Roos squad members from 2016.
The Yass Roos Aussie Rules Club kicked off their training sessions this week and are preparing for a season that will see a ladies’ side take the field on the same day as the lads.
“Both the men’s team and the women’s team pulled the boots on at Tuesday night’s session and the Club is looking forward to getting back into the swing of things,” said Club President Jarrad Forlonge.
“It was a casual catch up with existing players and any new players got to do a meet and greet and chat with the coaches and being the first one with the women’s team it was good to all come together for the first time as one club and have a light run around and a bit of a kick of the footy. There was a barbecue held afterwards so everyone could ease their way back into footy.”
“We are still working through the trial scenario. The coaches will sort that out no doubt. Over the past couple of years we normally aim for two trials, one local and one a bit further away, and that will be the plan again this year to try and get some run in the legs and with the girls now it will be good to have a hit out as well going into their first season and have a run around before the season proper.
“After last year’s grand final loss we’ve lost a few of the older boys who decided to hang the boots up, which is fair enough. We have a few holes to fill, but I think the position we are in is a fortunate one that fifteen of last year’s grand final team are all under the age of 22. We have a really young and keen core group of players and we are trying to build around them. We have a few new recruits that fit into that younger brigade, but also a few more experienced bodies as well to fit in and help fill the gaps as we go into this new season.”
“There’s a few new ones and a few older ones who will stick around as well and it will be a good mix of players again this year going into the new season.”
Forlonge not only does his work on the field he has been President for several years and directs the club off the field with the help of his committee. “I’m the President and just doing all that side of things and other than that just a player and I want to try and focus on that the most. I want to go out there and play a bit of footy with my mates and enjoy that side of things. I run through the forward line the most, probably half forward or pocket. That’s where I spend the most time. I’m fairly versatile so it does change up from game to game or even quarter to quarter. There’s changes to this years competition which will affect the Roos.”
“Last season every club that only had one team, played in the third division essentially, so that ended up being a lot of the regional club and a couple of the Canberra teams. But with us and another one of the regional teams getting a women’s team this year and Coota getting a second men’s team they have restructured the competition and got rid of the third division mens and left it as Division One and Division Two. We have gone up into Division One and our girls just go in with all the other community level women’s teams as well. We went up with three others, Coota, Goulburn and Eastlake, the latter who won the Grand Final. Murrumbateman, Belconnen and Cooma went up into Division Two.”
It will be a new dawn for Aussie Rules in the Valley and hopefully a Yass side can make it all the way to the big dance at the end of the year. The Battle of the Barton always makes for some solid play when the Roos play the Murrumbateman Eagles who we will catch up with next week.
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