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Speaker 1: AFLNT has done a major restructure of their junior age grades.

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Speaker 1: It's in an effort to prioritize youth development. It's going

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Speaker 1: to see a real shake up when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the age categories that your children might play footy in.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Football Competition's manager

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Speaker 1: for the Northern Territory, Leanne Bug. Good morning to you, Leanne.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Now, Leanne, tell

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Speaker 1: me what are all the changes that we are expecting

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Speaker 1: under the restructure for the juniors.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so what we're looking at basically, Katie, is we're

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Speaker 2: going from an even numbered age grouping structure to an

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Speaker 2: odd numbers, which means we're going to actually bring forward

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Speaker 2: our competition age groups. So we're actually going to have

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Speaker 2: our like our juniors, starting their competition pathway a year

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Speaker 2: earlier yeap, which we'll be starting now at under nines

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Speaker 2: and moving into that more structured competition phase.

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Speaker 1: So I guess that may be a good thing for

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Speaker 1: those younger kids because quite often you've got the kids

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Speaker 1: starting you know, a bit younger, and they might be

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Speaker 1: you know, starting when they're eight years old for example,

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Speaker 1: and playing with kids that are a couple of years

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Speaker 1: older than them. So is it hope that that's going

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Speaker 1: to be a good thing for them in terms of

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Speaker 1: easing into the game.

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Speaker 2: I'm really hoping that. I mean, that's part of the

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Speaker 2: attraction around changing the age groupings. Obviously starting them earlier,

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Speaker 2: building that respect for the game, respect for each other,

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Speaker 2: but it's also building that pathway and we're starting that

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Speaker 2: pathway earlier into our senior level competition, which is really

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Speaker 2: important to us at the moment.

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Speaker 1: And it's I mean, anybody who's got a daughter then

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Speaker 1: that plays footy in some of those older age groups

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Speaker 1: though may sort of know that it's a bit difficult

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Speaker 1: at this point in time with numbers for some of

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Speaker 1: the teams in some of those particular age categories. So

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Speaker 1: I guess flipping from the undernines, let's go up to

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Speaker 1: sort of the under sixteen and the under eighteen girls,

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Speaker 1: which is now going to be the under fifteen and

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Speaker 1: under seventeen girls or women's competition. Why was that neededly at?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, So what happened was so last season we

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Speaker 2: started picking up these little anomalies, these patterns that were

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Speaker 2: coming forward, particularly around the under sixteen and under eighteen

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Speaker 2: age group, and we found that it was starting to

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Speaker 2: be a struggle for clubs to retain those girls to

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Speaker 2: keep them in that pathway. So we wanted to find

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Speaker 2: a way of starting earlier to build that pathway so

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Speaker 2: that we can now transition them across senior football. So

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Speaker 2: they've got a bit more time to actually not just

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Speaker 2: develop physically, but also develop emotionally as well. So now

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Speaker 2: they've got that, they'll start earlier around the seventeen and

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Speaker 2: a half age group, and then they'll start that transition

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Speaker 2: from there, So we're actually bridging them into senior competition,

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Speaker 2: but at a more like a pace that actually is

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Speaker 2: going to work for them, and they actually get a

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Speaker 2: choice here to where they can transition, you know, straight

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Speaker 2: away if they want to, or they can transition, or

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Speaker 2: they can wait and then transition a lot slower. So

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Speaker 2: that was our focus for the girls to keep them

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Speaker 2: in the competition. We were losing a lot of girls

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Speaker 2: around that age group.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well look I've you know, I've got a daughter

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Speaker 1: that is just below that age group, and it's it

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Speaker 1: is something that I know the clubs, some of the

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Speaker 1: clubs are struggling with. Some of them have really strong

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Speaker 1: numbers in that age group, but some of the others

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Speaker 1: struggle in the under sixteens to under eighteens. Yet then

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Speaker 1: we've got such strong numbers in the senior women's grades,

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Speaker 1: So it's a difficult juggle. I mean, are you confident

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Speaker 1: that just that age change will will make a difference.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it's not a matter of just changing

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Speaker 2: or restructuring age groups. I think there's a lot of conversation,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of work with us along with the

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Speaker 2: clubs that will happen. So it's a mindset and it's

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Speaker 2: a philosophy, you know, an approach that we have to

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Speaker 2: take together. So there is that structural change, but there's

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Speaker 2: also the mindset change that we're all going to have

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Speaker 2: to go through on this journey. I mean it's not new.

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Speaker 2: When my daughter first started playing youth girls, it was

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Speaker 2: under fifteen. Yeah, So where we have to move with

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Speaker 2: the times, we have to move with what's happening in

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Speaker 2: that youth space, and this just seemed to be the

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Speaker 2: time to do it.

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Speaker 1: The kids engaged, right like, we want to keep them playing,

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Speaker 1: whether you're talking about the young women or the young men.

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Speaker 2: LEA.

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Speaker 1: And when you talk about then the young men. What's

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Speaker 1: the as I understand it, some of the clubs have

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Speaker 1: maybe been a little bit worried about the older age

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Speaker 1: group changes for the young men or for the young blokes.

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Speaker 1: What's been the reaction from some of the clubs, I

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Speaker 1: guess across the board. But firstly, when you talk about,

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Speaker 1: you know, the under sixteen under eighteen men's age groups.

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Speaker 2: So look, initially our focus was the youth girls and

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Speaker 2: the boys. We thought, you know, okay, they had a

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Speaker 2: good season. Now the reaction from the clubs this has changed,

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Speaker 2: and I know that they've got a lot of questions,

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Speaker 2: and of course it won't be until we get into

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Speaker 2: the season that we'll start working out sort of where

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Speaker 2: we're sitting with these things. But looking forward, I think

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Speaker 2: the clubs have been really good. This actually started with

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Speaker 2: the clubs, not so much around the boys' space, but

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Speaker 2: the conversation actually started from the clubs around what we

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Speaker 2: were going to do with the age group. And then

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Speaker 2: it started progressing and we had several consultation meetings, and

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Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of clubs there that have

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Speaker 2: been around for a very long time that have a

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Speaker 2: lot of questions about what we're doing. Here, But I

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Speaker 2: do really respect a lot of the presidents and the

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Speaker 2: feedback that they've given. Yeah, and you know, they are

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Speaker 2: going to work with us. And we've never had anyone

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Speaker 2: that said, well, we're just not doing it, we just

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Speaker 2: don't want to do it. They're actually they're being open,

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Speaker 2: but they're being cautious and that's understandable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. And I think whenever these change, you know,

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Speaker 1: you sort of think, oh, how hang on a said,

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Speaker 1: how's this going to impact these team or how's it

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Speaker 1: going to impact that team? And we all hope, you

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Speaker 1: know that the change is a positive and you know

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Speaker 1: that it has a positive impact and keeps the young

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Speaker 1: people engaged, you know, when they're playing that sport and

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Speaker 1: they're engaged in sport, it is a wonderful, wonderful thing, Leanne.

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Speaker 1: In terms of when the change comes into effect, it

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Speaker 1: is at the start of the junior season or the

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Speaker 1: start of the AFL season, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It sure is, so it will be happening this season.

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Speaker 2: There was there were discussions around when we were going

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Speaker 2: to do it, and then we had a you know,

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Speaker 2: obviously more discussions about well, if we were to go

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Speaker 2: another season, how would that look for us, and we

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Speaker 2: just didn't want to think about losing even more players.

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Speaker 2: So we're acting straight away. We're going to do it

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Speaker 2: this season. The majority of the clubs were happy to

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Speaker 2: do it this season, so we're being proactive and we're

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Speaker 2: going to do it for this season. And obvious there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of like we've got our president's meeting tomorrow night. Yep,

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Speaker 2: we'll have a Junior Coordinate Natives meeting after that. So

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Speaker 2: we're actually going to be constantly meeting and having these

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Speaker 2: conversations leading into the season so that we're feeling comfortable

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Speaker 2: around the time that it starts.

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Speaker 1: Well, Leanne, it's to any parent listening this morning, because

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Speaker 1: I know some people might be listening going on. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure you know it's this such a big issue, Wolfe,

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Speaker 1: but it is. If you've got our kids in junior footy,

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Speaker 1: they'll want to know exactly what's going on with those

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Speaker 1: age groups. And we have got such a phenomenally large

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Speaker 1: group of young Territorians that play football in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: don't we, le Anne, Oh.

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Speaker 2: Look, we do, and these as we know when we

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Speaker 2: watch our Premier League games, we've got players that will

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Speaker 2: start really young and they'll stick with us through that

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Speaker 2: whole pathway. We want to We've had it happen and

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Speaker 2: we want to keep that happening. And you know, like

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Speaker 2: all we need to be talking about is, you know

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Speaker 2: what we're bringing competitions forward a year. We're going to

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Speaker 2: have you know, extended playing time. We're going to have

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Speaker 2: bigger feels. So it's going to mean not huge changes,

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Speaker 2: but it's going to be nice little changes for those

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Speaker 2: kids out there that are going to keep playing footing

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Speaker 2: and give them something to look forward to as they

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Speaker 2: as they move through. Well.

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Speaker 1: Leam bug afl NT's football competitions manager. Really good to

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Speaker 1: speak with you this morning. I appreciate you taking the

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Speaker 1: time to join us on the show and talking us

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Speaker 1: through the changes.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Katie, thank you