The Yass Roos have been chucked straight back into the fire after their bye, with the men travelling to Woden to play the Blues. Woden is one of the competition heavyweights, so far waltzing their way through the majority of the competition.
The Roos are slowly climbing their way up the ladder with big wins over Belconnen, Eastlake and Molonglo in recent weeks.
Forlonge hopes the side’s recent good form can culminate in success against Woden, “We haven’t played any Woden team for four or five years, and this is a higher-graded Woden team as well. Pretty much every team that we play this year will be new other than the ones that came up with us because we went up two grades when we went up this year. All of these bigger clubs are playing their top grade, which we have never done before.
“We know full well that we’ve got players that come over from Canberra who has come out to top us up, but I think that’s just the nature of AFL and rugby league’s really big in Yass, so we’re always up against it; If we were purely trying to get Yass people, so we don’t worry too much about where we get our players from, but I think we are pretty lucky at the moment that we keep staying around that 50/50, no matter who comes to the footy, they should always be able to see a few local people on the field there and still maintain that local Yass connection, but be mindful that we’ve got Canberra players, but we also want them to stay for a lot of years that they become name basis around town as well, not just blow in blowouts.
“These young kids that we’ve got at the moment, they’ve been around for three, four years now, and another couple of years and the local AFL community will already be well aware of who they are now, but hopefully just keep building in the town, and when people come and watch us, it doesn’t matter where they’re from, they know the team that they’re coming to watch.
“I think the Magpies in the situation, or the competition that they’re in it’s a lot more competitive, there’s a lot bigger clubs that they’re up against, like the Queanbeyans and West Belconnen and stuff like that, that have a lot of money and get a lot of big juniors and stuff like that and can bring in players, so Yass kind of has to have to try and do the same to keep up. So I guess they’re in a little bit different boat to us in that respect. They do it by means to keep up and be competitive with those big Canberra clubs, whereas ours is more just to survive and to maintain a team on the field that’s competitive and I think we are always up against it in trying to get eyeballs on AFL, but I think with the women’s team this year and the men’s team being successful for a lot of years now, I think it’s trending in the right direction, but it’s always a bit of a juggling act to try and just promote and grow AFL in Yass, but I think we’re going okay at the moment.
“Whilst we try and be competitive and we want to be the best that we can be and we love to win as many games as we can and stuff like that, we do still have that country element and that pub footy element which I think helps attract those people who want to take their footy seriously, but who may be studying or doing apprenticeships and things like that, and maybe don’t have the time or capacity or desire to have to train three times a week like some Canberra teams would do in the higher grades. I think it’s just an alternative pathway for people who want to take their footy seriously and win games of footy, but not have to be as structured and as rigid in how they go about it. Some people like that and are okay with that. There are other people that want to take a little bit more of a relaxed approach which is the pathway that we try and provide and then grow and develop those players in that city.
“I think just growth in general, with the clubs, whether that’s through our social media pages, like just the engagement and stuff that we get through those pages, certainly with different incentives that we have at the grounds and our charity days and through the canteen and things like that, I think our crowds are starting to increase a little bit. I think it’s always tricky when depending on what times our games are and everything like that, and where other codes are, everyone’s fighting for the same crowd. So whether that’s the Magpie’s up at Walker Park or if there’s Rugby Union just up the road from us, as well on the same day, it can be kind of tricky, it may be some of the smaller crowds, but I think that’s why we tried to set ourselves apart a little bit this year and make as many home games as we can twilight to night games, just to try and capitalise on that crowd, and I think there’s been really good engagement with those.
“I think there is an appetite and a want for the Yass community to come up and watch AFL. I guess it just depends on where it fits in on every individual’s kind of hierarchy between trying to juggle rugby union, rugby league, soccer if it’s in town on a Saturday or whatever day they play, and then also AFL. It is tricky in a small town like us, everybody’s sort of fighting for the same thing, but I think there’s growth there and it’s getting better.”
The first bounce is to commence at 2:00 pm Saturday at Phillip Oval.
-Tully Potts
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