YOUNG MAGPIES SOAR IN DROUGHT BREAKING WIN
FOOTBALL: It’s magpie season and a young group of Willowburn ‘birds’ swooped on a title at the weekend.
The under-12 team secured their club’s first junior trophy in 10 years – a result that in itself was fours years in the making.
“I’ve worked with these boys since under-8s,” Willowburn coach and club president Gerard Alchin said.
“To see them come up through the junior ranks and watch them develop as footballers and young men has been very rewarding.
“You can coach skill and tactics but you can’t coach attitude.
“Week in week out they played for each other and that helped in the final, they had belief.
“To win a grand final in juniors is a memory you have for life.”
With the score’s locked 2-2 at full-time went on to beat West Wanderers in a penalty shootout.
“This age group is their first taste of finals football, where they are competing for points and all that,” Alchin said.
“It’s a great experience for the lads and right through the whole finals campaign they enjoyed it which is exactly what I wanted them to do.
“It’s probably been the best part of a decade since we’ve had a Willowburn team in the finals.
“Over the last few years we’ve been building our junior numbers up and getting some good quality coaching in there as well.
“Saturday was the fruit of a lot of hard work, probably three or four years in the making, it was good to break the drought not just to get there but to win it as well.”