The up-and-coming Phantoms will get the chance to take in late July with Southern Inland confirming the start of the season on Monday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The season will get underway on July 26, and Junior Phantoms president Scott McDonald is pleased the kids will have the opportunity to get on the park and numbers had been looking good in the early training runs.
" We had our first training run before COVID-19, and we had pretty good numbers there, and then we had a training run last week, and it wasn't too bad," he said.
"I still want some more 14s and 16s if I can. The 6s and 8s are a little bit light on. The 10s and 12s boys should be ok, but we are trying to get some more girls.
"This week we go back to full contact training so we should get a few more there hopefully. Yanco Ag hasn't been letting the kids out much so hopefully, but we are hoping they might be let out a bit more soon which would help to boost numbers."
The SIRU Junior Season will have a non-competitive focus in 2020, with the removal of Finals and Champions for 2020. The aim of this is to allow all participants to go out and focus on participation and enjoyment, rather than results.
There is still a chance the older age groups will play competitively based on the numbers of all the teams.
"If we get enough in the older age groups, 14s and 16s they might do competitive," he said.
"We need to have our numbers in by the July 11. It makes it hard because it's the last week of school, and if people want to go away, it will be tough to train and get numbers."
With the junior Group 20 season not going, McDonald said the club had seen a few new faces turn up to training.
"We had a few there last week which is good, so hopefully word might have gotten around schools," he said.
"We are getting the word out there to try and get some more numbers. It would be good to see a few new faces."
McDonald said that while the club wouldn't be able to drop fees for this season, Southern Inland have structured the season to help reduce costs.
"We can't drop the fees because of the Brumbies and Southern Inland fees so it will still be around $100, so it's going to be hard for parents that are struggling a bit," he said.
"They are going to try and keep it with Griffith, us, Albury and the western area playing against each other, so we don't have to travel quite as far. In August and September, we might have a full gala day or half gala days where we can mix it up with the eastern teams."
The draw for the season will be released once teams have confirmed numbers.
RELATED