Rockbank Football Netball Club junior sides will be known as the Western Rams as the club looks to re-establish its junior program.
The club hopes the new name, and a raft of new housing in the Rockbank area, will help draw juniors this season.
It’s been seven years since the club has fielded a junior football side, and it’s never had a junior netball team.
Rams’ football operation manager Gavin Sporle said the club wanted to tap into the population boom in the area.
The junior teams will join the seniors at Ian Cowie Reserve. The senior sides will continue to be known as Rockbank Rams.
“Getting juniors up and going is the biggest focus of the club,” Sporle said.
“Our focus is to leverage the growth area around us and have our junior program established before the growth in the area really takes off.”
The club is looking for under-10, under-12 and under-14 footballers and under-11, under-13 and under-15 netballers.
Sporle said sponsors are keen to get involved at the junior level.
“The under-14s [football] and under-15s [netball] are the target sides we are working on,” he said.
“We’ll have heavily subsided fees for all our juniors this season. We really want to get this going.
“There are already about 10 interested in the under-14 side, and we’ve had a couple of girls interest in playing netball.”
The club has set February 20 as the deadline for new registrations so it can determine which teams it will be able to field.
However, Sporle said new players would still be accepted past that date.
As part of it’s new focus on youth, the club will run Auskick sessions for younger age groups this football season.
It’ll be the second year the Rams have had Auskick at the club.
The Rams will be providing information on the junior competition at Melton council’s movie night and community fair at Ian Cowie Reserve on Friday. Players can register on the night.
Details: 0437 096 045 or secretary@rockbankfsc.com.au
