Ainsleigh Bates will remain as Dubbo and District Football Association's president for 2023

At the Dubbo and District Football Association's (DDFA) annual general meeting (AGM) last week, five members departed the committee, with some having spent more than two decades on the board.

Ainsleigh Bates will remain as president for 2023 while Josh Bernard will also stay on next year as vice president.

Long-time committee member Jim Auld will step away from the board next season as will Tania Pilon, Matt Leonard, Kerry Moore and Elise Baker.

Bates knows things could be tricky at first with the new committee members but believes the future of DDFA is in good hands.

"It is going to be challenging losing the knowledge that Matt, Tania and Jim hold," she said.

"But Jim has said that he will remain as a liaison for the next 12 months to just answer any questions or things we need help with.

"It is quite refreshing to see that everyone on this board now is in their 30s, it is a young board that is looking to move the association forward and advance it.

"We want to be here for the next 30 years as such, we want to build something that the next group can take on board and expand on that."

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Having a point of call with the experience of Auld is something Bates admitted will be of great use as the board looks towards the future.

"He's been involved since 1998, there is so much knowledge and experience within his mind," she said.

"You could sit with him for the next 12 months and you still wouldn't get it all because there is so much that goes on.

"It is helpful to know that he will be on call if we need advice or clarification on anything. With our board as well we are aware that Tracey Willock and Wes Giddings from Dubbo Regional Council are happy to help with anything that we need.

"Also our community board at Football NSW, they've provided so much support already and whatever we need they are more than happy to take a phone call, have a meeting and sit down to go through everything."

Dubbo's regular competitions enjoy their first season without COVID-19 interruptions since 2019 and several representative teams went on to have success at a Western level.

Bates is confident things can still improve when it comes to the representative pathways especially but she will be hesitant to change too much.

"We've got quite a strong Western Youth League representative side, we've got planned to make that bigger and better over the next few seasons as well," she said.

"Obviously we don't want to rock the cart too much because whatever they are doing is working, we just want to put a few more streamlined processes into place.

"We would like to make things a lot more transparent to the community as well, things in terms of how is the selection process handled and who does that not only for players but for coaches.

"It's more about trying to get a lot of information back out into the community about what we do as well so we are really looking to build on the legacy that Jim and the previous board has left behind so we can move onwards and upwards from there."

Rhys Osborne, Tim McLachlan, Sean O'Connor and Matt Stonestreet will also have positions on the committee for 2023.

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