Josh's AFL Presentation

There was a great turn out today at the Albion Park Bowling Club for the Presentation day for the Albion Park Crows JAFL Club.

Thanks to Jay not showing up (killing me Jay!) it was left to yours truly to present the Auskickers with their trophies and say a few words. Great to see these kids here, hopefully they'll all show up again next season.

Josh got his trophy (good work Dad) and also a certificate to thank him for playing up a Grade when needed. I think he's ready for Under 9's next season, he wanted to know why there was no Best & Fairest and Most Improved and Coaches Award for Auskickers. He probably thought he'd have won them all. He might have been right.

The winner of the first AP Crows JAFL Club Tipping Competition was awarded their trophy. A nice bobblehead. Now, let's see if I can hold onto it next season.

Auskick Crows at North Dalton Park

First Day For Josh at AFL Auskick

Josh started his AFL career today for the Albion Park Crows Junior AFL Club, with the first Auskick morning down at Bonaira Street in Kiama - how fitting!
It was also bucketing down with rain. I'm not kidding, it was torrential, but there was no thought from anyone of cancelling, so off we went.
Of course, I was then roped in to going out and helping with the masses of players - we had 11, while Kiama had an almost unbelievable 55 Auskick kids, so instead of the plan of being able to stand back and watch Josh do his stuff, I was forced to go t another part of the field and deal with the under 5 year olds as they tried to work out how to kick a footy. Somewhat disappointing for me, but Josh had a ball, kicked two goals in the game they had at the end and couldn't stop talking all the way home, even though we were both soaked to the skin. A successful first day then.

Josh Starts His AFL Journey

Josh had his first official training for AFL this afternoon. I think he enjoyed being a part of a group, a team, and learning some new skills, and finding out how tiring it is going to be.

First training. Josh is in the green T-shirt

The best part for me was about halfway through the training. While the other boys had been getting high balls to mark, Josh had been getting grubber balls, probably because he was a new boy, and one of the smallest on the field. He was finally given the chance to take a mark which, after all of our kick-to-kick under high balls, he took easily, and then calmly slotted the goal over the mark, and his coaches were not only surprised but pleased with. It was great to see Josh getting high fives for his efforts.

Josh Signs Up For Auskick

This afternoon Josh and I headed down to Con O'Keefe Oval to get him registered for AFL Auskick with the local Albion Park Crows Junior AFL club.

I'm not completely sure who wants it more - Josh or me. I've always said that, had AFL had a junior club in Kiama when I was a kid, I would love to have played. As it was, by the time this did occur, I was too old for juniors, and not fit enough to be playing seniors. More is the pity.

So yes, Josh was certainly shepherded in the direction of AFL as a winter sport. Rugby League was never going to be an option, and though soccer is fine, it was not really something I wanted to watch every weekend. So we've gone for this.
We'll see how things go. Though I don't mind (particularly) being involved, I don't want to get to the stage of being a necessary item every week. Coaching? No thanks. Occasional helper at training? Yep, i can probably do that. What i most want to see is Josh being involved in a team sport, and learning the skills required to be good at it. Can't wait to see how it all pans out.

Swanning With the Swans

This afternoon, pretty much as soon as our feet touched the floor at home, we were off to Myimbar Oval at Shellharbour, where two of the Sydney Swans, Tim Membery and Lewis Roberts-Thomson were doing a kick-to-kick and meet-and-greet with kids from the Shellharbour Swans Junior AFL Club.
Now of course Josh is going to play for the Albion Park Crows Junior AFL Club, but we went over (as did several others) anyway.

We played kick-to-kick for about an hour on the field, and Josh got his ball signed by LRT, which he thought was pretty special (even though he is a GWS Giants fan first and foremost).