Junior AFL club embraces rugby
league

Melbourne Storm stars Cooper Cronk, Ryan Hoffman and Steve Turner will be conducting a rugby league coaching clinic at the Yarrambat Junior Football Club (AFL) after being approached by the club?s secretary to visit because of their wish to expose their children to the rival code.

The session will take place at the Yarrambat War Memorial Park on Iron Bark Road in Yarrambat from 4:30pm on Wednesday, July 13th (Melways: 184 G8).

Joe Messina, operations manager of the Victorian Rugby League (VRL), is delighted an AFL club has approached them to give their children an opportunity to play rugby league.

?Rob Windsor (Yarrambat JFC secretary) gave us a call and told us the boys are interested in rugby league and the Storm,? Messina said.

?It?s their last session of the year so they?ve asked for a few Storm boys to come out and coach them.

?The hope is we give them a few skills and do some other work. Hopefully a few of the boys will become interested and maybe we can form a rugby league club out of an Aussie rules club.

?They have the structure in place and maybe a few more clubs in the area might want to form rugby league clubs from their AFL clubs as well.?

Rob Windsor, Yarrambat Junior Football Club secretary is keen to give their players the chance to experience another sport.

?We just want to have kids out playing sports,? said Windsor.

?Unlike AFL where all of the children barrack for different teams, the Storm is a Melbourne based team so all of the children can embrace the Storm as their own. They can all have the same allegiance and the kids can go along to the games together.?

It seems as though the arrival of some NRL players has the club in a buzz.

?Believe me, the kids are thrilled, even the coaches are excited,? said Windsor.

?Everyone at Yarrambat JFC has embraced the idea. Sports don?t have to be against each other, they can work in harmony.

?Those players that come out and see the kids will be idolised.

The club is excited about the opportunity for a professional sporting club to identify talented children that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks

?Rugby League will now get a chance to see some talented sports people who probably won?t be seen by other sports,? said Windsor.

?It also gives rugby league in Victoria a chance to have a look in our area and perhaps develop the game out here.?

www.melbournestorm.com.au

For further information contact the Melbourne Storm: 03 8412 4900 or Chris Couch: 0407 154 836