LAST weekend saw the conclusion of junior football for Season 2018.
We were delighted that this year we had 327 junior teams playing Australian Rules football in the EDFL.
This comprised 264 junior boy’s teams competing from under 9 through to under 17, and 63 junior girl’s teams competing from under 9 through to under 18.
This represents 44 more teams than played in the EDFL in 2017.
To allow these girls and boys to enjoy playing our great game every weekend, we thank their parents, coaches, team managers, thousands of volunteers and club administrators.
All sports competitions and teams rely on generous people who volunteer their time and this year has been no different.
Recently we announced the results of the junior competition best-and-fairest awards for 2018.
Winning an EDFL competition best-and-fairest award is an outstanding achievement and we pass on our congratulations to all winners and runners-up.
A complete list of every vote from all junior competitions is available on our website.
It was encouraging and rewarding to note that the best-and-fairest award winners represented 26 different EDFL clubs across the junior boy’s and girl’s competitions.
A key component of our junior football program are the umpires.
This year we had over 240 umpires on our junior panel who went out each weekend and contributed to our junior football.
Like the players and coaches, our umpires train and perform each week hoping to be rewarded with the opportunity to umpires finals matches and a grand final.
Congratulations to those umpires who were selected for grand finals.
I had the opportunity to attend the EDFL junior umpires presentation night in the lead into the final week of the junior season.
Leaving the function l felt confident in our future having seen and heard the quality of these umpires.
It was a fantastic night with special guest ex-AFL field umpire Steve McBurney, who shared his junior umpiring experience as well as umpiring in four AFL grand finals.
And finally, congratulations to the players, coaches and volunteers who enjoyed the success of winning a junior EDFL premiership in 2018.
I was fortunate to watch many grand finals and witnessed some excellent football and great matches.
All clubs are to be commended for the spirit in which the matches were played.
It was fantastic to see that across both boy’s and girl’s competitions, 21 different clubs took home an EDFL premiership cup this year.
Good luck for the weekend.
