A review of Summer 2025-26 and what we have coming up
Summer 2025-26
All in all a great season, here are the things I want to touch on.
Membership
This season we embraced membership legally and I think it was largely it was a success. 629 people spent 5 minutes to understand what we are about and agree to support that. That is a little short of the 700 odd regular players over Summer but nevertheless huge and given its once per lifetime most of the main is behind us.
That being said the process need to change to become less boring and more straight forward. My startup will work on that and like everything it is a work in progress where feedback helps.
Growth
Was our largest every season and combined with Winter 2025 we are now comfortable the largest touch organisation in the state. 10 years ago we were the 04th biggest. This fills me with both joy, sadness, and worry.
Joy because we’ve almost tripled in size in 10 years. From around 23 teams playing only in Summer to over 60 in Summer and depending on how you count it 24 or 32 in our last Winter season. Being the biggest was a long term aim and we’ve achieved it.
Sadness because at the same time adult touch in this state (outside of PPT) has been shrinking and in some cases dramatically. There are many reasons for this but two I’ll touch on are that the the governing body has had huge staff turnover and secondly has not prioritised participation amongst adults outside of the higher levels.
Worry because PPT has always attracted players from elsewhere are we have a much better culture and environment. This however will not happen as much if people are not playing at all
Culture
This is for me the most important aspect. And the aspect we may have gone backwards this season. As you hopefully appreciate our aims are not touch. For us touch is the tool for fun and friendship. Yet this season I did get an inkling for many the emphasis was more on touch. This was not based on much beyond a general vibe and the fact that mixed team numbers were down (men’s were well up) But it is a slight concern
I’d really be interested on your thoughts on this, what can we change or do better?
Photos
I have not publicised them as much this season (my bad), but we captured every team formally and informally as is our tradition. To summarise this I have created galleries of each night and the team images link through to an archive of all the teams photos. These archives go back many years for some of the longer standing teams.
Wednesdays are here:
https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-wednesday-teams-2025-26/
Thursday mens are here:
https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-thursday-mens-teams-2025-26/
and Thursday mixed are here:
https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-thursday-mixed-teams-2025-26/
Anyway thanks for being part of our Summer season, as someone who organises a team I know it can be challenging but rewarding. There were some issue with field markings and not everyone understood the expectations of membership but overall a success I think
But there is no point blowing smoke up our own backside. So if there is anything that you or your teammates think we can improve upon or any feedback we REALLY want to know. Email or call is fine or call or you anonymous feedback form here:
We are a competition that is run for and by its members (which includes the current players and referees) so please pass it on to your teammates. At the start of the season you all agreed to provide 5 minutes feedback but my startup has not completed the technical side on this. But I’d strongly urge you/anyone on your team to let us know and we are going to incentivise this a bottle of sparkling for every team that has someone provide feedback
I am a huge believer in constructive criticism so don’t hold back.
Now onto the future:
SWITCH Autumn 2026
The second module of our women’s program SWITCH starts on Wednesday the 15th of April. The free program teaches basic fitness, ball skills and an introduction to game play with the emphasis on having fun in what we believe is the best game. We supply everything, all participants need to bring is their boots. More info and rego here:
Please circulate to the women in your team or the women in your life as it is an amazing program.
Winter 2026
Rego’s are open for our Winter season, all the details are on the website:
https://princesparktouch.com
Three important things though
If you have not yet registered, start rallying troops. Best not to leave this to the last moment. If you are not entering a team but have players who are still keen to stay involved please put them in touch with me and I´ll find them a home. This is important as we are a touch community here in the inner north.If you are considering entering a team and need extra players let me know and I’ll send some through (I have a long list already).
Regardless hopefully see you over Summer as we fire up the BBQ in Summer back in Princes Park.
Pete