Junior footy starts with exciting ‘firsts’

Junior footy got underway on Sunday (2 April) with a number of firsts adding extra excitement to the round.

In the Under 11 competition, Nambucca Valley Lions made their eagerly anticipated return to competitive footy following a number of years of there being no club in the area. The Lions have been a fantastic recent success story, starting up an Auskick Centre in the second half of last season which had over 40 participants, prompting club officials to branch into fielding an Under 11 team.

The team travelled to Richardson Park where they played against Sawtell Toormina Saints. Whilst they didn’t record a win, the kids had a ball and can’t wait for next Sunday when they play their first match at home.

Another first at Richardson Park was the initial outing of the Bellingen Bulldogs in the Under 15.5 competition. This is the first time in many years that the Bulldogs have fielded a team in this older age group and is a great reflection of the work that the club has done to bring the kids through from the younger teams. The Bulldogs took on a strong Coffs Breakers outfit and gave an excellent account of themselves to go down by less than 4 goals.

It was a fantastic day at Sawtell with the home club, Nambucca Valley, Macleay Valley (Under 13 and Under 15.5), Bellingen and Coffs Breakers all in action across 6 matches of quality footy. Following recent flooding of the Bellinger River, Burdett Park was unplayable so the clubs worked beautifully together to move the Bulldogs v Breakers fixtures to Richardson Park at short notice.

Meanwhile Northern Beaches Blues hosted Grafton Tigers in both Under 11 and Under 13 at Centennial Oval. This marked another milestone as Northern Beaches ran out an Under 13 side for the first time in many years, going on to record a strong win. The club is in a really positive growth phase and will look to continue building momentum from here.

The only down side to the weekend was the closure of Wayne Richards Park, Port Macquarie, which meant that the four matches to be played were unable to go ahead. This means that Port Magpies four teams, Camden Haven Bombers two teams, and Manning Valley Mustangs two teams have to wait until next weekend for their first match of the season.

For full details of round 1 results, and for round 2 fixtures, please click here.