Swans duo thinking outside the box to field under-18s team and benefit community in 2024

Between them, they have several decades of experience coaching and playing football at a high level, but they say the Avenel job is going to require them to be innovative.

In the KDL last season, only six of the 14 clubs fielded under-18 sides due to a lack of numbers.

It’s a story Konnings has seen play out at Avenel in the past, and last time the adversity led to success.

“Back when I last coached kids, we were in the same boat back then,” Konnings said.

“We couldn’t get a side up at Avenel, and I was still working in the police forces, so I was driving around here just finding kids on the street that were carrying footies around and saying, ‘come on, get up and play at Avenel’.

“We ended up scooping a side together and, over a four-year period, we ended up playing off in three grand finals and won two.”

This time around, it’s not that simple.

Konnings and Bourke said it was not just about convincing young people to join the club, it was about convincing them to play sport and convincing their parents to support them.

In response, the Swan are making the process of joining the club and taking up footy as easy as possible.

Avenel will provide players with all the gear they need, from jumpers to boots, as well as transport for players to and from training and games.

It is of zero cost to the player.

Bourke said the coaches are keen to see players of all abilities down at the Avenel Recreation Reserve.

“We are trying to entice those kids who may not have played footy or may not have played sport before to come down and have a real crack,” Bourke said.

“We can teach them the basics and fundamentals of footy and we would likely see that development tenfold over the course of the year.

“As a community club (with a) grassroots sort of standard, they’ll fit right in.”

That’s not to say the Swans aren’t planning on being competitive.

The goal is to go head-to-head with the best — and they have a few tricks up their sleeve on how to achieve this.

“We’re all about footy,” Konnings said.

“We’re trying to form a relationship with Seymour, and if we’ve got good kids that need to be developed and go up into the next league, and we’ve got a bye, we’ll give them permits to play with Seymour.

“And we hope it’s a bit vice-versa with Seymour (in terms of developing their players).”

The coach’s hope is that a wide range of clubs sees the benefit of sending their players to the Avenel under-18s for a year so they can get game time rather than sit on the bench.

Konnings said giving a young player who was not quite ready for the physicality of the senior competition the game time they needed to improve was a win-win situation for both clubs.

While Avenel is on the lookout for external players to come into the town and play, at the heart of Bourke and Konnings’ plans is local players.

“You’ve got to have the local kids there,” Konnings said.

“If you haven’t got the local kids as a starting point, it’s very difficult. It’s almost impossible to do without them.”

Bourke said they wanted to provide juniors with leadership opportunities to be captain or vice-captain of their local team.

“It’s not just the footy club, it’s the community,” he said.

“We want to give them some professional development, not just in the under-18 team, but potentially in an open-age competition.

“They may not get that opportunity at some of the bigger clubs.”

But even with a group of locals at the club, the Swans would be short players, and this is where the coaches are getting creative.

“We’re going to look outside the box. We can’t keep trying to talk to and get the same players because it’s not enough to go around,” Bourke said.

“I reached out to Youth Justice because they’ve got adult programs in the KDL senior competition.

“So what we may be able to do is you might have a young person who’s in that system who’s probably looking for a good environment, who is behaving appropriately within that system, and they’re coming up towards parole, and they do a parole plan.

“There’s probably an option that we could be included as providing some feedback on those interactions.

“That could be really good for a young person who’s trying to reintegrate back into the community.

“We’ve all made mistakes, especially young people. You need to give them a second chance.

“If we can get one or two kids who are looking for an opportunity and, who knows, they may also be able to play a bit of footy, it can be a tangible benefit.”

With Konnings having worked for the police for 25 years and Bourke still affiliated with the defence force, these players would be sure to have good mentors on their side.

In the future, the coaches are hoping that their example of helping people who have been in the youth justice system could transform into a league-wide concept.

The search for players has not stopped there, as the club hopes to get in and fill their ranks with players from far and wide.

“We’ve actually looked into the Northern Territory Football League,” Bourke said.

“Their under-18s season is completely opposite to ours.

“They’re just finishing up. They go into finals in a couple of weeks’ time.

“Similar to the Seymour-Avenel relationship, where players could go back and forth, we think by getting employment opportunities for a young kid to come down from Darwin to play at our club, to get an opportunity at senior footy as well, to experience something out of the lifestyle, we think that could now potentially spread to a league-endorsed concept.”

The coaches said the hope was also that players from Avenel would have the opportunity to go and play in the Northern Territory.

It’s clear that Bourke and Konnings are using all their contacts to increase the pool of players for the KDL under-18s tournament, including rekindling the relationship the club has with the Puckapunyal army base.

Bourke said he was encouraging new families arriving at the base to get down to the club, no matter where there passions lay.

While the Swans are always on the lookout for young players, there are also opportunities to be team managers, assistant coaches, trainers, timekeepers and umpires.

There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a cricketer looking to keep fit in the off-season or someone looking for a community with a great social scene.

For more information on the under-18s side and Avenel Football Netball Club, visit https://www.facebook.com/AvenelFNC