For 40 years, the Forrestdale Junior Football Club (JFC) has been on a mission to encourage local youth community members to participate in an active lifestyle, in a supportive environment.
After a short hiatus – due to new clubs and new catchment areas forming – and a name change in 2019 to become more cohesive with the seniors, transitioning from being kangaroos to being falcons, the JFC has experienced steady growth to celebrate their 40-year anniversary.
The anniversary celebrations and heritage rounds take place on Sunday August 10, with junior boys and girls competing in a specially designed, custom-made jersey which features the kangaroo roots of the club combined with the modernised falcon association.
Former club president and active club volunteer Sarah Hazel said the heritage round is about honouring past players and reliving memories.
“This is your local football club. We haven’t changed much in the last 40 years because what was working 40 years ago is still working today,” she said.
“People still want to feel that connection, and they still want to feel that community spirit.
“When people do come to our club, you have dads or mums who were in the junior club now coaching or watching their kids in the junior club, sitting in a clubhouse they sat in themselves as kids, sitting next to an oval they sat next to or played on as kids, it lets them ground themselves back into that history.”
When the club reformed in 2019, it was a slow start but was the juniors under the new name of falcons were soon thriving again.
“When it all got restarted up again, it started with two teams,” Ms Hazel said.
“We started with Auskick again and the first season we had 25 Auskickers from pre-primary to year two. One of the coaches we got was a kangaroo himself back in the earlier days, so it was about resetting the club and bringing back that history.
“There’s a lot of photos with our 2019 Auskickers wearing kangaroo jerseys but holding up falcon certificates or high fiving a falcon senior.
“We also had a year five and six girls’ team that a local dad had coached at another club and wanted to bring it back to his old local club.
“The entire team came over and created the very first Forrestdale falcons’ junior year five and six girls’ team.
“My daughter was in that inaugural team and the happiest day I saw of my daughter was the last game of the season, she hadn’t kicked a goal yet and the whole team got around her and another girl at the home game and put them in the goal square and fed them the ball the entire game until they kicked a goal.
“And that pretty much summed up what the club was about because they didn’t need to do that, but the coach and the whole team of girls took the time to give everyone a really good go.”
Ms Hazel said although the specific Forrestdale area may be small, they focus on community inclusion.
“We have a lot of players who come from outside the area because they like the community sense we provide,” she said.
“We have consistency, where the teams are staying together and moving up together and then getting bigger.
“We’re very cohesive in the way we work together, even with the seniors, and there’s times where we get invited to do honour guards for our seniors to run through, or we invite the seniors to train with the younger players.”
Past and present players, coaches, members and community members with their families are encouraged to attend the heritage round games and celebrations at William Skeet Oval.
