There will be a new face at the helm of Shepparton Football Netball Club in 2023 with Brendan Bicknell elected club president.
Taking over from the outgoing Mark Washington, Bicknell comes into the position with a wealth of football and administrative experience.
Speaking after the announcement, the primary school principal admitted it was a “big job” to take the helm of the club.
“I’m very excited to take on the opportunity,” Bicknell said.
“I played a lot of football at Shepparton, I coached, I’ve got my two daughters playing netball there now, so it’s pretty exciting to be involved, the club’s in a really good position.”
Set to be involved at the club anyway due to family connections, Bicknell said the decision to become president was based on giving back.
He said with his days of playing and coaching football over, he thought his other skills could be of use.
“I wanted to get back involved at some stage,” Bicknell said.
“I’ve got some good skills around management, I’m a principal at a primary school, I know how the operational side of things works, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my skill set at a committee level.”
Set to place an emphasis on making finals in senior grades of football and netball next year, the Bears are already putting the key pieces of the puzzle together.
On the football field, Ted Lindon will be joined by Xavier Stevenson as senior coach, while talents such as Trent Herbert, Adam De Cicco, Tyron Baden and Jonty Wardle are among a strong group of additions to the playing group.
It is a similar situation on the netball courts, with Tracey Brereton set to lead the side for a 16th year.
Welcoming Kim Borger (formerly Commane) into the squad, the Bears are sure to be a force to be reckoned with.
“We want to be really competitive at all grades, but in particular our senior grades of football and netball ought to be really competitive, and to get a finals appearance in footy, we’re going to be bullish about that, making sure that’s our aim — to feature in the finals,” Bicknell said.
“And obviously our netballers have fallen short a number of times and they’ve done some really hard work in the off-season to get some recruiting happening, so I think to be really competitive in that space as well.
“I’m just excited, my motto is ‘The Shepparton footy club is the place to be in 23’, so I’m really looking forward to taking on the opportunity.”