this is the penultimate week of Winter 2026.

Presentations and pub

Next week is our last and our end of season celebration will be held at our Winter pub sponsor the Wild Geese Hotel. There will be extra drink vouchers and so lock in dinner and get along there.

Summer Season

Registrations are open for our for our 2026 Summer season. Start rallying the troops

Switch 

SWITCH, strengthening women in touch is a free touch and fitness program for women offered by PPT in conjunction with VICHEALTH. It starts in early October. It is a fun way to learn touch or improve you skills. Details are on the website shortly or ask us for more information

Team and individual Registrations are open for our Summer 2026-27 touch football (also called touch rugby) competition, located in Melbourne’s heart: Princes Park on Wednesday and Thursday evenings

Full information on the season is available here:

https://princesparktouch.com/about/summer/

To enter a team or join as an individual follow these instructions:

Individuals

If you are an individual or small group without a team, wishing to be placed into team please use our Individual Players form and follow the instructions.Every year we place large numbers and there is no cost for placement.

New Teams

To enter a new team (i.e. a team that has not played with us before). Please ensure you have familiarised yourself with this seasons competition. Then download and complete the following Team Registration Form and email it to: info@princesparktouch.com.

If you have not collected all your players details do not worry (we will send you a link where you can add additional names later), just ensure the following are details are recorded:

• Team name
• Captains or primary contacts details (phone number and email)
• Approximate standard of team, note your actual grade will be determined over the grading round(s)

Once we have received your form we will hold a place for you in the competition.

Please note team entries of new mens teams are temporarily on hold while I confirm with long standing existing teams (as we always preference long standing teams as they are current members).

Existing teams

Please send us an email and we will reactivate your team for the upcoming season.

Or for any other enquiries please contact Pete on:

• Peter Shaw (Mob) 0414 315 957
  E-mail: info@princesparktouch.com

Week 17 and 18

This is week 16, weeks 17 and 18 are our last two weeks. A grade finals have already started a hybrid arrangement, B grade finals start tonight, and C, D grade start next week. The structures are detailed on the website. Most importantly we emphasise participation so teams not playing finals still play in week 17 and 18, so this is not the final week for any team.

We also suggest you lock in a team dinner at the Wild Geese Hotel for week 18 for our presentations. It is always a great night.

SWITCH

Also of a reminder of our amazing women’s program, SWITCH. For any female that may want to learn the game or just improve.

Details are on the website: https://princesparktouch.com/individual-players/switch/

Spread the word!

However we are also conscious of the distance factor from our Winter fields. Our ideal venue is one where we can all socialise together within walking distance and the Wild Geese Hotel has approached us to be our Winter pub sponsor. It is 400 metres away and offer a similar jug arrangement to the GNH.

We shall be offering vouchers to BOTH pubs tonight and next week before we make a final decision

As we want all teams socialising together and to take ownership of this decision, so I the below poll.

Please understand:

1. team captains are required to vote (ie for them its not optional), everyone else is also welcome to vote too (but not required).
2. Comments are encouraged and a vote with a comment may be weighed more heavily
3. Your vote is confidential (only the committee can see it)

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