The Board of the New South Wales Touch Association (NSWTA) is pleased to announce the formation of the NSW High-Performance Unit (HPU). This HPU will assess the pathways of our state system, examine alternatives and aim to make recommendations that will continue to drive Touch Football within NSW forward. Additionally, the introduction of the HPU will bring benefit to the game in our state through the attraction and retention of our elite athletes. This will be accomplished by creating a professional environment whereby participants can produce their best performances, while also importantly getting value for money.
The HPU panel has been strategically selected from diverse and successful areas within our sport. The panel members skills complement each other extremely well, and additionally, they will challenge other members to achieve results that will quickly impact outcomes and provide a voice for all stakeholders within our state game. The HPU has also been charged by the Board to identify and recommend objectives and detail the scope that will produce an ongoing commitment for future events while understanding the need to closely monitor the already congested touch calendar work-load for athletes.
The overall desired outcome of an HPU is to positively contribute to helping to deliver successful on-field results linked to the Strategic Plan for both the near and long-term future for our state, with benefits including:
– Provision and communication of direction/purpose
– Improved and informed decision-making
– Stakeholder buy-in through consultation, involvement and understanding
– Improved understanding of pressures, environment and opportunities
– Improved utilisation of resources (human and financial)
– Transparency in actions and accountability
“It’s no doubt a very exciting initiative to be involved with, and we’re confident it will bring huge benefits to our state game”, commented HPU panel member Anthony Dudeck.
“Most definitely the time has come to partner more closely at both Elite 8 and State of Origin level. In just a short time working alongside the entire panel, it’s very obvious there are some very talented individuals with excellent ideas to help us move forward in our state” said NSWTA Technical Director Ian Matthew.
One of the most important aspects was to ensure we have the right voice and buy-in from players and they need to be confident that their views are heard, and there is a real platform for change. We believe this has been accomplished with the inclusion of four NSW and Australian open representatives, those being Elin Mortimer, Sammy Rodgers, Daniel Barton and Nick Good.
The heavy demands of the elite touch calendar have already been discussed and will continue to be further down the track, with our recommendations passed onwards. The HPU first real opportunity to make an impact isn’t too far away with the Elite 8 tournament in March 2018.
NSW and Australian Women’s Open representative Sammy Rodgers is also very excited to be involved in the new HPU.
“It is an incredible opportunity, and I feel honoured to be on the HPU panel knowing that each member was strategically selected to ensure that the needs of our touch football community could be catered for. I hope that the touch football community feels comfortable in reaching out to members of the panel to voice their opinions, concerns and ideas on how we can make improvements. I’m confident the introduction of the HPU will be successful in creating an elite environment for players and touch football stakeholders. Managing workloads and building upon NSW Touch previous successes will also be key focus areas for our group.”
The NSWTA Board has entrusted the move toward change to the initial HPU panel members and has confidence in their ability to work with the relevant NSWTA staff for the overall benefit of the game.
Initial Panel members are:
Anthony Dudeck, Brad Mitchell, Daniel Barton, Elin Mortimer, Manu Wakely, Nick Good, Sammy Rodgers, Tony Trad & NSWTA Board representative Ian Matthew.
