Brisbane Roar made a player appearance at Mt Gravatt Hawks FC on Thursday evening where the football club’s juniors got to meet three Brisbane Roar stars.
James Nikolovski, Louis Zabala, and Thomas Waddingham had a meet and greet with the juniors followed by a Q&A and signing and photos session.
These appearances are part of the club’s aim to reconnect with the community and to show our support to local clubs.
Mt Gravatt Hawks President Mark Brittain spoke about the positive direction in which the club is heading with members and their programs.
“The club is doing well across the board. We’ve just hit 850 members as a club. We offer programs for all age groups, so there’s a program for everyone. There’s mixed teams and all-girls teams to suit what players prefer,” Brittain said.
The club offers junior programs ranging from Hatchlings (U3-U5), Fledglings (U5-U7), MiniRoos (U8-U12), and the general juniors, with the girls’ teams ranging from the U4-U15 age group.
Brittain is pleased with how female participation is tracking in the grassroots space and he sees firsthand how much it has grown.
“Our female participation is going great. We started four years ago with about six girls and now we run teams from U4’s to 15’s and FQPL2. It’s increased over the last few years for sure,” he said.
Mt Gravatt Hawks recognise the importance of grassroots football and are always looking for ways to connect with the local community.
“We encourage everyone to come down, we don’t let things like fees get in the way of playing football. We’re at the back end of the season now but we always have people bringing their kids down,” Brittain said.
“We work closely with a number of community organisations and schools where we let them use our fields free of charge. We work with the government to increase the game in our community.”
