After eight years as president, Mark Woodward has decided to hang up the boots. Both Mark and Alison Woodward were awarded life membership of club at the 2016 presentation.

Scott Taylor says that both Mark and Alison put significant efforts into the club and have helped give the club a strong base for him and the board to build from.

The Wildcats are proud to be the only club in the Manning Valley offering football for players from kids turning five in 2017, through to the premier league squads. Scott says that he believes the Wildcats are the biggest sporting club in the Manning Valley and offer a range of playing options for their members.

“In 2017 the Wildcats are looking at adding a second open men’s team and an over 35s team. This is in addition to the women’s team we started last year. If we can achieve this we will have more than 350 players on our books,” he explained.

Scott and the new board's priority for the medium term are to increase the level of infrastructure at the club.

“We are a large club growing year on year. Football is Australia's leading participation sport and growing each year. This is also reflected at our club. Our infrastructure needs to improve to cater for our growing club,’’ he pointed .

“Our concentration will be working with various levels of government to secure funding to help with this infrastructure. With the help of our two major sponsors Club West and Taree Isuzu Ute we have purchased jerseys for the whole club and made playing surface improvements in the offseason. However the reality is that we will need grant funding to make the significant improvements we need at the club”.

The Wildcats short term goal is to improve the standard of coaching throughout the club.

“We have two strategies to improve coaching. We will invest in coach education and are also looking at ways of setting up an internal Skills Acquisition Program to provide additional coaching to the skilled children who do not want to play reps under the Football Mid North Coast programs,” he explained

This is looking like a strong year for the club’s premier league squads. Rod Bartley is returning as coach to build on the improvement in performance and culture that he started last year.

“The Wildcats are blessed to have Rod as our coach. Rod is a highly experienced coach with significant training under his belt. Rod holds his C License and is about to start working on a B License which is one level below A League Level”.

Registrations for the Wildcats are now open at www.myfootballclub.com.au.  For further details contact registrar Michael Wallace on 0410 442 538.