Essendon Royals 2022 Annual General Meeting Report

The Essendon Royals Annual General Meeting was held at Ormond Park on Monday, 7 November.

The Club Committee was delighted to report on a fantastic year at the club, as the Royals and the wider football family were finally able to enjoy a full season of football following two heavily interrupted years thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Season 2022 saw the club enjoy immense on-field success, with the Senior Men and Senior Women both earning promotion to NPL3 and Victorian Premier League Women, respectively, whilst both our Reserves Men and Women were crowned champions.

This was also our first full season in the JBNPL competition, following false starts in 2020 and 2021.

The Club was delighted to see two teams qualify for Division 1 and our Under-18 side contributed a number of players and minutes to our championship-winning Reserves side.

The Royals will soon be able to confirm that more than five players have also been identified by A-League clubs and will progress into their academies in Season 2023.

Our Community Football Program went from strength to strength, retaining an incredible 80%+ of pre-Covid players and seeing further growth in female footballers.

Several under-16 girls players were given fantastic opportunities to progress into our championship-winning Women’s Reserves side, highlighting some of the talent the club is producing.

With a 40+-week JBNPL offering, the club has also entered the Junior Super League competition, providing fantastic opportunities for our younger community teams to play all year round.

As always, grounds and facilities continue to challenge the Royals.

The Club welcomes the recent completion of the Moonee Valley Soccer Strategy and the identification of potential sites for much-needed football infrastructure.

However, with many of these plans still some way off implementation, the Royals continue to work hard with Council to find space for our 800+ registered participants throughout the year.

With over 1,000 players having registered for trials with the Royals for the 2023 season, it remains clear that the demand for soccer in the Moonee Valley is soaring and that – unfortunately – the Royals and our fellow Moonee Valley clubs struggle to meet that demand due to the lack of facilities within the City of Moonee Valley.

Despite this, the Royals are committed to growing our female football program and are excited to be able to add a new open-age women’s team to our lineup in 2023, as well as new teams in our youngest age groups, thanks to the increasing number of girls participating in our Kick-Starters program.

At the Annual General Meeting, a new committee was elected.

The results of the election are as follows:

President – Richard Di Sauro (Re-Elected)

Secretary – David Rowan (Re-Elected)

Treasurer – Jenny Palmisano (Elected for first term)

Juniors Representative – Frank Nappo (Re-Elected)

Seniors Representative – Steve Tribuzio (Re-Elected)

Jenny Palmisano is the only new face on the elected committee, and we are delighted to welcome someone with her skillset to the important role of Club Treasurer.

President Richard Di Sauro was elected for his sixth consecutive term and will work alongside fellow long-serving committee members David Rowan, Frank Nappo and Steve Tribuzio.

The Executive Committee will be supported by the club’s growing Football Department and Operational staff and volunteers.

The Club has also amended its constitution to allow for the creation of a brand-new Advisory Board.

The Royals are delighted to have been able to formulate a board of exceptional and diverse talents and will make further announcements about this board in due course.