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Balmain Football Club would like to welcome all friends of the club to our official summer function, to be held at Birchgrove Oval from 1pm on 13th January 2007.

Whether you're a current, former or future player, supporter, friend or local resident, we'd love to see you down to welcome what promises to be an outstanding year for the club.

We will fire up the barbecue and have a casual kick-around before walking up to Darling Street and dropping into some of Balmain's many pubs and bars on a fine Saturday afternoon.

New first grade coach Alex Kaltenegger and president Dave Grill will be present to answer any questions regarding the upcoming season including plans for training, squads, and competition details. Last season's successful under 20s side will also receive their final set of medals for the season.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Firstly, we have rescheduled the washed out round 5 and 6 matches to the following nights:

• Monday round 5 to February 5 2007
• Thursday round 6 to Thursday January 4 2007. This was previously a break week so please make sure your team-mates know about the change.

Secondly, we have gone ahead and introduced a new feature to our 6-a-side competition this year - the mid-season division split. Each league has been divided into two divisions based on current league positions. We received the suggestion from one of the teams finishing mid-table last season, and the idea is to give more teams something to play for until the end of the season.

The draw does not change, so you will continue to play teams outside of your division. At the end of the season the top four teams from each division on each night will enter a finals series. So we will have Division 1 and Division 2 champions at the end of the season.

In the (unlikely) event that a team in Division 2 makes a late season surge up the table and finishes in the top four of Division 1, then they will play in the Division 1 finals series.

You can check the league tables to see which division you have been allocated.

It is the first time we have tried this and we are hoping it turns out to be a success. We welcome any feedback you may have - either add a comment below or send us an email.

Better late than never, the Balmain committee would like to pass on a few messages of congratulations.

Our 2006 Players' Player of the year award was won by none other than the inspirational club captain Lorenzo Merlino. Lorenzo accepted his award of a holiday to Italy via satellite while holidaying in Italy and decided to celebrate with a toffee apple.

The championship winning Under 20s Players' Player award was taken home by David "Malvern Star" Parelli. Like Lorenzo, Parelli was also the captain of his team and served as an inspiration for his side throughout the season.

Turning our attention to 2007, the Balmain committee would like to congratulate Alex Kaltenegger, who has been promoted to First Grade coach after serving the club with distinction as both a player and reserve team coach for many years. We would also like to welcome our new U20s coach for 2007, Ivan Djambazov.