Football club’s bid to find Matildas of the future
AN Eastern suburbs club is believed to be the first in Australia to offer free representative football in a bid to nurture the future stars of the sport.
Southern Courier
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AN Eastern suburbs club is believed to be the first in Australia to offer free representative football in a bid to nurture the future stars of the sport.
Dunbar Rovers, who play their home games at Heffron Park, Maroubra, have been offering free rep football for boys for a number of seasons.
Now the club is launching the same scheme for its girls’ teams in a bid to keep more youngsters in football.
Peter Hennessy, Dunbar director, said: “Compared to other sports, rep football costs a lot of money. It can be up to $2500 a season. If you have two children then you are looking at $5000.
“The likes of AFL have big corporate bucks behind them as well as sponsorship. It isn’t the same with football so rep costs a lot more. We are offering fee free rep so we can keep girls in the sport and hopefully find the next Matildas star of the future.”
The club has already recruited its under 17s girls’ team but is looking for more U14 and 15 players.
Hennessy said the Australian U23s were recently knocked out of the Asia Cup by Vietnam.
“It is clear we are not getting the talent through. We hope to change that. A lot of clubs pay their first team players at semi professional level a lot of money. That ultimately comes from money from reps. We don’t do that. We are not telling others ... to do the same. We are just putting the model out there.”
The club was founded in 1991 and now has 19 teams.
Details: dunbarroversfc.com