THEY launched a club then the world shut down, but that hasn\u2019t changed Armstrong Creek\u2019s 10-year plan.<\/p>\n
Established in 2019 with just 32 players, the Sharks have grown to more than 300 junior footballers in five years.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s astronomical growth has been organic, built through community outreach, but its committee is not satisfied yet.<\/p>\n
Club president Chad Dunscombe said senior football is absolutely on the club agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been in the mix for a long time, we\u2019ve always wanted to not rush it and make sure we built our juniors and our club up before having the option,\u201d Dunscombe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have to talk to AFL Barwon to do all the bits and pieces, but we\u2019re looking at two under-16 teams this year. Next year we\u2019ll move into under-18s and then realistically from 2029 there could be potential for seniors for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very close. It could actually be scary when you think about it, how close we could be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, Surf Coast Suns became the first club to debut in the Bellarine Football Netball League senior competition in 41 years.<\/p>\n
Just a stone\u2019s throw away from the Sharks, the two clubs have addressed the growing need for local sporting clubs at the southern end of Geelong and northern Torquay.<\/p>\n
Dunscombe admitted the conversation of junior to senior progression is one that is often in the background for their older players.<\/p>\n
Transparency and open conversations are important to maintaining their trust and keeping them involved with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always spoken about it and it comes up every year, \u2018Oh, when are seniors happening, when are seniors happening?\u2019,\u201d Dunscombe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always said, we hope our junior players will build up to the under-18s and then as we move into seniors we\u2019d have a big mix of Sharks players be part of that first seniors team.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the start the Sharks have had mixed teams and the club has grown to have mixed, female and male teams for their young footballers.<\/p>\n
In similar steps to the under-16 boys\u2019 progression, Dunscombe is excited to see the club\u2019s continual growth in girl\u2019s football.<\/p>\n
Home to a merged under-17s team, he is confident the club will continue to grow for players of all genders.<\/p>\n
But growing a club doesn\u2019t happen overnight, nor without input from a lot of people.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what Dunscombe is most proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been an inclusive club and that\u2019s one of the best things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t really explain it but we\u2019ve been very lucky to have such an amazing group of players, families and community around us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong Creek Sharks have 18 junior football teams and 12 junior netball teams registered for the 2026 AFL Barwon junior season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THEY launched a club then the world shut down, but that hasn\u2019t changed Armstrong Creek\u2019s 10-year plan. Established…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-619697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}