Navigating these challenges as an organisation and on behalf of individual members who have experienced unprecedented change has tested us, but it reinforces our strength as a values-based organisation.

Courage, World Class, Respect, Trust and Intelligence; these are the PFA's five values.

These values have guided the player collective through the continued effects of a pandemic on their careers, the complex separation of the Professional Leagues from Football Australia, the economic decimation and corresponding uncertainty around the economies of clubs, leagues, national teams, and federations, and the human cost of managing periods of isolation and uncertainty.

Significant professional and personal sacrifices were made to allow the game to reset with an assured future. Ultimately, it was the courage and short-term sacrifice of our members that meant that the professional game in Australia could survive into the future.

This long-term future was secured through a five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement as the foundation for the Australian Leagues.

During these negotiations, the players had never been so engaged and their commitment to the process shaped their CBA through the players’ hard work. From Executive direction to involvement in steering committees to high-functioning delegates groups through to attending negotiations – this was indeed the ‘members’ agreement.’

Without your resolve, we would not have been able to achieve:

• minimum standards that will drive a world-class workplace for men and women with significantly enhanced high performance standards;
• a continued increase to the ALW Salary Cap Floor with a capacity to increase through annual reviews;
• an immediate spike to the ALM Salary Cap with incremental increases over the first three years to $2.6m, with a mid-term review that ensures the players will share in any upside to the game's economic growth;
• unprecedented exclusions to the ALM Salary Cap, which extends to the introduction of up to two 'Designated Players' allowing clubs to invest an additional $300,000 to $600,000 in players;
• incremental increases to minimum salaries across the A-Leagues;
• re-shaping the architecture of youth development by building greater capacity for clubs to contract and invest in players following the increase in the cap on scholarship players;
• guaranteed funding for player wellbeing, development programs and support for the PFA Past Players Program.

A framework has now been forged that can help the game build over the next five years. The players and the sport now have a runway to realise the potential of an independent professional competition, and - with renewed focus and capability – we are single-minded in delivering for our members the careers that their sacrifices of recent years deserve.

As we now look toward the future and embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, we are motivated by the driving purpose of putting people first.

The pandemic has compounded mental health struggles across society, something which footballers are not immune to and, in fact, have been disproportionately impacted by. Over the past 12 months, the PFA Mental Health Referral Network, which has now been centralised to provide more efficient and expert service to members and their loved ones, has conducted over 200 confidential counselling sessions.

To round out an eventful year, the PFA will be introducing the Players' Journey, an innovative new online home built to support the wellbeing, career, and transition of our members. Through the Players Journey, we are aspiring to support players in developing and building their identity, allowing them to engage with services, education, evidence-based programs, and practical skill building that will shape them as people – and we trust – better them equipped to manage the ups and downs of football.

Our mission to help build our people is inseparable from our duty to help shape our game.

As always, there remains much to be done as the football industry begins to rebuild and reshape based on the changing social and commercial foundations on which football is built. With this in mind, the priorities for the PFA over the next 12 months will include:

• developing a commercial strategy that underpins the long-term sustainability of the PFA and drives commercial outcomes for our members, which includes addressing emerging technology, the digitisation of sport and the increasing influence of athletes;
• embedding a Human Rights Framework within the PFA – and the sport – to ensure we have the capacity to safeguard the fundamental rights of our members at an increasingly complex and dynamic time;
• continuing to ensure the Australian Professional Leagues and Football Australia work in the best interest of the game and the players; and
• operationalising the PFA's own 2021-2024 Strategic plan.

We acknowledge the enormity of these challenges.

Equally, we acknowledge that throughout the PFA's history, challenges of this nature are nothing new. Time and again, our members and the PFA staff have proven they can meet those challenges and make progress.

Our collective resolve to continue moving forward, never wavering, has delivered significant outcomes to the PFA and its members at the most challenging times. Proving once again that, after 28-years, we are stronger together.