Brisbane Roar made it out to a player’s appearance at Westside Grovely FC on Friday evening where the juniors got to meet some of their favourite Roar stars.
Kai Trewin and Macklin Freke engaged in a Q&A with players, and then joined the juniors for a training session.
President Paul Anson spoke about the positive direction in which Westside Grovely FC is heading, starting with an increase in members and the introduction of new programs.
“This year we’ve got about 400 members, that’s up probably 20% from last year so we’ve got 19 junior teams and 11 senior teams,” Anson said.
“We also started an U3’s-U5’s program. There’s probably about 60 doing that, and a waitlist of 45/50 for the next lot that we run,” he added.
Anson highlighted the push for increased female participation in the grassroots space with the addition of a summer sixes team and Girls United social football sessions that kicked off last week.
“There are three girls’ teams and there’s several mixed teams as well. We are trying to increase the female participation numbers at the club,” he said.
In attempt to see more women in coaching positions at the club, Westside Grovely has offered coaches free accreditation.
The club does not yet have U14’s to U18’s teams, but Anson says, “we’re trying to rectify that, so we have a pipeline for players to go through to senior teams”.
Westside Grovely is a smaller club compared to others, which acts as a benefit when it comes to engaging with the community.
“It’s a very good feeling club. We’re small enough that we can pay attention to people, some other clubs are just too big to do that,” Anson said.
In September, the Brisbane City Council and State Government are investing $650k into the club which will see both of their playing fields get rebuilt.
“We’re very mindful of the fact that we are a community club, we just want people to enjoy playing football and play it for a long time.”
