Taranaki Rebels

Taranaki Rebels

Interesting that some schools and clubs in the 'Naki have formed their own junior competitions outside of Central Football. We've pretty much done the same in our area to provide kids with a football experience at a reasonable cost. If we set our subs any higher then I doubt that half of our players would bother playing. From the info i have football is one of the most expensive kids' sports around. Our interest is in getting kids involved in the game more than producing future All Whites. It sounds like Taranaki is the same.

this has also been done in wanganui,no kids teams though just adults that do not want to pay $250.00 a season to play social football,this will be their third season they have 5 teams at the moment and close to enough people for another.they play on a sunday at another field in wanganui,not sure on the quality of football though but they only pay around $50.00 for the season.

Football is cheap as chips...

Try having Hockey reps in the family..

I can quite believe that hockey reps is expensive but we aren't talking about rep level here. Just very basic "let's play a winter sport" level.
It's about providing an opportunity for kids who otherwise may not play anything and for families who for whatever reason have financial issues. Making sure that the under 7s don't have to travel long distances to play and that all ages get to represent and be proud of their community. If the kids in our rural town want to play rugby or netball they have to travel out of town for all of their games. At least our youngsters get to kick a ball around (which is let's face it all they really want to do at that age)in an organised environment where the kids, the parents and the coach are having a lot of fun. No travelling, a time commitment that families can really buy into and relatively low cost. It is early days yet but I am confident that a lot of these families will return next year (where as previously we have experienced a high turnover in this age group from year to year). And after all isn't that what we in the football scene want - families and players involved year after year? Our older kids (8+ years) are affiliated to a NZF sanctioned competition which we believe is appropriate for that age group and they get to play half their games at "home" unlike the other winter sports in this town. In short - build confidence and skills within the club in an environment that is beneficial to all involved. Then at an older age they can get more competitive, travel further and come up against teams that they have never met before.