By JARROD POTTER
THE next generation of Dandenong’s football talent took to Shepley Oval on Wednesday to celebrate their heritage and love of football in the AFL South East Multicultural Cup.
Schools from around the Greater Dandenong and Casey region – over 100 players in all – kicked and handballed their way through a fantastic day’s play as part of the AFL South East Multicultural Program.
Players from a number of different geographic, ethnic and religious backgrounds descending on Dandenong’s premier football oval to get their first tastes of the national game.
“There were over 100 kids participating on the day and that was great,” AFL Victoria Football Development Manager – South East Michael Roberts said.
“It was a six-week program culminating in the event… the standard of play showed how successful the schools inviting us in have been with their health and fitness.
“The kids absolutely love it… we’ve already heard from a number of deputy principals… the kids want to be involved at club level… starting their teams.”
Wooranna Park Primary School was too mighty in both the boys’ and girls’ competitions taking the cup and knocking off the likes of St Paul The Apostle, St Marys Dandenong and Holy Family Doveton.
Roberts believes the first outing for these players in the football environment has been a boon to the Dandenong area and will be reflected in future teams starting up locally and school football numbers increasing.
“Exposing them to the rules of the game – where it’s not a sport of choice for those kids – but the feedback from those days is enormous,” Roberts said.
“What we struggled with in the past was the interest, now we’re transitioning them into the next phase where they can get further involved.
“We’ve crossed one hurdle and a few other ones to get around – transport, finances and so on – but we’re happy with the numbers now getting into their footy.”
Roberts wanted to thank the City of Greater Dandenong and the Dandenong Stingrays for their support of the program and use of Shepley Oval for the event.
For anyone interested in joining the program or getting involved with local football in Dandenong or Casey, AFL Victoria is running a registration event at the Melbourne Stars Family Fun Day at Casey Fields on Sunday 14 December.
