To our loyal members,

This afternoon, we will announce some exciting news; Brad Scott has accepted a two-year contract extension taking him through to the end of 2020.

Led by CEO and Managing Director, Carl Dilena together with myself, Glenn Archer and Cameron Joyce, a review process was recently undertaken and after discussions with Brad, we all agreed this was the best way forward.

We are of the strong view Brad is one of the best coaches in the AFL and know he is the right person to lead us back to the finals.

Brad has made it to four finals series in the past six seasons, including two preliminaries in 2014 and 2015. During this time, he was integral in changing the perceptions of North and established us as a destination club for players, coaches and staff.

The way Brad has coached and worked to develop our young list has provided a strong and stable platform to build on.

Although we are not content with our position on the ladder, we believe we made massive inroads this season and have laid a solid foundation for the future.

We saw eleven young Shinboners make their debuts and introduced another two new faces in Marley Williams and Nathan Hrovat. Emerging stars such as Ben Brown, Luke McDonald, Trent Dumont, Taylor Garner, Kayne Turner and Mason Wood continued to develop and showed they will have long and successful careers at the highest level.

These are exciting times for us all.

We will have a standalone VFL side next year and are confident of gaining a licence for the AFLW in 2019. We are working hard on plans to redevelop our facility in order to accommodate our rapid expansion.

We have established a fantastic secondary market in Tasmania, where we have also expanded The Huddle, as well as in Wyndham. We’ve been industry leaders yet again by refusing to accept revenue from pokies or gambling and have set up an innovative new injury prevention technology ‘Kangatech’ that’s being sold to elite sporting organisations around the world.

As a passionate and invested member, you can rest assured we are doing everything in our power to improve both on and off the field to ensure our club and players continue to have state-of-the-art facilities, resources and stability.

I want to thank you for your ongoing support, unwavering commitment and unrivalled passion.

It’s members like you that embody the mighty Shinboner Spirit and we are genuinely rapt to have you on this journey with us.

Regards,

Ben Buckley

Chairman