Nelson Bay Junior Marlins AFL Club celebrate a successful season, looking ahead to 2022

The club's under-13 and under-15 boys teams were last week formally declared minor premiers while two players, Hudson Roche and Sophie Elliott, were crowned the league's best and fairest for their age groups this season.

Junior Marlins president Josh Horvath said had the season ended as scheduled the club would have sent four of its six competitive teams into the finals.

"It's really disappointing that the season was cancelled but it is totally understandable," Horvath said.

"I think the league made the right decision. They're looking out for the kids. This Delta variant affects kids as well and with cases here in Port Stephens and Newcastle, it was safest for the board to cancel the season.

"It is disappointing that the kids couldn't play their finals after putting in so much work during the season but as a club, we can't complain. With four out of our six competitive teams making the finals, and two named minor premiers, this has been one of our most successful seasons in a long time."

AFL Hunter and Central Coast cancelled the junior season on August 25 due to the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.

The season was cancelled with two more rounds left in the regular season and what would have been two extra finals weekends.

Nelson Bay's under-13 boys, coached by Duane Chugg, went through the season with just one loss. The under-15 boys, led by Brett Thorp, "fought hard all year" to end the season on top of their ladder.

The club's hugely successful under-15 youth girls, coached by Matt Gray, were set to enter their fifth consecutive finals campaign before the end of the season was cancelled. The girls missed out on the minor premiership by two wins.

The team has three premierships to their name. They missed out on a fourth title after falling to Newcastle City by one point in last year's grand final.

Horvath's own team, the under-11 Blues, was the club's fourth team that was set to make a finals appearance. In a true come-from-behind success story, the side strung together a series of six wins to climb from the very bottom of the ladder into fourth place.

"They came from nowhere to beat every team except the one that went on to win the minor premiership [Singleton]," Horvath said.

Across the league, Hudson Roache was named best and fairest for the under-13 boys with 21 votes and Sophie Elliott for the under-15 youth girls with 15 votes.

The votes are based on a three, two, one point system awarded to players by referees each game.

"Hudson blew everyone out of the water this season," Horvath said. "He even dominated in the games where he stepped up to play in under-15s. He's a really talented player and has a really big future ahead of him."

Similarly, Horvath was full of praise for Elliott.

"She's an extremely talented young lady and very humble," he said. "She's another one with a bright future ahead of her. If she keeps going the way she is, she will play in the AFLW. She'll follow in the footsteps of [Nelson Bay and AFLW players] Pippa Smyth and Lisa Steane."

In the league's Volunteer of the Year awards, the Marlins nominated Paul Craven for his dedication to the Nelson Bay club and his pre-season efforts to get an under-17 girls team up and running. While he was not able to secure the numbers to field a team, his dedication was the inspiration behind the club's nomination.

"He did everything humanly possible to get the team off the ground," Horvath said. "He was very deserving of a nomination."

The Nelson Bay club are putting in a maximum effort to get an under-17 boys and girls side together for 2021 to once again give juniors a pathway into playing seniors footy without throwing them straight into opens once they turn 17.

To that end, the Marlins have further strengthen their ties with the Medowie-based Port Stephens Power AFL Club to field combined under-17 sides next season.

The clubs already field a combined senior women's side while Power also has a partnership with the Newcastle-based Cardiff Hawks that fielded an under-13 youth girls side in 2021.

"It's a no-brainer for us to work with Port Power to field under-17 teams together," Horvath said.

"We need this age group to be able to filter our juniors into the senior teams. Both [clubs] want to attract more players to the sport and we would love to see under-17s thrive."

The Nelson Bay club had between 120 and 130 juniors registered in the 2021 season - a slight drop from the year before as there were no under-17 teams.

Horvath said his goal was to grow that number to 150 next season, which he thinks is a very real possibility.

"We've got a lot of kids very keen for next season already," Horvath said.

"You drive past the oval [Dick Burwell] in the afternoon and you'll see kids down there kicking a ball around.

"In such a rugby league dominant area, it's so good to see AFL becoming so prominent."

Registrations for the 2022 season are expected to open "before Christmas", Horvath said. The pre-season for under-15 and 17s will likely begin before Christmas too.

Horvath said the club is working running an AFL nines competition throughout summer at Dick Burwell Oval, but it is hinging on the lockdown and COVID restrictions.

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