The Suns family all came together as the club looks to bring together the whole local sporting community.
On Tuesday night, the Suns senior men’s and women’s football teams joined together with their junior teams for a whole club training.
Junior vice-president Danielle Cowie said it was the first time they’d done something like this on this scale.
“We have a full turnout,” she said. “All the junior teams had training.
“There were lots of laughs and smiles and the kids loved it. The senior group cooked the BBQ.
“It was a good time to chat and for everybody to form those connections.
“We picked up a few things that we want to have for next year.”
Kelly said with the club being only 11 years old it was finding its feet as a club and within the community.
She said they’ve got some players who started in juniors and are now in the senior sides.
The club has struggled for numbers in their under-14s and under-16s the past couple of years, but are set to have under-16s next season to help boost that pathway.
“You need that to feed into the senior team,” Cowie said. “It takes a while to set up the programs.
“We still haven’t established all the roots.”
The club also has a match day experience for the juniors where they are involved in a senior match through the pre-game speech and warm up.
It’s all part of building the connections.
“It is really crucial for a small club,” she said. “Our junior players look up to the senior players like AFL stars.
“The juniors become seniors and it’s important to build that connection between the sides.”
Several of the club’s senior men’s and women’s players have taken on coaching some of the juniors sides.
Some are parents of junior players, others are starting out their coaching careers.
“Some have coaching aspirations and this is a good place to start and build their skills as well,” Cowie said.
“It has created a unique bond for the seniors and juniors at the club.”
The club is accepting registrations for next season already.
To register: https://tinyurl.com/yc6zd2sf
