TAREE will eventually field senior AFL teams.
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AFL's North Coast football operations co-ordinator Paul Taylor said this during a visit to Taree yesterday.
Taylor is based in Coffs Harbour after taking up the position six months ago. As previously reported in the Times the Taree AFL club will be launched on Sunday February 7 at the Johnny Martin Oval.
This year the club will field at least two teams in the North Coast junior competitions - under 11s and 13s while there is a possibility of an under 15 team.
Travel has been the biggest bugbear to the code's development in this area in the past. There were two false dawns - in the mid 1980s when a senior club was formed to play in a Mid North Coast competition against sides from Forster-Tuncurry, Wauchope and Port Macquarie. After a promising start the competition faltered. A Taree club was re-formed in the early 1990s but regular travel to play in matches in Coffs Harbour proved to be their downfall.
"We're obviously mindful of the travel involved, particularly with juniors' Taylor said.
"So Taree will be included in the southern conference that will stretch from Kempsey to Taree. The northern conference will run from Bellingen to Grafton.''
The sides will play the majority of games against teams in their conference although there will be some matches between the northern and southern sides.
Taylor said the plan was for Taree to eventually grow in junior numbers to ensure a long term sustainability for senior teams. Senior competitions start at under 18s. He said should the situation arise Taree have an 18s but no seniors, consideration would be given to allowing the club to play in the competition, although ideally there would be under 18s and at least one senior grade.
"It could be difficult if we have clubs with two or three grades and their under 18s have to play down here while their other sides were elsewhere,'' he agreed.
However, Taylor added that some sacrifices may have to be made to grow the code on the North Coast.
He praised the work carried out by the husband and wife team, Julie and Craig McLaughlin in resurrecting AFL here, initially through Auskick before now heading into competition football for juniors.
"They're our local champions,'' he said of the McLaughlins.
He met with the McLaughlins earlier in the week and has promised they'll receive all the support needed to help establish the code.
Taylor has been involved in sports administration for 16 years in jobs as varied as running a sports academy in Sydney while he was the national operations manager for surf life saving and more recently he had a stint with Cricket NSW. He's a long term supporter of the Sydney Swans.
"I was living in Wagga Wagga when we had four players from there playing with the Swans and I got caught up in that,'' he said.
He was working with Cricket NSW when he attended a meeting with Blacktown City Council regarding the establishment of the Blacktown Olympic Centre. This was when the AFL was looking to establish a presence in western Sydney. This was before the Greater Western Sydney Giants were formed.
"During the meeting we started talking office space. Cricket NSW said they'd be employing three to four administrators. The AFL said they'd have 35,'' he said.
He said he was immediately impressed with the code's vision and desire to achieve a positive result.
"I knew I wanted to get involved,'' he said.
Taylor will be at the Johnny Martin Oval on February 7 when the new club will be launched. The club's colours, playing strip and mascot will also be revealed on the day.