Mosman Swans Junior AFL Club story

The Mosman Swans was founded in 1998 and competed in the Northside Junior Australian Football Association for the first time in 1999. The Club was founded after representatives from both the AFL and Northside approached Brett Davidson (Founding President) and Dan Milton-Hine (Co-founder) and convinced them to set up and run the junior AFL club .

The Club commenced with an Auskick Group (5,6 and 7 year olds), an Under 9s team and an Under 10s team – a total of 55 kids played that year. ! Dan Milton-Hine took over as President in 2001 when Brett returned to Melbourne to work and the Club continued to grow steadily each and ever year since. The Club’s third President, Andrew Hurrell took over in 2009 and has continued the club’s success. Indeed, the Club had more than 400 players aged from 3 to 16 last year making the Mosman Swans the largest Junior Aussie Rules Club in Sydney.

Not only has the Club experienced significant growth, but it has also been the most successful Club overall in the last 4 years boasting 9 Premierships and having received the Champion Club Award for 3 of the last 4 years.

Given that Mosman is a very strong Rugby Union area and the Mosman Junior Soccer Club is also very strong, this is a remarkable result.

They are a number of reasons for the underlying success and the continued growth.

There are a lot of people in Mosman who did not grow up in NSW and there are always new families moving into the area from WA, SA and Victoria. Interestingly, the club was dominated by expats in the early years ago but now we have far more “locals” than expats. Australian Rules Football is certainly becoming more main stream.

The game itself is one that kids really enjoy. It is easy game to understand that both boys and girls can play. There are not too many kids that come down to play and do not have a heap of fun. The game has modified rules in NSW and tackling is not fully introduced until kids are 12 years old. It is therefore less of a contact sport than Rugby when the kids are younger.

Many kids play AFL as a second sport with Rugby as their main code. Most kids and parents will agree that the two codes complement each other well. AFL enhances some key skills such as catching (marking) a football and kicking and also improves fitness and endurance.

The Mosman Swans culture is based around family and kids having fun. We have always been a Sunday based club and this has helped the club maintain a family focus… many families are free from other activities on a Sunday morning and all come down together have a sausage sizzle, a coffee, relax and watch the kids run around.

Indeed this lead the Club to introduce “Minikick” two years ago. Best described as “AFL for toddlers”.This is a program for 3 and 4 year olds based on them having a bit of fun and feeling like they are part of the action. This means the whole family can really get involved. The Mosman Swans were the first Club in Australia to introduce such a program and it has been a huge success. The Club will have close to 40 “Mini-kickers” this year.

The Club’s close alliance with the Sydney Swans has obviously worked strongly in it’s favour. The AFL in Sydney is the Sydney Swans – that is the brand and that is the jumper kids would generally choose to wear. The Mosman Power just would not have the same ring to it. So being the Mosman Swans has always helped the Club …. and then came the Premiership in 2005 ! The Sydney Swans Premiership and Grad Final appearance in 2006 lifted the profile of the game significantly and captured the interest of kids and parents alike. In 2005 after the Premiership, the Mosman Swans kids participated in the tickertape parade down George Street with the Sydney Swans…. I am not sure who was more excited about that … the kids or the parents !

The Auskickers also play a game at half time at the SCG each year which is a big highlight for them.

So for all of these reasons the Mosman Swans is experiencing fantastic growth and are looking forward to another great year in 2010..

If you asked the committee whether the Club would ever be this big five or six years ago they would have said “no way, we will always be a junior club in a secondary code”. The Club now has teams in all age groups right through to the Under 16s and then we feed players to the Under 18s competition via the North Shore Bombers or Manly !

Furthermore, Daniel Robinson, is the first Mosman Swans player who has been signed by the Sydney Swans in 2009 !!

We look forward to seeing Daniel on the SCG one day !