The past 12 months have provided some amazing performances from sport in Western Australia. The performance of West Australian athletes during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (held in 2021), resulted in 22 medals. The West Coast Fever were crowned champions of the Suncorp Super Netball Series, as were the Perth Scorchers Men and Women’s team in the BBL and WBBL respectively. This was followed up by the WA Men’s cricket team taking home the Sheffield Shield final, the first time in 23 years and who could forget Jai Hindley’s performance winning the Giro d’ Italia in May 2022.
It was also wonderful to see the return in Western Australia of community sport – to see fields, courts, swimming pools and gyms filled with our community sporting activities for our grassroots sport. Covid-19 presented us with many challenges over the past 3 years, so as we return to our pre-Covid conditions, I would like to pay a special thanks to our volunteers and administrators who have ensured that sport continued to play a part in our community over these challenging times.
Covid also presented some challenges in staging our 2021 SportWest Awards, and we thank Optus Stadium who assisted us in presenting the Awards on the field of play at Optus to ensure we could continue to acknowledge the achievements of the sporting community. Congratulations to all the award winners on their performances and service to sport.
I would like to acknowledge the continued support of the State Government. This extends to the positive working relationship we have with the Minister for Sport and Recreation, the Honourable David Templeman MLA, who we welcomed this year, and to thank his staff. I would also like to thank the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, capably led by Director General, Lanie Chopping, and her team who provide incredible support to SportWest.
I would like to thank Deputy Chair, Peter Minchin, who has indicated his intention not to stand for re-election at this meeting. Pete’s dedication to SportWest over the past six years has been immense and he has provided great value to the organisation during his time on the Board and as Chair of our Audit & Risk Committee.
To my fellow Board Members, thank you for your ongoing commitment to SportWest.
Matt Fulton has now completed his first full reporting period as SportWest CEO, and I would like to thank him and the team for the transformation over the past 12 months as SportWest has been able to evolve into the organisation that we had long aspired to become for our Members.
To all of our Members, we wish you every success for the coming year and thank you for your continuing commitment to WA sport.
Michael Beros
SportWest Chair
