By JARROD POTTER
Endeavour North Junior Football Club refuses to throw in the towel – despite the obstacles it has gone through in recent seasons.
Formerly known as Mossgiel Park, the Hawks at their heyday had sides in every division of the South East Juniors (SEJ) competition and a best-and-fairest board featuring AFL players such as Toby Mclean and Jay Kennedy-Harris.
Endeavour North has only one junior side in the south eastern competition currently – its under-eight white team.
But the last few years have been extremely lean as the side lost players to other clubs or ageing out of the junior ranks.
Things didn’t get better for the club in 2015 when Endeavour Hills and Endeavour North held a vote to determine whether the sides would merge in 2015, but it didn’t pass, leaving the suburb with two football sides – one of which with a dire lack of players.
“We want to continue this great club we’ve got – we’ve got the one team up and running and we’re going to have three next year,” Endeavour North secretary Joyce Yawnou said.
“We’re financially steady, it’s just the children we were lacking.
“We’ve got a few different approaches this year ahead.
“Our under-eights will go up to under-nines, there will be a new under-eights team from Auskick as well as an under-12 girls team.”
The club has a great affiliation with the Mossgiel Park Auskick centre and hopes those players will transition across to the club in years to come.
The glory days aren’t that far behind in the rear-view mirror for the Hawks and Yawnou believes there’s life yet in the brown-and-gold brigade at Barry Simon Reserve.
“We’d love to recapture that and if we’re able to keep those kids together and strive together, we’ll be onto a winning streak,” Yawnou said.
“But it’s all about sportsmanship and having fun at this stage – we don’t have to worry about winning at this stage yet.”
For more information on signing up kids to play for Endeavour North, contact the club on 0422 888 190 or via its Facebook page Endeavour North JFC.
