Family Orientated and Community Built, Yass Roos are Ready for the Present and Excited for the Future

With the inclusion of a club record of four sets of brothers in the one team, the Yass Roos are looking to build on their first win of the season after a 43-point victory over the ANU Griffins in round 2 of The Canberra Times 2022 Fourth Grade Men’s competition, whilst eyeing to expand the club in the coming years.

Yass President and co-coach Jarrad Forlonge shared his passion for the flourishing community in Yass and the family orientated culture that the Roos boast.

“We are a small country town, we are a community club, all the players buy in to the community and the community buys in to us.

“We enjoy getting around each other… it makes it so much more fun when you can play footy with your family.

“That’s what the Roos are all about, we obviously want to play footy, and we want to win, everyone’s competitive… a lot of us have more fun getting around each other, getting around the community and getting to share it with our family and friends.”

Forlonge went on to explain the desire to bring women’s footy to Yass, providing women of the Yass Valley the opportunity to play footy closer to home.

“We want to give women’s footy a go.

“We have just found there is quite a few girls from the Yass valley either aren’t playing sport because there is no AFL and if they are, they’re travelling to Canberra.

“It builds our club even more… create that real club culture where everyone can come play whether that be women’s, men’s or junior footy.”

Reaching the Grand Final in 2020 and sitting second on the ladder prior to the season cancellation in 2021, Yass look to regain form from years gone by. Roos co-coach Dominic Johns spoke on the diversity of age in his squad (oldest in their early 50s and youngest only 17) and his confidence for 2022.

“We have a lot of diversity, a lot of experienced boys and a lot of young boys coming through and that adds a lot to the group.

“The last two years we have been around the top of the ladder, first or second and we hope to do that again this year.”

“I definitely think this group has the ability.”

The Yass Roos look to make it two wins in a row this Saturday, as they take on the Murrumbateman Eagles away at Murrumbateman Park kicking off at 2pm.

Written by: Robbie Stewart