BOOM TIMES PUT SQUEEZE ON TIGES

TORQUAY has started turning away junior footy players because of the population boom in the Surf Coast town.

The BFL powerhouse is at capacity, for the first time fielding the maximum number of teams in its junior divisions.

It had 600 football registrations to fill 28 football teams before the season was suspended, and there will be further demand with more than 2200 housing lots planned to cater for the booming population in Torquay North.

Torquay junior football operations manager Dean Goodear revealed the club even had trials at under-15 level in an attempt to manage the swell.

“We set a whole bunch of internal criteria around lineage to the club, contributions to the club. It wasn’t strictly about ability,” Goodear said.

“We don’t want to be seen as an elite club in terms of just trying to pick the best talent and leave the rest out — that’s far from what we did.

“Then we had to have tryouts; and we probably knew this was going to happen: kids chose not to partake in that process because they found that at too much of a burden den … they weren’t ’t ready to put t hemselves through the wringer of having to perform in a tryout to gain a spot.

“We also had kids that we know (of) that walked ked away from the game e because they just didn’t want nt to sit through that process because it was just not where they were at.”

AFL Barwon clubs are capped at four teams per age division.

“We are now at the point where we are capping all of our junior age teams from under-9s, through to under-17s,” Goodear said.

“We would be able to fill six teams in under-13s.”

Goodear said players that were turned away from Spring Creek Reserve were pointed to register at nearby Surf Coast Suns, Anglesea and Modewarre.

He said it was difficult juggling so many numbers.

“That creates a bit of disappointment in the community,” he said. “We would love to think that all the kids would go to the Surf Coast Suns and stay in the town.”