Albion Park Crows
THE Mercury is looking to promote Illawarra and South Coast junior sporting clubs in the My Sporting Club feature as part of our weekly Junior Sport liftout. The profiles will cover as many sports as possible and focus on one club per week. This week we are featuring the history and achievements of the Albion Park Crows Junior AFL Club. If you would like your club to be featured leave your details at our Junior Sport email address: juniorsport@illawarramercury.com.au.
Q: Do you know the year the Albion Park Crows were formed:
A: 2008
Q: What competition does the Crows play in: How many teams/juniors are part of your sporting club:
A: South Coast (Illawarra) AFL competition:
Q: Please tell us about the philosophy or principals that define your club:
A: Our clubs motto is ’The Junior Club for the Family & Community’ and our clubs values statement is a pnuemonic of APCROWS which stands for Achievement, Positive, Committment, Respect, Opportunity, Welcoming and Sportsmanship.
We promote a friendly game day atmosphere in a sporting club that is inclusive of all abilities and physical nature. We support our volunteers via many initiatives and provide a safe playing environment that is fun for all the kids to learn and grow in our great game of Aussie Rules. Anyone interested in joining the club can register through the Crows’ website http://www.albionparkcrows.com.au/.
Q: Please tell us what you believe is the greatest sporting achievement of your club. It may be something recent or in the past:
A: There have been over 250 children come and try and play AFL since its inception in 2008. During this time we have had approximately 20 kids go on to represent our club at a regional level and have 1 player now playing with the Campbelltown seniors and one with the Illawarra Lions U18s.
We currently have 1 U12s child who was selected to participate in the Sydney Swans Illawarra AFL Academy. Harry Cooper recieves specialist coaching advice and training as he has been identified as having the potential to further his ambition to become an AFL player.
Our Youth Girls teams of 2009, 2010 & 2011 all made the finals which was a great achievement for them and our club. Several of these high school girls went on to represent NSW in the annual clash against the ACT.
Q: Does the Albion Park Crows have any famous juniors or members who have achieved success as seniors:
A: At the moment we have Joshua David-Wright playing with the Illawarra Lions U18s and Joshua Hole playing Seniors with Campbelltown in the Sydney AFL competition. I’m sure someone from our club in the future will play with the Sydney Swans though as we have some terrific little juniors that have been with us for a few years now.
Q: What are the goals of your club. They can be either short-term or long-term.
A:Our club goals are to continue providing a fun and safe game day experience year to year. We are building our club step by step in a very difficult market here in Albion Park. Our aim is to increase its community profile through school promotions and local businesses. We would like to see some AFL posts placed in the community 24/7 so mums and dads can take their kids to the local park and have kick to kick.
With the growth of our game and the programs we introduce we believe that by 2018 our club will be regularly in the finals in most grades and have the clubs first premiership.
Q: Tell us a little about the competition you participate in. Would you say it is strong and healthy and how could it be improved.
A: Our competition is very healthy. A couple of years ago we moved competition days to Sundays. The idea of this was to attract those kids who already play another sport to our code and introduce them to it without having to leave their other team altogether and hopefully bring their friends. This has had some success in the South of the Illawarra as opposed to the Northern Suburbs.
Our teams all travel locally and the furtherest team is Bowral, there is 9 clubs with even aged groups and their is no competition points and competition ladder for U9s to U11s. U12s and up play for points. There is modified rules for tackling in U9s to U11s.
The Auskick program caters for 5-8yr olds and has a strong emphasis on fun and learning the AFL specific skills such as the punt kick and handballing.
Q: Does the Albion Park Crows have a major sporting rival or a particular game each season which is special:
A: Yes being so close to Shellharbour, the Shellharbour Swans are our biggest rivals and we always welcome the challenge to rise up against them.
