Country footy: Woady Yaloak named as 13th team in the Ballarat Football League
The Ballarat league will have 13 teams from next season. Here’s how the new kids on the block plan to grow from the ground up.
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Ballarat’s newest football club is not ruling out one day fielding its own senior team.
The Ballarat Football Netball League welcomed Woady Yaloak as its 13th side earlier this week.
At this stage the Warriors will field only junior teams, joining Mount Clear as the only club to have a senior side in the BFNL.
It follows four years of the club being involved in games and building the club in the competition.
“It really adds some security to us knowing that the kids have somewhere to play next year,” Woady Yaloak junior co-ordinator Mark Ashmore said.
“The BFNL have been great in giving us the invitation (initially to play).”
Woady Yaloak was formed to provide an opportunity for young kids in the area to play footy after opportunities for juniors were limited.
The club covers the towns of Haddon, Newtown, Smythesdale and Smythes Creek but it also incorporates other areas of Ballarat west.
“A lot of this (formation) has been bought out of the Haddon Auskick, it provided really strong numbers but kids dispersed everywhere once it was done,” Ashmore said.
“A few interested parties got together along with the Golden Rivers council and dared to dream.
“Our original kids started four years ago but the Covid (pandemic) crippled us and we got no footy but we’ve dealt with that battle.
“This year was our third proper year playing footy.
“We recently had a come and try day and had 130 kids out there.”
The support from the community will see the team field five teams next year, two in the under-9s, two in the under-11s and one under-13.
It will be the first time the club has fielded the oldest age group.
Now Woady Yaloak is hoping this is the first step of one day moving towards being a senior and junior club.
“At some you point you have to dare to dream but the dream is best part of 10-15 years down the track,” Ashmore revealed.
“The kids that have started with us are the kids progressing to the next age group (under-13).
“If we can get them progressing to the next ranks who knows what could happen.”
Ashmore said the room for growth is strong.
“In Woady Yaloak, there are three or four schools out that way and we’re pulling a lot of people from schools,” he said.
“The areas of Hillcrest, Winter Valley and the West side there’s growth area out there.
“It’s a win-win situation for us and a win for the BFNL.
“People out here also have somewhere to play and they don’t have to travel far.”
Woady Yaloak will play their first official match next year after playing invitational games in recent seasons.
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