| The London Season Begins and Other Musings... |
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 Well as I write this
on the first Saturday afternoon of London football I haven't seen any results
but at the same time my phone hasn't been ringing with news of problems either,
so hopefully it is all going smoothly.
I set myself two
goals when I took this job and I can't say I've been fully successful in either
of them, though there is progress.
The first was to
separate responsibility for London from the BARFL task list and that has been
done in a way. We have created a new body, AFL London, which will look after the
three divisions in London. That sounds like a success as it has all happened,
but we don't so much have a committee, rather myself fielding most of the
issues, and Luke Shaw looking after the umpires. To be a fully functioning
body the committee will need a treasurer, and a few more
hands.
Not to say that it
is a two man show, we've had the support of the full BARFL committee as well,
but the idea is that that needs to happen no longer, and that is the reason I
don't feel fully successful in my endeavours there.
At the end of this
season, when we have elections, we'll call for a proper AFL London committee to
be formed and from there the goal will be achieved.
I've mentioned the
BARFL twice, and it was to do with this that the other goal is related. The
rebranding and restructuring of the BARFL hasn't completely happened.
Rebranding, yes, but no new structure at this point.
The BARFL is no
more, it has become AFL Great Britain. That was a major step forward, and I'm
pleased we're more or less there. As far as rebranding goes anyway. And not
quite, as we're still waiting for an official logo. Unlike at AFL London
where we decided on a simple logo with a London icon, at national level we're
keen on using the AFL branding to both capitalise on the well known oval logo,
and also to help the AFL spread their own recognition. And I'm sure the logo
will arrive soon, but the AFL have some internal delays which I'm not quite able
to get past. We can be patient, it is not the greatest of our
concerns.
As for restructuring, I think I can attest to the fact that we
need separate people doing the London and national jobs. Despite having support
from the committee, I am juggling both jobs, and not doing it too well. The
London divisions take up a lot of time, and I have neglected the restructuring
effort. It is not time imperative like the London work. I'm referring to setting
up a committee and departments as entities, rather than the London separation,
which is done, other than for the fact that I am running both!
So again
we'll see that focused on when it comes time to have elections, and I think it
must happen that there would be little or no intersection between the
London and AFL Great Britain committees.
Anyway, to return,
the logo you see on this site is not our permanent or official one. And
you might also notice, if you've been avidly following our news for some reason,
that the word 'Great' has snuck into the new name. Apparently some Brits were
unhappy with the favoured name 'AFL Britain', and so it was extended. No skin off
our noses, just a little more typing from time to time! You can access the site
with or without the word 'great', by the way, and afllondon.com is also the same
site.
Which very neatly
moves me onto this new look site. Glen Ocsko has taken the job on of rewriting a
site for the new structure and has done a simply superb job. There are teething
problems, and it will take some time to get used to it all, but there can be no
doubt that the site looks fantastic,and I've been enjoying congratulatory emails
about it from all over the world. I should probably deflect the plaudits, but
you know how it is! I'll do so here though, basically all of the work so far is
down to Glen and we all thank you.
I was even playing
Frogger on here the other day.
On to football, and
we're underway as I mentioned and there were three sets of matches over the
weekend in London and two Social Division matches in the regional areas,
one in Bristol and one in Nottingham. A perfect weather weekend as well, so
hopefully all will be sunny all season and everyone will have a good
time.
One major addition
to the Social Division is a new side, the Dulwich Dragons. Mark de Stefanis got
in touch and asked what it would take to get started, and we've helped him as
much as possible. It will take them some time to get their numbers up and be
fully organised, but he's done a great job getting started and we wish them well
for the season.
That's all I'll
write about for now. We have a few other endeavours to get on with, and the
organisers of the GB team might like to write a piece about it their work in
getting ready for the tournament in Melbourne in
August/September.
For now though, I
have plenty to get on with.
Sam
Percy
President
AFL Great
Britain
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