Almost 500 young, eager footy fans descended on John XXIII College last Monday to take part in the West Coast Eagles Mid-Year Football Clinic.
For the first time the club combined its Rick’s Rookies and Eagles Rising Stars member events with its female Come and Try Clinics, giving participants the opportunity to spend time with their favourite AFL players in addition to meeting some fresh faces from the AFLW squad.
To ensure the activities on offer were appropriate for all children and to encourage maximum participation, attendees were grouped based on gender and school year.
The event kicked off with a session for children from pre-primary through to Year 6, who relished the opportunity to kick, mark and handball with their football heroes as they rotated through five stations offering a variety of drills.
Before moving onto the next activity, children were able to get signatures or snap a selfie with the AFL and AFLW players running their station.
Some of the children were also lucky enough to take part in running activities courtesy of Little Athletics and Paralympic medallist Ella Pardy.
Following the activities, all participants and players gathered on the oval for an epic group photo before the first session wrapped up.
Session two, for participants aged from Years 7-12, began with a range of warm-up activities run by players from the AFL squad. Participants then spent time rotating through a number of drills designed to help them perfect their football skills, assisted by AFLW players and West Coast Eagles staff.
The event finished up with some competitive games of AFLX, allowing attendees to put their football skills to the test in a fun and friendly environment.
The West Coast Eagles would like to thank all the members and supporters who joined us at the Mid-Year Football Clinic and hope everyone had a great time practising their footy skills and meeting the players.
Click here for further details about Rick’s Rookies membership and here for Eagles Rising Stars membership.
Further information about the club’s female football programs is available here.
