Many people know that South West Sydney Sports Academy chief Gerry Knights is a master networker and that’s part of the secret of the success of his organisation.
It was on display at the academy’s popular annual golf day at Picton’s beautiful Antill Golf Course last Friday where Knights announce major new sponsorship from Wests Leagues Leumeah, which will mean the academy will look after all of the rugby league development squads from under 13s and up.
Sitting almost in front of Knights was another chief executive of a sports academy, Martin Bullock, who heads the Western Sydney organisation.
But Bullock, a former Wests Tigers CEO and local resident, is also a Wests Leagues Leumeah board director, and Knights thanked him for the sponsorship.
Getting up to respond, Bullock congratulated Knights and the south west academy and pointed out that he wasn’t that lucky to have a club like Wests at his academy’s catchment area.
Looking around the Antill clubhouse it was obvious from all the familiar faces that the old Gerry Knights charm had worked its magic once again across the entire Macarthur region, from Ingleburn to Thirlmere.
Kids of Macarthur CEO Denise McGrath had a team as did Marsdens Law Group, who were represented by partner Joe Bonura.
There were more but you get the picture.
From our point of view we were chuffed he managed to include the South West Voice in his long thank you list as the academy’s online media partner.
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♦ Earlier in the week, former Campbelltown Council GM Paul Tosi was looking in good nick when he joined for lunch the regular table at Court Tavern Chinese restaurant occupied by former councillor and mayor Paul Hawker and Nicholas Smolonogov, Tosi’s former offsider on the council for many years.
Oh, and your truly.
A couple of cold beers were drunk and a lot of good old yarns were told but I was sworn to secrecy I’m afraid – what’s said at Court Tavern stays at Court Tavern sort of rule.
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♦ Talking of old friends it was nice to catch up with a couple from my Liverpool days after my Heritage Week talk in Liverpool Library last Thursday.
A lovely, relaxed lunch followed at Cucina105 with wine expert Ian Bailey and former mayor Gary Lucas, who now dabbles in a bit of military history.
Gary insisted on walking me to the Liverpool Pioneers cemetery behind Westfield to show me the unmarked graves of a group of soldiers.
We promised to stay in touch about a possible story if the stones are ever put back above the burial site.
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♦ With five entries and as many finalists, there was always a good chance Campbelltown would scoop the pool in this year’s Local Government Excellence Awards 2017.
And it did, winning the big gong in three of them.
The winning projects were:
Schools for Sustainability – Excellence in Environmental Leadership and Sustainability.
Campbelltown Arts Centre Exhibition: With Secrecy and Despatch – Excellence in Creative Communities.
Implementation of Microsurfacing Treatment as part of Campbelltown City Council’s Pavement Management Strategy – Excellence in Asset Management and Infrastructure Initiatives.
Well done to everyone involved.
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♦ Wollondilly Shire Council has an alert on its website about Broughton Pass, which has been closed to traffic for almost a year.
“Broughton Pass is currently closed due to the retaining wall failure that occurred in last year’s storm event. Repair works are under way and we are on track to re-open in July,’’ says the alert.
We thought we’d let you know in case you forgot about the closure.
