Juniors will play some of their games at Martens Oval on Friday nights when the Football Bundaberg season gets under way for them on March 14 and 15.

In a major change to the schedule for the 2014 season, one game each in the Under 11 Small-Sided Football division and the Under 12, 13, 14 and 16 boys competitions will kick off at 5pm every Friday.

Football Bundaberg president Rod Rehbein said the initiative was expected to prove popular with both players and their families.

“This means that, about once a month, players in these divisions will have completed their football commitments for the weekend before 6.30pm on Friday,” Rehbein said.

“This gives families the opportunity to do other things on some weekends without their child missing a game of football.

“For the junior players, it also means they will get the chance to play under lights and in cooler weather than on Saturday afternoons.”

Rehbein said the remaining junior games in those divisions would continue to be played on Saturdays, mostly in the mornings.

“We’ll also have an extra field for the Under 6 and 7 small-sided matches, so their games should be completed early rather than late in the afternoon,” he said.

“Parents have rightly noted that games for players as young as four-years-old should not finish after 4pm, so we have rectified that for the 2014 season.

“We were caught off-guard last season by a late influx of teams, but this year we will ensure an extra field is prepared from the outset.”

Rehbein said all clubs were now preparing for the 2014 junior season by holding sign-on days and would commence training in the next few weeks.

Players can register online through My Football Club once their preferred club has loaded their packages.