National President's Welcome Adelaide 1996

Brian Stirling

Welcome to Adelaide for the 1996 National Superules Carnival.

It certainly does not seem that long ago we were enjoying ourselves in Sydney. It must be a sign of the times that 12 months can come around so quickly.

I have experienced a very interesting and enjoyable first 8 months as National President and sincerely believe we have achieved a number of milestones.

Firstly we were extremely fortunate to appoint John Morrison as Executive Director replacing Bob Kennedy who had done an excellent job over the previous 4 years. To both Bob and Sue, Superules Australia offer a very big thank you. John comes to Superules with a very impressive track record and has been instrumental in assisting to formulate policies and guidelines. John has also been the driving force behind the introduction of our Superules Newsletter which I am sure you shall all agree is an excellent production. To guarantee the on going success of this publication we require any information relevant to Superules which can be reproduced in the newsletter. We all realise we are in the era of change and Superules is no different to any other sporting organisation and will have to make changes to survive. Currently we are looking at the format of our National Carnival and already have in place guidelines for competing at National Carnivals and amendments to match rules and umpiring instructions.

One of our major concerns is the downturn in numbers of players in the 35-40 years of age category. Obviously in the current economic climate, it is this group of players that appear to be more effected than the older groups, and we need to address this problem.

The 1996 carnival shall see the introduction of divisional football for Masterules and the growth of Seniorules to six competing States. Unfortunately Northern Territory are unable to field a Superules team and shall combine with Queensland for this carnival.

We all know how much work goes into organising a National Carnival and John Rutherford and his committee have worked extremely hard over the past two years in putting this Adelaide carnival together. To you John, on behalf of Superules Australia we say thank you in anticipation of a very successful carnival, which shall be excellent both on and off the playing field.

I, like all other participants, look forward to renewing old friendships and making many new ones during the course of the carnival. But please, let us all remember what Superules is all about and not lose sight of why we are in Adelaide.

Superules is "Football for fun".