End of Pre-Season

While pre-season training is over and the Renegades teams are getting more eager to start the season at that first whistle for the serve this Saturday, we thought it would be a good idea to give a small update of what the club has achieved over the last months.

First of all, we had a massive attendance at this year's AGM. It is good to see the club can rely on a solid base of members that want to be actively involved with the club through coaching, being a member of the committee, or even just showing up at Renegades (social) events.

You can check the new roles that have been assigned to the different members here: http://www.renegades.com.au/groups/2010-committee

If you have anything that you want to contribute to the club, good or bad, don't hesitate to contact any of the members of the 2010 committee. We want to hear from you so together we can make the club the best one in Australia.

Secondly, the committee is answering last year's call to be as transparent as possible, so that everyone knows what is being decided and why. We will therefore compose a small report after every committee meeting that we will distribute verbally at pre-training talks, or via posts on the website, facebook, posters, or even a small booklet.

The first report has been communicated to the different teams and will also be available online soon.

Third, let's talk performance!

The club has sent its teams to go and compete in 2 tournaments over the past months. First there was the wonderful Warrnambool tournament over the Labour Day weekend, and more recently the Vic State Championships in Dandenong.

Warrnambool

In spite of the wet conditions at Warrnambool, the club was able to send a bunch of reds to represent the Renegades for the 36th time at Warrnambool. The club has a great tradition with this tournament since it started and it is unlikely to be left of the pre-season plans of all the teams. We even had a juniors team this year. The results varied since the teams were not completely fixed yet, but there were some good efforts put in by all the teams. The best results came from the Div1 women who ended 2nd, and the Men Div1, who ended up 3rd.

Vic State Championships

We had a team in pretty much every division for this tournament, and everybody put in a lot of effort to get to the top of the ladder during the weekend.

The Div2 Women rose to the top unbeaten and kept the winning streak all the way until the final. In Kristy's words:

"Renegades Div2 women fought nice and strong for the Vic Cup competition and came back as winners - hoorray!
It was simply awesome to see our newly made team play with ease and coordination on our very first competition. Great feeling indeed to be cheered by team mates both on court and benches, all aiming to do our best for the team and simply for the sake of having a good time playing volleyball.
Big thanks to the coaches who, despite their own games/ commitments at the time, still managed to support the Div2 women's team during the games.
What can I say? It was fantastic to play with such a great team comprising of so many different nationalities and walks of life and to feel that everyone was pouring out all their best on the field. This is one of the things that's so cool about volleyball - developing and nurturing team spirit. Hope that Renegades will keep on going strong with such qualities...GO REDS!"

The Honours men this year have a fine mix of experience and talent, and it showed that this team is capable of achieving great things. The semi-final at the State Championship was a result of hard work and good volleyball. Monash was eventually set aside in the semi final, and we steamed through to the finals where a strong Heidelberg awaited. Unfortunately Heidelberg turned out to be too strong that day, but we will have our revenge during state league when we have our full squad.

Also congratulations to Gerard Delaney who was voted MVP for Mens Div1. He and his team fought hard and ended 5th in the league.

The juniors of Div2 Men did a great effort and ended up before our more "senior" Div2 team in the league. The juniors finished 3rd while the "senior" div2 team occupied the 5th spot.

On the women's side, the honours women have strong competitors in the league and ended up in a 5th spot. They are showing a lot of promise and it will be interesting to see if they can compete with a strong looking Eastside during State League.

Last year's State League Champions Div1 Women ended up in 4th place. With a slightly different team than last year, they look good to be a serious contender for another Championship in Div1.

Good luck to all the teams this Saturday for the start of State League.