Touch Football Australia Board News

At the 2020 Touch Football Australia (TFA) Annual General Meeting on Saturday 14^th November, long-serving Board Member Michael Rush stood down as a TFA Director after 14 years.

Mike Rush was first elected to the TFA Board of Management in 2006, and served as Chair for the first six years of his appointment before moving into a Director role.

As a Canberra resident, prior to sitting on the TFA Board, Mike was President of the then ACT Touch Association for four years.

TFA Chair Anita Hagarty said Michael’s valuable contributions will be missed. “Every Board benefits from having a left-field thinker, and Mike has been our left-field thinker. He was always able to look at things differently and come up with alternative approaches that provided great benefit to the sport,” she said.

“He wasn’t afraid to voice different opinions and challenge the opinions of the group, even if that risked making him unpopular. It meant he made so many significant contributions to the sport over the years. For instance, there’s no way we would have been able to make the NRL Touch Premiership happen if it wasn’t for Michael and his financial stewardship over the organisation in his time as chair.

“Michael will be truly missed by myself and the rest of the Board.”

At the AGM, Kelvin Lockyer was elected to the position vacated by Mike Rush. Kel Lockyer currently serves as a Director on the Queensland Touch Football (QTF) Board, a position from which he will step down from to serve on the TFA Board.

Kel will bring a wealth of experience – in both Touch Football and business – to the TFA Board. Kel’s involvement in the sport began more than 30 years ago as a player, and he has since refereed and coached at many different levels. Kel will also bring skills from his profession as an Executive Operations Manager.

“Kel is skilled in budgeting, business planning, operations management, team building and management, so we know he will bring an array of strengths to the TFA Board and we look forward to working with him,” said Hagarty.

Kel joins TFA Chair Anita and Directors Barry McNamara, Andrew Hill, Neil Collins and Cassandra Lawry, as well as Erin Taylor who was elected to continue filling the casual vacancy position on the Board left this year by former Director Rachel Baird.