· Financial remuneration; all senior team players are financially paid at a starting rate of $50 per match.
· State of the art facilities with brand new change-rooms built in 2017, resurfaced ground, four new light towers, and vast social rooms with Foxtel and table tennis.
· There is very little travelling involved, with all teams located along the Southern corridor.
· We offer a wide variety of networks to assist players with job searches.
· An opportunity to play in an established strong club with great depth fielding four senior football teams.
· Weekly game day action photos taken and uploaded to the clubs Facebook page.
· There is the opportunity for your partners, sisters and friends to represent Cheltenham Rosella’s Netball team, with the league offering multiple divisions.
An article from the SFNL Record on the 2017 Cheltenham Rosella side that made it to the preliminary final.
Greg Barclay, who has been the Cheltenham U/19 coach for the last two years, said despite wins being important, his ultimate goal is to ensure his players are ready to step up to senior football in the future. “With the 19s, my job is to produce senior footballers and get them ready for senior footy. That is first and foremost… if we are in a position to play finals football by the end of the year then we’ll worry about that then,” Barclay said. “It’s all about getting them ready so when the senior coaches get them, they just have to put the polish on the players.” With 27 players on the list, Barclay said it can be a constant battle in deciding the starting side on game day. However, this extensive line up also assists Cheltenham when injury, illness or work commitments arise. “While we have 27 on the list, you hardly ever have 27. You’ve got illness, work, injury... if I get 25 well the players all get a run… and they get at least a half,” Barclay said. A mostly bottom aged side, the Cheltenham Under 19s train twice a week, and are led by captain Tom Davis and vice-captain Dayton Woodham.
“When picking the captains, I had a look at their preseason, and sometimes the captain doesn’t always stand out. You’ve got to teach them to be leaders on and off the field… so captaincy is good education for them in life, too,” Barclay said. Barclay explained how the Under 19s age group can be difficult to coach at times, as the players learn to juggle work, sport, school and their social lives. “I’ve been coaching this age group for quite some time and it’s 70 percent social work and 30 per cent football. When they’re aged 14, 15 football is number one. When they get to 17,18, 19 years old, football can be number seven or eight on the list of priorities,” Barclay said. “It’s a pretty challenging age to coach, and to the coaches that do it, I take my hat off to them because its hard work, but very rewarding.” “Over the last few years, the standard has got better and better, and having a vibrant Under 19s competition has got huge amounts to do with it. It’s onwards and upwards in this league,” Barclay said. “You’ve got to make the players want to come back. Hopefully the boys like it enough to keep playing the game. They come in young men, and at Cheltenham we hope they come out bigger and better on the other side.
