2002 Season

2002

The 2002 season had a lot of changes for the Raiders. Brendan Anderson became President. Dave Dooley & Des Dalrymple VP’s. Phil Williams became Treasurer. John Stirling was Secretary/Manager but in a much reduced role due to the poor finances of the club. Phil Williams took over most of the managers duties early in the season. The new committee found that the club was in debt by about $12,000. Firstly, Committee members payed their membership fees early so that John Stirling could be payed out. The next step to erase the financial debt was to put the membership fees up and increase prices over the bar. An auction night was also held using donated goods and services. Dish and Anne Anderson put in a huge amount of time in Mornington asking for donations from local businesses. By the end of 2002 the deficit was eliminated. After losing the Grand Final in 2001, Bass were promoted to Division 1. Graeme O’Sullivan was appointed as Bass Coach with Ross Twyford Captain for the 4^th season. Ash Ackehurst was reappointed captain/coach of Masters. Due to falling club membership over the last few seasons the club decided not to field a second Over 35 team for 2002. After 5 seasons, Flinders were no more. The name Bass was dropped for the Superules team. They were just called Supers. They struggled in div 1. The club lost a lot of players from the 2001 GF side. The Supers won only 1 game and finished 9^th out of 10 teams. Masters only had 1 win also. The club changed the socks from gold to navy blue. The National body of Superules changed its name to “Masters Australian Football”, MAF.