Some junior sporting sides in Esperance are struggling to make numbers this year and a recent study revealed it may become a pervasive problem among clubs nationwide.
Research published by the Australian Sports Commission found 40 per cent of Australian teenagers were expected to drop out of team sport in the next five years.
Today, 60 per cent of adolescence play less than two hours of team sport per week and on average most abandon it altogether by 15.
Playing footy is a rite of passage for many Esperance children and the consequences of low participation rates are being felt acutely in the local competition.
Newtown-Condingup FC junior coordinator Kara Murphy said this season they were having problems fielding Colts numbers, with just 12 players registered.
“Our issue this year is that cohort of kids was always a small number and we got smashed with injuries so three players have long-term injuries and it can just make all the difference,” Ms Murphy said.
“We play up our U16s so I think one week we had like six Colts on the field and then we had made up 14 [players] with U16 players.
It is tough on those kids because then they are playing two games every week… obviously if the majority of the team is playing a second game, there is a fair bit of fatigue.
She said each year the club recruited players from Wongutha school which she said was “wonderful” and helped with numbers.
But she said to combat the issue for future seasons the club was trying to keep participation rates high among young players.
“Across all the clubs the U12 numbers are massive this year so if, as an association, we can keep those kids all playing, in the next number of years our 16s and Colts shouldn’t have such an issue,” she said.
Ms Murphy said as a male dominated sport, girls tended to drop out more.
In the Esperance District Football league girls and boys play together in the younger divisions until the girls turn 14 and have the option to join women’s.
“For some of the clubs, the women’s are struggling a bit so if we can increase the numbers of young girls coming through so they have that avenue to go to the women’s comp hopefully that will keep them in the sport,” she said.
“Across the four clubs we have 28 girls playing in the U12 division.
“I’ve been doing a bit to try and keep them playing — we had an U12 girls training session a couple of weeks ago and we had some of our junior girls go off to play for Subiaco just this week.
“And I am going to organise an all-girls game for U12s at the end of the season.”
Newtown-Condingup is not the only club facing player shortages.
Ports Football club is struggling with numbers for its U16 side.
Ports Football Club junior coordinator Laura Oldfield said the team started with nine players.
She said they had gained one more since the beginning of the season but she said to field a team required 12 players so their U14s had been filling in.
