THE Hamilton Kangaroos are in the midst of a period of transition, with the club’s home at Melville Oval undergoing a redevelopment, a new senior football coach for 2024 and now a new president, with David Hintum taking the reins from Lachy Patterson.
Patterson will remain involved as vice-president, with Hintum voted into the role unopposed at last week’s Annual General Meeting.
Hintum said he was excited about getting more involved in the club.
“Deb and I have got three clubs at the club, so I’ve had roles such as team manager and its been on my mind about getting more involved,” he said.
“Lachy has a lot of knowledge and experience, he was looking for a succession plan and I will definitely be using his expertise a lot over the next year.”
With plenty happening around the club, Hintum said it would be an indifferent year, playing most home games at Dunkeld for the 2024 season.
“It is a really exciting time, but also a challenging time for the club,” he said.
“We won’t have Melville Oval for the 2024 season, but everyone is prepared to put in the work to make sure we get through the year then after it is done, we will have the best facility within an hour of Hamilton.
“I am not one to purely define success on the performance of the senior football team, it is a whole club thing.
“The fact we had every netball team play finals last year, every junior football team play finals or be towards the top of the ladder where there isn’t finals, and a competitive reserves team.”
Jason Bourke has also joined the committee, with Hintum hoping to continue the progress of recent years.
“I don’t think there is a need to make wholesale changes, I have got a big focus on families and there is a whole generation of kids coming through … all they’ve known is the Hamilton Kangaroos, they haven’t known Imps or Hamilton Magpies or anything, so I want this place to be their club,” he said.
“We want to try and get help from a broader range of people, the board is structured now with half a dozen general committee members and they will head up sub-committees, so we encourage other people to get in touch and help out with that.”
