Swans keen to add players

Warnbro Swans Integrated Football team are back for another season, with 21-year-old Notre Dame University student Rhys Holdman stepping forward to coach the team in 2017.

The team will compete in the WA Amateur Football League’s integrated competition, facing off against sides including Fremantle CBC, West Perth and Coolbinnia.

Having coached previously in his hometown of Esperance, Holdman said the chance to coach players with an intellectual disability was a fantastic opportunity.

“We try and encourage everyone to come down, have a kick and enjoy themselves,” Holdman said.

“I previously did a unit at university where I enjoyed teaching people with a disability; then I got the opportunity to coach Warnbro and thought, why not?”

Warnbro Swans Integrated vice-president Wayne Hunt said the club focused less on results and more on ensuring the players enjoyed the game.

“We are pretty proud of what we are doing down here,” Hunt said.

“These guys are living the dream; who would have thought six or seven years ago they could be playing AFL football.”

Featuring players from the age of 16 and up, the club is looking at adding to the 30-odd players it had registered for the integrated side in 2016.

Holdman said the most satisfying aspect of being a coach was overseeing their development both on the field and off it.

“You can see their development from day dot,” Holdman said.

“We try and get them doing a lot of team-building and skill-based stuff; something that they enjoy and want to come back to.

“We just try to keep them motivated to keep playing and wanting to come back.”

Players interested in joining can do so by heading down to the Warnbro Community Y Recreation Centre on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 5.30pm.