President’s Report 2024

The year 2024 has been a year of huge successes on and off the pitch for Douglas Villa Football Club. 

From the top looking down, the promotion to Central League 2 for our flagship team has given the senior club a real feel-good atmosphere and is a reward for hard work and no small amount of talent from everyone involved, from Mark Taylor and Riki Riddell to the senior and younger players who performed so well over this season just past and the one preceding it. Promotion after promotion has taken the club to an almost unprecedented place in a very short timeframe.

Establishing a credible and contributory Reserve Team was a goal for the year and our young Cam’s Flooring Reserves have been a big success, thanks largely to the work of Stu McLean and Luke Gibbs in getting the team together each week. Looking at our whole senior squad then I think it’s reasonable to say that we probably had around twenty-five players who would have been capable of holding their own in Capital 1, which is no mean feat.

The debut season of the Villa Vets team, who romped home in Wairarapa Division 2/3 has added a new dimension to our club, and our Megabeens side continue to bring their own aspect to the club. I feel the further integration into the club fabric of our Skulls team should be an area of focus for 2025. Social football teams are the backbone of any club and looking after these teams should be a priority moving forward.

The Women’s football landscape at Douglas Villa has drastically improved this year thanks to the formation of our MegaGeebeez team. The hard work of Sophie George in this area has been rewarded with our club being able field a competitive team that made us proud both on the pitch  and off it. The knock-on effect of having a Women’s team has been felt in our junior girls numbers, which will go from one girls-only team this year to at least three girl’s only teams in 2025.

In addition to our Women’s team, we have also had success with our Football Fantails initiative, which starts up again in a couple of weeks now running in conjunction with our DVTC on Sunday mornings.

Onto Juniors and 2024 has been a roaring success and the club owes a debt of gratitude to Wayne Weitzel and Becky Hardgrave for turning the Junior side of our club into a model of success. Further work in the youth space and, as mentioned, girls football will I’m sure see the junior club see unprecedented growth over the next few years.

This year’s Junior Tournament, while down in participating team numbers through no fault of our own, was still a fantastic success with the hard work of everyone involved leading to so many comments from families as to how well run the tournament was. It is now in the realms of a heritage tournament and I feel we can capitalise on its standing even further as time moves on.

With growth comes growth pains, and a better spread of workload is required if we are to ensure our hard-working committee have the desire and fortitude to continue in their roles for an extended period. New blood is required to help lessen the burden and I’m pleased to see that there are a number of people putting their hands up to be involved. This alone shows the good space the club is in - we have people wanting to join in and help us on our journey in pursuit of excellence. 

Financially we have several tests up ahead. The increased costs that come with the dual challenge of competing at a higher level while growing the club at all levels have to be met somehow and with most providers of grant funding tightening their belts this increase in costs will have to be met in a variety of ways. The club is going to have to get creative in this and make the most of our increased profile in Masterton and beyond.

To conclude, I’d like to say a big “well done” to everyone for the 2024 season. To everybody’s friend Denis Burling who is stepping down as treasurer after a number of years, thank you for your passion, foresight and service and if we don’t see you at Villa on a regular basis we will be asking some pretty tough questions of you! And to Dave Pawson, who is also stepping down from the committee and who has served Douglas Villa for many years. Dave, thank you for your hard work and your knowledge-sharing which has enlightened us all over the years.

Derek Walker,

President,

Douglas Villa AFC.