Orange Tigers go from strength to strength as all Junior sides make finals.

The Orange Tigers Under-17s side celebrate winning the premiership. Many of these players have now made their senior debut

 

 

Junior Australian Rules footy in the Orange region has taken another leap forward, with all four Orange Tigers junior sides making finals for the second year in a row. The feat sees the Under-12s, Under-17s, and Youth Girls sides playing in the Junior Preliminary Finals. The Under-14s side await either the Bathurst Bushrangers or Dubbo Junior AFL in the Grand Final.

The Orange Tigers are the only club in the Central West to accomplish this feat, and Tigers’ President Nathan Totten has called the achievement the pinnacle for the Tigers club.

“It’s been my biggest push to make sure the junior sides are successful,” he said.

“I’ve always believed you can’t breed a successful senior club without a successful junior club feeding it.”

The improved success from the Tigers’ juniors is due to the recent push from Totten and others to increase the focus between the transition of junior teams. There has been a push from recent club presidents, including Totten, to place an importance on the participation and development of the junior sides. Totten believes this work has helped the success of the junior sides.

“It’s becoming a bigger focus. Despite it not being a bigger focus in the past, there has definitely been a big push in recent years,” he said.

“The past few presidents and I have shifted that focus across.”

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It hasn’t been a solo effort however and Totten acknowledges that the success of the Tigers’ juniors is due to the hard work of others in the club. Included in these are Vice President Mark Gibson, Emma Clark, Damien Caughlan, and Daniel Bock.

“Daniel Bock was one of Tigers inaugural coaches and did a lot of work with the Juniors. He was an integral part of making sure it was all run well,” he said.

“Mark Gibson is also absolutely instrumental with the youth girls’ side along with Emma Clark; he will quite regularly do the run and pick six or seven Kinross boarders up along the way to footy.”

“It’s absolutely beautiful to have someone like that in the club.”

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The transition between junior and senior footy has excitingly seen many long-term juniors make their senior debuts. This year saw the senior debut of players such as Campbell Preston, Joseph Armstrong, and Rowan McFarlane.

Despite the recent success, Totten wants to see more work done in the schools to increase the awareness of the club.

“I would love to raise the club’s profile so kids and particularly new people to town know that there is an AFL club in their community,” he said.

“The goal is to increase participation numbers across the board. If that means we need to field two teams than even better.”

 

Senior debuts over the past three seasons that have come through the junior ranks:

• Zach Cullis: Juniors 12s-17s (2014-2019), Senior debut 2019
• Ike Dean:  Juniors 16s-17s (2017-19), Senior debut 2019
• Brendan Dwyer:  Juniors 11s-17s (2013-19), Senior debut 2020,
• Elliot Tom:  Juniors 17s (2018-20), Senior debut 2021
• Peter Byrne: Juniors 11s-17s (2013-2019), Senior debut 2019
• Angus Easey:  Juniors 12s-17s (2015-20), Senior debut 2020
• Rowan McFarlane: Juniors 14s-17s (2017-20), Senior debut 2021
• Campbell Preston: Juniors 12s-17s (2015-21), Senior debut 2021
• Joseph Armstrong: Juniors 17s (2019-21), Senior debut 2021
• Will Barrett:  Juniors 11s-17s (2013-19), Senior debut 2020
• Dominic Gibson:  Juniors 12s-17s (2014-19), Senior debut 2021
• James Gibson: Juniors 14s-17s (2018-21), Senior debut 2021
• Elizabeth Gibson: Juniors 12s-Youth Girls (2015-20), Senior Women’s debut 2020

 

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