Junior AFL club the Cronulla Sharks have won an award after embedding a touch of the Sydney Swans.
The highly-innovative club began running a program based – in large measure – on input from long standing and prominent Sydney Swans and AFL development figure, Steve Taubert. While the club also named one of their own unique awards after Swans tackling machine James Rowbottom.
The Cronulla Sharks JAFL club is based at Gwawley Park at Taren Point, in the Sutherland Shire.
It is a community-based club catering for boys and girls from five to 17.
In the past 12 months, the club’s membership has grown 20 per cent to 543 members. It has become the biggest junior club in NSW, and nine out of the 11 Cronulla teams are playing in upcoming finals.
The club, led by President Mark Wilson, promotes Courage, Accountability, Respect, and Selflessness as its core values. Any new members to the club, including parents, players, and friends, are instilled with the philosophy of players aspiring to be the best that they can be and the value of team over individual sport.
Given Steve Taubert’s knowledge and passion for AFL, he was approached by Mark for assistance. Steve brings more than 30 years of experience playing for three AFL clubs, being specialist ruck coach at the Sydney Swans, and coaching St George in the SFL. Steve agreed to become the director of coaching at the Sharks to help translate the enormous enthusiasm that the club possessed into enhanced skills and on-field success.
In deciding how to drive change, the Sharks looked at a new club award. Steve, Mark, and their colleagues were acutely aware that some kids had been playing in the system for over a decade, while others were basically just starting. They concluded that perhaps traditional awards, which generally acknowledge on-field performance, could be modified to embrace the club’s values.
Without ignoring talent, they put a much higher value on, as they’re called in the Swans, the ‘one percenters’ – recognising chasing, blocking, spoiling, verbal encouragement. They decided to name the award after the Sydney Swans midfielder who sets a benchmark in these areas: James Rowbottom.
The James Rowbottom Award is now awarded at each of the club’s 11 teams. It has become highly sought after – especially as it will be presented by James. The benefits of the award are two-fold: it rewards players who exemplify Cronulla’s values, and it links junior players closer to the AFL.
This month, Mark and his colleagues were delighted to receive a call from the AFL to say the Cronulla Sharks had been awarded the AFL NSW/ACT Community Club of the Year Award. We extend our congratulations to the club.
