match reports to the Perth Swan Cricket Association.
Some thoughts for the future …
Over the past two years I have been approached by club members, supporters and sponsors as to why the senior football club is located in Lesmurdie. They believe that the club should be based at Kostera Oval.
Their reasons are based on dissatisfaction with the present facilities at the club and the poor state of the oval. They also believe the football club has completely outgrown its present location and don’t believe the proposed expansion of the oval into the Lesmurdie Primary School area, will alleviate the problem.
The new parking area developed to serve the basketball and football has solved some objections regarding the location, though the destruction of many trees in this endeavor has made local residents very angry.
The appearance of parking inspectors during a recent cricket match at Ray Owen oval has also been a public relations disaster for the City of Kalamunda.
Ratepayers are going to ask many questions as to why a shire that does not have traffic lights is incumbered with the cost of parking inspectors and an administrative burden that will increase exponentially as parking fines are issued.
For example, the new department will need to seek statutory declarations from fine objectors, resulting in additional cost to recover the serving of infringement notices!
All this aside, we supporters of the Cougars know this dynamic club will overcome all obstacles placed before it in season 2023 and provide Courage, Commitment and service to the Community!
This post is dedicated to Don Benson Photography proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club
The post has also been encouraged by ‘Ratepayers at War’ an organisation dedicated to efficacious delivery of municipal services.