Sam Whish-Wilson
What a great year it was be a Bull Shark.
All four sides reached Grand Finals with three going on to hold up the premiership cup.
The spirit was felt, seen and heard as players proudly displayed all the characteristics the Bull Sharks originals did back in 2011 when the club was first formed.
At the end of 2022 we thanked outgoing staff David Ashkar, John Chenhall and Michael Swann. The trio had made significant contributions to the club, but it was time for some fresh faces and ideas to reinvigorate the place.
Timing is everything in sport and when Bond University appointed Michael Collins Director of Sport and added Grace Knight to improve communications, straight away we could feel a care and commitment from the university to the club. Great people usually have a knack for hiring great people and this was certainly the case when Andy Lovell, Sean Hart and Max Kennedy decided they would fulfill coaching and education roles at the club. We have always been a club that prides itself of our relationships and these three lifted this area to another level with their people-first approach.
Andy, Sean and Max joined coaches Luke Mansbridge, Tom Hanrahan, recently retired Bull Shark Emily Otto, Gough Greer, Tiger and Daisy Williams and one of the originals, James Fitchett, who took over the reins of the Reserves team and led them to our first Reserves Premiership. The strength of any good sporting organisation is in their coaches, and that was displayed in both our on and off-field results. Players became students of the game along with feeling loved and cared for at the same time.
The message from the awards night was the importance of not standing still and the need to keep moving forward. Despite a lot of on-field success, the focus is on what we can improve as individuals, teams and club, because we’ve just gone from being the hunters to the hunted and that comes with new pressures and challenges.
The strength of our club will always be what players, coaches and staff do for others, not taking things for granted, and eliminating any entitlement that creeps in. No one is bigger than the team or too good to do the big or the small things around the place. ‘The Bond Way’ will always steer us in the right direction.
Congratulations again to premiership players, coaches, and staff. 2023 has created memories and connections to each other and our club for life.