The Murrumbateman Football Club was conceived earlier this year, as the brainchild of newly-elected club President Andrew Ingold, Treasurer Grant Membrey, and Sean Michelle, who was absent from the club’s first general meeting on Wednesday night. 

The club’s first order of business is an Auskick program, which begins on October 28 and will run for four weeks. 

The program is for five- to 12-year-old children, and was designed to introduce and instill a love of Aussie Rules in Murrumbateman children, in keeping with the club’s goals. 

“They’ll come along and hopefully they’ll have a good experience of team environment and friendship as well,” Mr Ingold said. 

The idea started as a request to the AFL for an Auskick program in Murrumbateman, but it soon morphed into a full-fledged plan for a club when Ingold and the other founders realised what demand there was for football in the village.

”I’m from small towns where a football club has brought a community together,” Mr Ingold said. 

”In five years’ time, I think our goal is to have the kids having that friendship within our own community. To have their own sense of ‘this is their spot.’”

The committee is hoping to have one or two youth teams from Murrumbateman eligible and available to play by the start of the 2018 winter season. 

However, Mr Ingold acknowledged that there will be challenges to be overcome.

“The first year’s gonna be hard, because we won’t have a home ground. We’ll have to use Yass or a ground in Canberra,” Mr Ingold said. 

“That will be a challenge, but I’m sure we’ll overcome that.” 

The task will be made easier by the support of the AFL, which has been forthcoming so far. 

“The AFL has been so helpful with us,” Mr Membrey said. 

“They are 100 percent behind us and will do whatever they can.” 

For more about Murrumbateman Auskick, visit the Murrumbateman Football Club on Facebook.