Henley Football Club launches team for players with integration difficulties

HENLEY has always considered itself a community-oriented football club and it will welcome another squad to its family this season featuring players with integration difficulties.

Henley Football Club C7 player Dylan Haines-West with Sharks’ A-grader Brock Kennedy. Picture: Sarah Reed

HENLEY has always considered itself a community-oriented football club and it will welcome another squad to its family this season.

The Sharks will become the only club in the western suburbs to field a team in the amateur league’s C7 division, featuring players with integration difficulties.

Henley’s squad includes players with intellectual or physical disabilities, brain injuries and on the autism spectrum.

The five-team, 12-a-side C7 competition kicks off this weekend.

“The club thought it was a good idea to have a C7 side because there’s no C7 side in the western suburbs,” Sharks football director Nick Bridgman says.

“Being a family club like Henley, it gives the guys in C7 somewhere to come with their families.

“We wanted to give these kids and young adults a chance to be part of the Henley Football Club.”

The C7 competition has existed in various forms for 25 years. This season it features Henley, Goodwood Saints, Kilburn, Salisbury and Kenilworth.

It comprised four clubs last season before Inclusive SA approached Henley about starting a team.

Inclusive SA chief executive John Cranwell says the C7 competition is fantastic.

“It’s giving people who may have some barriers participating in football a chance to play club football, represent their club, wear the same uniform and feel part of something bigger in the community,” Cranwell says.

“It gives these guys a place in the community that doesn’t judge them for their barriers – they’re a football player and participant in the club.

“We’ve had guys that were very socially isolated that started participating in their football club and they grew to be part of that community then, on retirement, have taken on other roles within the club.”

Dylan Haines-West, who has an intellectual disability, is excited to play in the Sharks’ inaugural C7 team.

“I joined Henley because I thought it would be fun to meet new players,” Haines-West, 18, says.

“I’m looking forward to doing some running and kicking some goals.”