Experience junior soccer — fun, teamwork, and community spirit!

2027 will be here before we know it!

The ERJSA AGM was held on Sunday the 1st of November and as has been our custom for many years now, you will find some photos of the day and our season calendar for 2027 attached.

Our AGM is an important milestone. Each year we reflect on the successes of the season, while discussing possibilities for the year ahead. Importantly, our AGM is an open-door event where all clubs are invited to attend. We had a fantastic turnout this year and make sure to stay tuned as there are a couple of surprises coming in 2027.

Importantly, as part of this meeting, the officers of the association positions are declared vacant and an election occurs. A HUGE congratulations goes to the following people elected for 2026/27.

Emily Douglas – President
Chantelle Blake – Vice President
Jeremy Barratt – Secretary (continuing)
Matt Combey – Treasurer

Thank you to, Simon Verdouw for a year as Treasurer, Kate Woolley for two years as bookkeeper, and to Penni Wakefield for four years as Vice President (having been a huge support to Matt. There have been plenty of phone calls discussing a great many things over this time!). Another huge thank you goes to Clare Combey for all the photos in 2026 and years past.

I posted earlier this year that that the 2026 season would be my last as President. So from my perspective it’s time to say goodbye, sort of, I’ll still be around in 2027 but in a smaller capacity behind the scenes. My youngest has now aged out of the region and it is time to support others stepping up. Change is a good thing; it reinvigorates, helps people learn, and enables progress.

When I look back, this all started with my eldest showing an interest, it then became about a team, a club, and finally a whole region worth of children. It coincided with a time I was reflecting on how a certain coach, Ossie Fitzgerald, made me feel when I was quite a bit younger and playing at a much boggier Edgeworth than it is today. Which in simple terms was - valued and accepted. In my later years it was a privilege that I also got to play with two of his children at different times, both amazing players and great people in their own right (Sarah and Chris – here’s to you both 🍻).

The moments of reflection gave me the motivation to put my hand up and get on with the idea of building on an environment where children of all abilities are welcome to come play a team sport safely and have fun while keeping it all at a very low cost.

When looking around Australia, believe it or not, many of these types of environments no longer exist, especially low cost ones. There are many reasons for this, various costs rising, schools lacking resources/funding, sporting bodies focusing more on top tier competitions and the top 1-5% of players rather than those that just want to participate, lack of volunteers, lack of facilities…..and the list goes on.

Let’s hope that this doesn't happen in Tasmania as the reality is, this applies to all sports, not just this one. While improvements can always be made, thankfully in Clarence, for now, we have enough facilities available at affordable rates to meet the needs of ERJSA. While some recent publicity may suggest others are having a harder time of it, ERJSA at least can continue to operate our low-cost model for quite some time into the future, and in return, ERJSA receives excellent support and better grounds than ever before.

Having enough volunteers, however, will be the main challenge to ensure that our organisation and its clubs can continue to operate.

My time as a volunteer with ERJSA is not quite over, but it is passing, longer than some, not as long as others, and after a decade as a coach and eight as President of the region it will be nice to reclaim some of my afternoons, evenings, and Saturdays, especially during winter!

I have loved working with my club, the teams I have coached directly, the coaches I have met and worked with, the clubs and their representatives, and all the players from all of the other clubs in the region during games that I have led and got to know.

Importantly, I know that so many have had fun, been accepted, and found confidence in themselves. These aspects transcend any sport or code and this applies just as much to the coaches as it does the players. Our coaches are courageous, many having no experience with the game, but stepping up to make sure your child can get to play, but then as they get into the swing of things, start to have as much fun as the players themselves.

Permit me a little nostalgia in today's post of a photo or two of my very first team, dancing off the ground together. Yes, we did get some ‘nice’ team shots, but the ones I uploaded are the types of photos I love the most. I know the kids do too.

The way things should be. Fun with a little bit of silly 😜

Thank you to everyone who has played in, supported, volunteered, and come to watch ERJSA games over my time. You have made it better than it ever was. Thank you to all the clubs and volunteers this truly has been a huge team effort.

I look forward to next year wandering the grounds, taking a photo or two with Clare (just not every weekend), and still helping out in the background.

Have a wonderful Christmas, a happy New Year, and see you all then.

Sincerely
Matt ... See MoreSee Less

Reiterating from a post made last year……

Imagine a world where your child wants to play a sport, but they went on a waiting list, or they had to try out until they were good enough, or the cost was prohibitive……

Sadly, this is a fact in many places around Australia already and without the parent volunteers that step forward each year, our participation environment could not exist.

ERJSA is first and foremost a group of parents who come together to create an environment where our children can play sport at an affordable cost where all abilities are welcome.

Today we celebrate some of those who make ERJSA the success that it is.

In today’s post are those that make up the ERJSA, the presidents of our member clubs along with those who provide key functions who all combine to ensure that your children can get to play. The camera hasn’t found everyone this year, so we haven’t included photos as we have done in previous years, this is partly because some are rather shy and tend to hide when they see us coming 😜

These people are all volunteers, some of them new to the game, but they step forward, or don’t step back when they are left as the last person standing. They work in fulltime jobs not related to this sport, but find the time to run a club, coach a team, set up locations, work with councils, help train others, and generally give up their free time for the benefit of every one of the children registered in the ERJSA competition.

They learn and work together toward the common goal of providing a safe place for our children to play a winter sport, be part of team, and most importantly, have fun.

Thank you all, you have done an amazing job for another fantastic season.

A huge thank you also goes out to our volunteer coaches and team managers that run the games. Without you all, none of this would be possible.

We love partnering with other organisations and businesses. This year we have had two different volunteer firefighter organisations (Richmond and Campania) support us with sausage sizzles, Banjo's Bakery Cafe again supporting our players with vouchers, in addition to coffee vans at most of our locations. Thank you all, we strive for a great community atmosphere, and you help make this happen.

We would also like to thank and acknowledge Michele Green who, as always, is amazingly supportive. She is one of the most genuine, beautiful souls you will ever meet and cares deeply.

While some clubs are still tidying up their registration portals, at current count we had 1,617 registered players this year, slightly down on our record-breaking year of 2025. It was a nice small contraction, and timely. We literally couldn’t keep growing at the rate we have been for the last several years, we have been running out of grounds and having to play later into the day!

In saying this, we didn’t really contract though as we had 75 players from the Northern Suburbs Junior Soccer Association join our competition this year in U11 and U12, so our total number of players overall remained steady. This partnership was a great success for us; it provided new grounds to play on and new teams to meet. We look forward to working on and expanding this partnership in 2027.

Our goal is to get more children playing sport. We will continue to place our focus on learning while we play while emphasising the social fun aspects of sport, but we need you. All clubs will be heading towards AGMs, and they need more people willing to step forward into roles, so if you can help, please do so.

The cameras will be away next weekend as we enjoy our last games of the season and complete our season pack up. We hope to see you all back in 2027 and don’t forget to keep following our page. Our 2027 calendar will be posted a little later this year after our AGM.

While a little windy at times, the grounds were again an absolute credit to the City of Clarence and Programmed grounds people. Thank you all for the work that you do.

While there were a few minor heavy areas, the vast majority of our grounds had drained exceptionally well from the overnight rain and the eastern shore once again turned it on remaining clear with a lovely view of our snow-capped mountain whilst we played.

Please enjoy some of the action from today’s round. ... See MoreSee Less