Kickin' It

February 21st, 2019

Fancy joining a winter sporting club which allows you to get fit while honing your skills and has a thriving social side?

The Stirling Districts Football (soccer not Aussie Rules) Club, based at Bradbury, is known for all these things and is recruiting for this season.

The club is looking for A, B and C grade Men in particular to strengthen its sides and remain competitive in the local competition amid a number of new clubs starting up in the Hills.

Mens Coordinator Hamish Elsdon said although preseason began three weeks ago anyone can join in at training regardless of their fitness level.

“Our preseason is not too much fitness and mostly consists of kicking a ball around to practice our skills,” Hamish said.

“We have a few new players but we'd always like more.

“We're looking to bolster our side and get a bigger pool of players so we can stay strong.”

While matches are competitive and trainings skills focused, Hamish said club members from all teams value the social aspect of the sport.

“The social side of trainings and the club is really good,” he said.

“I've been playing here for five years and most of my closest friends are from the club – it's also how I keep in touch with some of my friends.

“We have Thursday night dinners after training, an end of season day, FIFA nights and pub crawls – it's the best part of the club.”

The club has two full pitches at their disposal and high standard clubrooms to support its three mens, two womens and several juniors teams.

Although most of its away games are played closer to the city, the club is proud of the healthiness of their turf and the friendliness of its members in welcoming opposition teams to their home ground.

Senior Coach Keith Arnold said he was drawn to the club by his envy of the facilities, appreciation of the club's comepetitive and friendly nature and the challenge of coaching the mens sides back into the Division 1 league from Division 2.

“The club has a very long history, great facilities, a good bunch of players – they're well organised and they're ambitious,” Keith said.

“I have a two year contract to coach the A grade back to Div 1 and hold them there so we're trying to recruit as well as we can this year.

“It's about numbers and club culture so there are no particular positions we are looking for it's all open at the moment.”

New coach Keith is aware of the work it may take to develop his coaching style in the mens side games, but is happy with the progress so far.

“I have 11 foundations to my coaching, most of which players will already know, but most of preseason tactical sessions are about understanding how and why we want to play them,” Keith said.

“The team drew 3-3 in a trial game against the Modbury Jets on the weekend and they were already starting to move the ball forward rather than back or sideways and were open to passing.”

Seniors trainings run on Tuesday and Thursday nights, while games are played on Saturdays.

The womens teams have already begun their trial matches and the competitive season is approaching.

The men will begin competitive games in early April and the junior teams will be allocated on March 4.

To get involved with any of the mens teams contact Keith on 0411 629 028 and for more general inquiries about the club contact club president Brett Prior on 0403 555 757.

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