Welcome to the March 2026 edition of The Magpie.

This months newsletter has details for the forthcoming 2026/27 athletic year, membership fees and process to become a member or renew membership.

The Annual General Meeting is approaching.  This is the most important administrative part of the Club year.  The new Committee is appointed and business for the year ahead is dicussed.  All financial members for the 2025/26 year can vote where required.  It is very much encouraged for all financial members to attend and vote for both the election of the new committee and any business arising for the year.

Around the club there is the results from the Vic Championships, new club records plus some information on the forthcoming track repairs and winter track use.

To close the newsletter there is details on the coming Winter XCR season and a wrap of the Summer 2025/26 AVSL season.

Membership Fees

Athletics Victoria will open the registration portal for the 2026/27 season on Tuesday, 7^th April, from 12 pm. As in previous years, there are two components to the membership fee: (1) the Athletics Victoria package and (2) the club membership fee. The cost of membership depends on which combination of AV package and club membership you choose. Instructions on how to register for 2026/27 are at the bottom of this newsletter.

Athletics Victoria recently announced its packages for the year. You can view them via this website: https://athsvic.org.au/membership/

Membership fees for the Collingwood Harriers Athletics Club for 2026/27 are below. From 2026/27, the club committee has agreed to add a volunteer levy of $25 to the standard annual membership fees for competing members. This levy is refundable to members who volunteer for helping duties during the year, at an XCR, AVSL, State championship or Club event.

For the past few seasons, the club has struggled to fill all of its volunteer duties at these events. We hope this provides an incentive to support the club in a volunteer capacity. Any fees not refunded to members will be used to pay volunteers at these events. Details of the volunteer levy, who it applies to, and how it will be managed are available in the volunteer levy policy on the club website.

The base membership fee for each category has been held as per the prior season.

Competing member fees

Open - $125 ($100 membership plus $25 volunteer levy)

Dual - $75 ($50 membership plus $25 volunteer levy)

Junior - $75 ($50 membership plus $25 volunteer levy)

Recreational Runners - $125 ($100 membership plus $25 volunteer levy)

Non-competing membership fees

Coach - $10

Official - $10

In previous years, the club has also supported some members experiencing significant financial hardship with discounted memberships. Any returning or prospective members in this position can contact the club secretary for a confidential discussion via secretary@collingwoodharriers.com.au

How to register for 2026/27

The Collingwood Harriers membership year runs from 1 April to 31 March in the following year. This coincides with the athletic year for Athletics Victoria.

To join the Club, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on this link - https://www.revolutionise.com.au/collingwood

Step 2: Click ‘Become a Member’

Step 3: Click the blue box with ‘Returning member’, or ‘New member’ if this is your first time.

Step 4: Fill in your details

Step 5: Enter your email address, then check your inbox and follow the link sent by the site

Step 6: Select membership type, then purchase summary. If satisfied, click ‘next step’

Step 7: Fill in contact details & confirm details, then pay registration 

A reminder that the AGM for the club will be held on Thursday, 28^th May at 7:30 pm at the clubrooms in George Knott Reserve.

We encourage all members to attend. The election for member positions on the 2026–27 Committee will take place at the AGM. Nominations for a position on the Committee should be sent via email to the Club’s Secretary, Alex Collie at secretary@collingwoodharriers.com.auby Thursday, 21^st May 2026.

Any Club member who is eligible to vote at the AGM is free to nominate for any position on the Committee. As a volunteer-led organisation, the Club requires members to provide input to these roles in order to continue to offer training and competition opportunities for members. Club membership fees for the 2026-27 year will be waived for people appointed to the Committee, in recognition of their contribution to the club.

Track Repairs 8-10 April

The City of Yarra have scheduled repairs to the track at George Knott Reserve, to occur over the period Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th April.

Repairs will be focused on the 100m start area directly in front of the 'grandstand' seats, and also the 200m start area. These sections of the track will be unavailable for use. However, we've been informed that the remaining areas of the track, the throws cages and jumps areas, will remain available. 

Please make appropriate arrangements for your training and competition preparations. We expect the repairs to take 2 days (8-9 April), but a third day (10 April) has been scheduled in case of inclement weather. 

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Availability of clubrooms and in-field from April to September

As we enter the winter season, members should be aware of the other users of the venue. From 1^st April, the Fitzroy Lions Soccer Club use the in-field for training on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and from mid-April for games on Sunday. On game days, the soccer club will also be using the clubrooms.

As you know, we also hire the venue to local schools, associations, organisations and training groups throughout the year. Going forward, we will publish a schedule of venue hires and track availability for the month in advance on the CHAC notice board at George Knott. A copy will also be sent to club-affiliated coaches. Please refer to this to determine if the venue is available at your preferred training times.

Victorian State Junior, Open and Over-age Championships

There were many Magpie medallists at the recent Victorian state track and field championships. Across the junior, open, under-20 and overage championships, club members racked up a total of 17 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals across a wide range of events. More than 50 club members participated in the championships, and there were many high-quality performances.

Congratulations to everyone who competed, and to those who managed to pick up medals.

Gold medallists

Silver medallists

Bronze medallists

New Club Records

The past month has also been a bumper period for club records. Many records dating back to the 70's have been broken across a raft of events and age-groups, including eleven Open records and new Victorian records for Andrew Evans and Bob Gardiner. Congratulations to all the new record holders. 

If you believe you have broken a club record and it is not recorded below, please complete the application for a club record via the club website: https://collingwoodharriers.com.au/current-club-records/

The Athletics Victoria 2026 Winter XCR Season begins on Sunday May 10 with the speedy Lakeside 5.  There has been a couple of changes to the season, with new venues introduced and old favourites returning.  Check the XCR Series Calendar below for more details.

Announced soon will be the details of the 2026 Club 5 mile Championships.  Being the centenary year this will be one of our extra special marquee events.  And an event not to be missed. 

Head here for all of your information as we approach another winter season.

Collingwood managed to finish in third place in Division 2 of the AVSL summer season. With only the top two teams being promoted, we find ourselves languishing for another year out of the top echelon of Club Athletics in Victoria.

During the 2025/26 season, we had nearly eighty athletes compete in at least one round of the competition; the average turnout was less than forty. This is not enough to be in contention for promotion.

The season in itself had several very good performances from our athletes. Most pleasing was the increased number of juniors participating in a variety of events.

The Club had some success at the Victorian Champs with our best performance in the H.H. Hunter Shield for many seasons. Four Open and two U/20 Gold medals were also our best haul for quite some time, while just one Gold came to the Club at the Junior Champs the previous weekend.

Our overage athletes did very well in the Championships in their respective events.

Our thanks are extended to those who assisted as Club Helpers during the season. Again, much was left to a few; however, the Club is taking steps to rectify this situation for the future.

The Club was again represented by our very experienced band of Officials who work all day at the meets, so the athletes are able to do their thing!

A more detailed report of the season will be included in the Annual Report produced for the AGM.

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