Roosters crow for more players

The pressure is on for Strathalbyn Football Club’s A Grade Women team, which needs to either recruit at least six more players or merge with another club to field a side this season.

The club has recently experienced a reduction in players, predominantly due to work and home life factors, leaving its U17s and A Grade Women sides lean on numbers.

“I think we’re just really struggling to retain our young girls that have played junior footy, whether that be their lives changing through study, working on weekends, and other priorities,” Coach Ryan Diepgrond said.

“I know a lot of the young girls we’ve had play, now the world has opened up, they’re off travelling and working overseas too, so I think we probably keep getting that problem at the moment.

“I don’t know the magic formula yet to retain these players.”

The side currently has locked in about 12-13 players, but ‘the more the merrier’ is the resounding cheer coming from the team, with the first round drawing closer.

“It’s a great club and it’s fun,” Strathalbyn’s Charlotte Collins said.

“You get to tackle and go against people, and you don’t have to be fit, you just have to play.”

Diepgrond added Strathalbyn is the perfect club if you love football and want to play.

“We’ve got a really great group of core players, who are highly talented, that just want to succeed, but we just don’t have enough to fill a side,” he said.

“If you’ve had a thought of playing football, we take anybody and we always have.

“Come out and you’ll enjoy it; everyone that comes out says they do and they love playing.”

The club is hoping to recruit about six players, with its next option to explore a merger most likely with Yankalilla/Encounter Bay.

“Ideally, we would want to have a team, but if we need to top up and merge with somebody, that would be the next option,” Diepgrond said.

“I’d be pretty shattered (if we withdrew since) we’ve been working our butts off for the last six or seven years.

“We’ve got a really strong history and group of talented players, and we want to have a pathway that we can be a club that is a nursery for all these elite players.

“I want a future for them; I don’t want them to get to a full stop when they get to the U17s, then go to another club.”

Only if all avenues are exhausted will the team withdraw from this year’s competition, but Club President Phil Eatts felt confident a solution would be found, whether it’s merging with another club or bringing the juniors in to play.

“We’ll do everything we can to not allow that to happen,” he said.

“It is a concern, and we want to make sure we keep our team going because if you lose it, it would be very hard to get back again, so it’s really important we do try get players.

“We’ve got really good numbers in our U14s, but the U17s and Open Women are a bit lean.

“Myponga has just put a team in, so there’s a bit of a draw from players going (there) from other clubs, but everyone’s got a similar story, with probably the exceptions being McLaren and Willunga who have the location and population to support it.

“Clubs within the league will work together to get a game going even if it’s got reduced numbers.”

Trainings are held Monday and Wednesday nights at Strathalbyn Oval from 6.30pm.

Anyone interested in joining the team is urged to contact Ryan Diepgrond on 0435 788 872.

“(The coaches) have done a good job and it’s definitely not due to them, it’s just the circumstances that have come along,” Eatts explained.

“We’ve just got to do what we can to make sure womens footy survives because we started off so strongly in Strath and we were really the leader there, so we want to make sure we keep it going for the girls in our area.”