Eynesbury Eagles have their sights set on fielding under-19 football and netball sides in next year’s Riddell District Football Netball League.
The Eagles have built a successful junior program over the past few years and still focused on having a full complement of senior sides in the future.
New president Michael Gant said things were still tracking in the right direction.
“We’ve had a bit of a change over with a new committee,” he said.
“Similar to last year, we’ll have a side in every age group in football and netball which is exciting.
“We’ll have our club 18s again and we’re excited to continue with that.”
Gant said the next step was to look to introduce under-19s for both netball and football next season as they look to move into the senior space.
The RDFNL previously said there had been a memorandum of understanding for the Eagles to have senior sides in 2027.
Gant said having senior sides was very much still the focus, but it’s unlikely to be in 2027.
“We’re planning for the future and we’re not too far away,” he said. “We do want to set up seniors in the future but we’re very aware of how hard it will be.
“We’ll plan for under-19s in 2027 next year and potentially senior sides in 2028.
“We don’t want to set up for failure and only 20 blokes turn up to training. It’s about baby steps.”
Gant said they would look at how the Gisborne Giants went about things, with the Giants having an under-19 football side and D-grade netball teams before then moving to a full senior program.
He said one of the biggest focuses for them this year was ensuring players continued to comeback.
“We want to continue to have success and would love to see more premierships,” he said.
“We want to keep people at the club. We’re excited about the future.
“We want people to stay local and support a local team.”
RDFNL chief executive Jordan Doyle said the continue to work with Eynesbury about the possibility of transitioning into a senior club.
“The EFNC have done a lot of hard work over a long period of time and growth from Auskick, to under-9s, right through the junior age groups and then into seniors is no easy task and there are always speed bumps along the way,” he said.
“The club has fielded a very successful club 18s team for a number of years and had teams at the highest age groups for football and netball previously and we’re hoping that over the next period of time that they’re able to have the sustainable numbers to progress to under-19.5s level in football and 19 and under in netball.”
