For one of Bunbury’s junior rugby clubs, the Alcohol. Think Again Jetty 10s tournament provides a golden opportunity to prepare for the new season.
The Bunbury Barbarians Junior Rugby Union Club will represent the region in this weekend’s event, held at Barnard Park, Busselton.
Open Men, Open Women, Men’s Social, Colts, Under 10s and Under 12s’ teams will take to the field on Saturday, February 24.
Bunbury Barbarians Junior Club president Johan Smit was confident the event would greatly benefit the players.
“You don’t often get the opportunity in the South West to compete against Perth teams, so competing against these high level teams will help develop our players’ skills,” he said.
Both junior teams completed their first training session on Sunday, February 11, aiming for victory in the pre-season competition.
Pre-season training sees the players and coaching staff reacquaint themselves with fitness, ball-handling skills, tackling, sprinting and game-play.
Bunbury Barbarians Junior Club vice president Gilly Johnson said the teams worked carefully through the training sessions prior to Jetty 10s.
“Our major thing with the kids around this time of year is player safety and welfare because some of the Perth clubs start their pre-season a lot sooner than we do,” she said.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that are still finishing off summer sports so we’ll be gentle, make sure they enjoy it and help get them back into rugby.
“It’s about getting their heads wrapped around it. Like 7s, 10s is a quicker game and so you have to be running quite quickly.”
Johnson was excited for the players to represent Bunbury while facing teams from the South West and other parts of WA.
“It is fantastic, I think any time the kids pull on their club jerseys they are representing Bunbury,” she said.
“One of the things that past president Kim Doyle and her family built up is the idea of the kids enjoying themselves, making friends and playing rugby at the same time.”
The club has also begun preparations for the regular season.
Fought over 12 rounds, the season kicks off in May runs through to August.
“With Rugby in WA, we have a good profile but lots of competition with other sports such as AFL, soccer and netball,” Ms Johnson said.
“We just really want to do our best as a club and have the kids enjoy being part of the club.”
Visit the Bunbury Barbarians Junior Rugby Union Club on Facebook for more.
