The Northcote community club

Northcote Junior Football Club is a community sports club for Australian Rules Football players 17 and under, based in modern clubrooms among the gum trees at Northcote's McDonnell Park.

Our membership takes in more than 150 families in Melbourne's inner northern suburbs including Northcote, Thornbury, Preston and West Preston, Brunswick, Reservoir, Alphington, Fairfield and Fitzroy. We're known as the mighty Northcote Cougars. Our club is about learning and enjoying footy, teaching values like discipline and respect and teamwork, building fitness, and creating lasting friendships.

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This week's upcoming matches

Our Under-9C and Under-9D teams play season openers at Barling Reserve (Plenty Rd, Reservoir, opposite Reservoir High School) this Sunday 13 April at 11.20am.

Under-9C play on Barling Reserve Ground A against Thomastown at 11.20am
Under-9D play on Barling Reserve Ground B against Mernda Red at 11.20am

Other teams play on Sunday 13 April as follows:

Team	Time	Ground	Home team		Away team
10-Silvers	10:00am	Yarrambat Memorial Park	Yarrambat	vs	Northcote
10-Reds	10:00am	McDonnell Park	Northcote	vs	Greensborough
11-Greens	11:30am	Susan Street Reserve	Eltham	vs	Northcote
13-Reds	11:30am	Eltham Central Park	Eltham	vs	Northcote
12-Reds	11:30am	Epping BACK OVAL	Epping	vs	Northcote
17-Blues	3:00pm	Epping Recreation Reserve	Epping	vs	Northcote

Unless otherwise notified:

Home teams play in blue shorts and away teams play in white shorts.
Players should be at the ground 45 minutes before the scheduled game starting time.
Parents and guardians should liaise with their team manager during the week on the volunteer role they will fill on the day.

Match-day marshall

If you need to know something or need an issue resolved at McDonnell Park on match day, talk to the NJFC match-day marshall at the ground. The match-day marshall for this Sunday 13 April will be David Walker (ring 0407 133 020).

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Results for Round 1 of 2014

Scores for round one of the season on Sunday April 6, 2014 were:

Age group	Home team	Score	Away team	Score
11-Greens	Northcote	16.10-106	South Morang Maroon	3.8-26
12-Reds	Northcote	6.2-38	Mernda	5.9-39
13-Reds	Northcote	5.5-35	Bundoora Park	11.10-76
17-Blues	Northcote	4.5-29	Montmorency	15.19-109

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Help keep our club culture healthy

The NJFC has a reputation for delivering the best that sport can offer. We want you to help build that – to keep the standard high and set the kids an example through the 2014 season. A few of the behaviours to encourage:

Keep umpire anger to yourself. We never want to argue the merits of an umpire's decision. They’re the umpire, so they get to decide. No, it’s not fair. Yes, we know the guy’s blind, uninterested and paid off by the opposition. We don’t care. We don't care that the umpire is a nephew of Satan or that his IQ is lower than his guide dog's. If he’s been bribed, yelling at him won’t change his mind. If he’s incompetent, putting him under pressure has zero chance of improving his decision-making. If she’s having a bad day ... well, it happens to all of us. Bottom line: umpire abuse makes good umpires quit, lowering umpiring standards. This really happens, regularly.
Raise coaching and team issues the right way. Grumbling about a coach or team official doesn't solve anything. If you're unhappy with what team officials are doing, talk to them directly about your concerns. Do it politely; they're volunteers giving up many hours each week to help your kids. It may turn out that one of you has misunderstood the situation, or the rules. They may realise you have a valid concern which they had not been addressing. If you're still concerned, you can talk to a club official – but try to resolve things first. And please remember that:

Our officials are always trying to do the right thing.
The club always considers the welfare of all the players.

Help stamp out back-seat coaching. Many parents feel they should help the coach on match days by issuing or echoing instructions from the sidelines or at breaks. This is natural and understandable. But parents do not know the coach’s game plan, their plans for individual players or their long-term strategy for development of each player. For this reason, parents not part of the coaching group are asked to not attempt to coach from the sidelines. Reinforce the idea that during matches there is just one instructor – the coach, supported by their assistant coaches and the team runner and the players themselves. Parents should support the players with positive barracking, looking for the good things and rewarding them loudly. (And if you really want to coach, we're always looking for new talent. We will even pay for your AFL training!)

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Mouthguards available

If you haven't picked up the fitted mouthguard you ordered and paid for on Family Day, it's waiting at the club; you can pick it up on Sunday.

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Under-10s teams for 2014

Mick One of this year's Under-10s teams has a new name – the Under-10 Reds, coached by Mick Everett (pictured). This is last year's Under-9s Blue.

The Under-10 Greens, coached by Stefan Gruenert, are last year's Under-9 Greens.

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Final 2014 practice matches

Times for 30 March matches

All matches v Eltham

Under 9s: 9am - 10.30am, McDonnell Park West
Under 10s: 10.30am - 12pm, McDonnell Park West
Under 11s: 12pm - 1.30pm, McDonnell Park West
Under 12s: 12pm - 1.30pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 13s: 1.30pm - 3pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 16s/17s: 3pm, McDonnell Park East

What you need to bring to the matches

Players must ensure that they have:

gear including footy boots and NJFC socks
blue (home) shorts

You'll be able to buy gear at the ground on practice match days, and pay outstanding registration fees.

We expect players at the ground no later than 45 minutes before a game.

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Mouthguards coming this week

Players who had mouthguards fitted by Melbourne Mouthguards on Family Day should be able to pick them up from the club at practices this week from Tuesday on.

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2014 NJFC calendar

The NJFC online calendar has now been updated for 2014. It includes dates for all matches, though not yet our oppositions. We'll update it as match schedules are set.

Round 1 is on 6 April i.e. the week after the second practice round. Round 2 is on 13 April and the football takes a break for Easter before restarting on 27 April.

You can access the calendar online in some web browsers.

Better still, you can also subscribe to it so that it shows up - complete with updates - in your other electronic calendars, including your smartphone. The link below goes to an iCal format calendar as used by Google, Apple, Microsoft Outlook and others:

http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/njfc.com.au_srfe5e40jeeu34eu5r9bfdbkv0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

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First practice matches and Family Day this Sunday 23 March

2014 practice matches start this Sunday 23 March, with a round of matches against Bundoora Park at our McDonnell Park ground.

Face-painting!

23 March is also our Family Day, so bring the whole crew down for the day. We'll have a face-painter and balloonist as well as food and drink.

And if you're wanting to sign up your player to the club, we'll get it happening.

Top-quality mouthguard fitting

If you haven't yet organised a top-quality mouthguard, Melbourne Mouthguards will be on hand from 9.30am to take impressions of your child's mouth. As well as the regular food and drink we'll have face painting for the kids.

These mouthguards are then custom-made from the same dual-laminate material that Melbourne Mouthguards supplies to the North Melbourne Football Club and the Melbourne Storm.

The cost per mouthguard is $75.00, to be paid by either cash or cheque on the day. Mouthguards are sent within a few days.

What you need to bring to the matches

Games Players must ensure that they have:

gear including footy boots and NJFC socks
blue (home) shorts

You'll be able to buy gear at the ground on practice match days, and pay outstanding registration fees.

We expect players at the ground no later than 45 minutes before a game.

Our second round of practice matches for all teams (also at McDonell Park) is against Eltham on Sunday 30 March.

Times for 23 March matches

Under 9s: 9am - 11am, McDonnell Park West (smaller ground)
Under 10s: 11am - 12.30pm, McDonnell Park West
Under 11s: 10.30am - 12pm, McDonnell Park East (larger ground)
Under 12s: 12noon - 1.30pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 13s: 1.30pm - 3pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 17s: from 3pm, McDonnell Park East

Times for 30 March matches

All matches v Eltham

Under 9s: 9am - 10.30am, McDonnell Park West
Under 10s: 10.30am - 12pm, McDonnell Park West
Under 11s: 12pm - 1.30pm, McDonnell Park West
Under 12s: 12pm - 1.30pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 13s: 1.30pm - 3pm, McDonnell Park East
Under 16s/17s: 3pm, McDonnell Park East

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Ten teams for 2014 - now we need volunteers

The NJFC will field ten teams for 2014: four Under-9s, two Under-10, Under-11s, Under-12s, Under-13s and Under-17s.

Keeping each of those teams out on the field each week will require at least a dozen volunteers. We're looking in particular for team managers, assistant coaches, training session helpers, boundary umpires and timekeepers. This means most families will need to provide a volunteer.

Talk to your team coach or manager or NJFC president Myles O'Neil-Shaw and ask them what you can do.

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