A Christmas Message from the CEO

Dear Tiger members and supporters,

On behalf of everyone at the Club I’d like to thank you for your support throughout 2022.

It’s been another really busy year with some exciting outcomes for the Club, particularly having had all teams reach the finals. Highlights include our Under 18’s winning the premiership, Under 16’s making the grand final, and the club finishing in the top three of the Stanley H Lewis Trophy, after winning this trophy two out of the past three years. We also had young gun Jakob Ryan taken by Collingwood at pick 28 in the AFL Draft, which was a great result for his hard work and dedication, and a great reflection of the quality of our Tigers Academy program.

As you’re aware, it’s been a busy off-season and quite a difficult one having had to reach an agreement with Senior Coach Brett Hand to part ways. Whilst these situations are never easy, I cannot be more impressed with the attitude and efforts put in by our players, coaches and footy department staff to stand up through this adversity, build our resilience and use this as a mechanism to build greater leadership capabilities. Our culture continues to go from strength to strength, and I’m particularly excited with the amount of hard-working and talented kids coming into our senior program this year who have a real thirst for learning and being the best they can be. The search for a new senior coach continues and will be announced in due course as we work through this important recruitment process.

Whilst recruiting and list management is always a challenge in the off-season, we have been able to improve our list from last season. Having secured ruckman Cameron McGree, exciting Sydney Swans player James Bell, Connor McLeod, Scott Beilby and Mackinley Miller, we feel we have a lot more depth and balance than 2022. It will also be exciting to have Brett Turner back in the tigers guernsey, for whom I’m sure will have a great season and be an integral part of our midfield group. Richard Douglas has started full time work at the Club as our GFCW Football Operations & Talent Manager as well playing a key role in our men’s program. Richard is already having a positive impact at the Club with his footy knowledge and expertise.

As we head into Christmas, I would just like to wish all of our members, supporters, staff and volunteers a happy and safe Christmas and New Year. If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, I can highly recommend the Ton Of Tigers centenary book written by Club Historian Peter Cornwall and his team of authors. Don’t forget a 2023 membership is also a great gift idea and helps the Club out immensely!

Best wishes,

Scrippsy