ES NL ROUND 4 e programme

CHAIRMAN’S
Welcome
Good to
be back!
A warm welcome to you for
todays’ game against our western
neighbours from Waitakere. It is
a particularly pleasing occasion
for Eastern Suburbs AFC because
the location of the fixture physically
demonstrates our desire to
involve our neighbouring clubs we
have partnered with in this adventure
(back) into the National
League. My thanks to Paul Burns
and Matt Sheehy and the rest of
the Fencibles volunteers for hosting
us today, which is the first of two
Stirling Sports Premiership games
to be played at this ground, the
second being in late February.
For those who not aware Eastern
Suburbs has made a concerted
effort to involve Ellerslie, UniMount
and Fencibles in our National
League set up.
The purpose of this is twofold:
1. To provide a strong and clear pathway
for football players in the Eastern
Region. The pathway afforded by the
National League and National Youth
League is a key tool in helping ‘hold’
players in our area and clubs, with the
ultimate prize being stronger clubs in
our region
2. The secondary objective is to engage
a wider audience and garner support for
the Eastern Suburbs NL team. Our club
alone does not have the “whole package”
with respect to the criteria required to
play NL football so have leaned on the
other clubs to counter our deficiencies.
This has manifested itself in ground
sharing for both playing and training,
contribution of players for our NYL team,
and a combined approach with the
communications and game day team as
some of the examples. Our hope is that
the intellectual knowledge gained from
this experience will filter through into all
our clubs, in short a win:win for all the
partner clubs involved.
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