History
HAT Footy Tipping is a footy tipping competition for the past and present employees of Hydro Tasmania, Transend Networks and Aurora Energy and their subsidiary companies, as well as their family members and close friends. If you've got a question or a suggestion send us an email at HAT Footy Tipping.
Where Did The Footy Tipping Orginate From...
The footy tipping competition was originally run by the Retail Supply Branch Recreation Club (ie the social club for part of the Hydro). RSB became Distribution Branch, then Customer Service Division, then Network Business Unit, then Network Unit, then (at disaggregation) Network Division, Aurora Energy. Somewhere along the way the social club folded, but Simon Burgess (Aurora Energy) kept the footy tipping going as a separate entity. Andrew Green was an inaugural member of the RSB Recreation Club (mid sixties I think - certainly before my time). He continued to be a passionate member of the Rec Club and the footy tipping. He was also a senior central umpire for the TFL, TSFL, TANFL (and all the other names the footy code had in Tassie during the 80's). In the early 90's Andrew was diagnosed with Bowel (I think) cancer. He died a few months later. The memorial trophy (see below) in his name has been awarded thereafter. In addition to his passion for footy, Andrew was a very keen runner (member of the Hobart Hash House Harriers), and he always ran a book on the Melbourne Cup - and offered pretty good odds. I remember one year he came out several hundred dollars in the red. After that he still ran the book, the odds were a little less generous, and he always layed off his bets elsewhere to limit the potential financial damage. In 2004, Gerard Martindill and Craig Owens (both from Aurora Energy) took over the HAT Footy Tipping Competition from Simon Burgess (who managed it using Microsoft Excel and tippers would submit tips on paper or via email.) In 2004, Craig initially developed an excel file with all rounds tips. Each week the tipper would submit their tips using the excel file, which would send an email to a central location, where it would be processed and and entered into a database. In 2005 the HAT Footy Tipping web page was developed and the way of entering tips using the excel system was scrapped. The excel system made way to allow HAT tippers to enter tips via a form on the web page. The web site stores all the weekly results, rules and general announcements etc. It made the life of managing the comp, soooo so much easier! The processing of the tips remained the same. In 2007, Craig Owens left Aurora and so Steve McDermott (from Aurora Energy) took up the mantle of co managing the HAT competition. Craig with his IT skills helps out with all the IT issues - basically making sure the system does not fall over! In 2009, Brian Whelan took over from Steve McDermott after a two year stint in the North. In 2011 saw HAT Footy Tipping move to a new web page including a new tips entry interface. Nick Whittle and Brett Templer joined also joined the HAT Footy Tipping Team in 2011. During the 2010s, Brian retired handing over the northern regins to Steve 'Robbo' Robertson. Nick Whittle and Billy Godwin joined the team and along with Steve, Gerard and Craig are the custodians of this unqiue footy tippung compeition.