Roaring into the future: Cobram Roar completes board changes

Taking over from the outgoing Paul Bovalina, Gash was “honoured and privileged” to lead the club.

“I’ve been around the club for more years than I can probably count,” Gash said.

“I feel like it’s just my opportunity to be able to pay back to everyone else and pay back to the community.

“Hopefully I can lead them and continue the positive outlook and the positive steps that the clubs been taking in recent years.”

While the committee may have a new look in 2023, the club’s senior coaching staff will remain the same, with Vince Iannucci set to lead the men’s first team and Taner Tekin the women’s side.

“We’ll be looking to take that next step and continue that success as well as not just a senior age group but those junior age groups as well because they’re the future of the club,” Gash said.

With a goal of making the club somewhere people feel comfortable and able to enjoy sport, Gash explained that having locals watch locals play was an important thing.

“I think we had 18 players under the age of 18 play in the senior men’s side last season and that’s not even looking at the women’s so being able to see faces that are working in supermarkets and have gone through the school systems in the area that’s the even better thing to see in these kind of teams.

“It’s still very fresh but we just want to continue on that upwards trajectory that the departing executive have set us at."

Set to lead the club alongside Gash is vice-president Mario Mete, secretary Tina Puckett and treasurer Ben Zito.

Thanking the outgoing Bovalina, Alicia Sorrenti and Christine Osborne, Gash said it would be a tough task to live up to his predecessors.

“We’ll be looking to go that little bit extra and continue to grow the club,” he said.

“We’ve got the building there and we were extremely lucky to be able to pay that off, our financial commitment last year so we’ll be looking to continue developing sport in the area.”