Welcome to Roos News

After what feels like a marathon summer school holidays, fighting COVID, masks and QR Codes, family holidays, road trips and BBL on every night, all of a sudden it’s the end of January and its time to shine those school shoes ready for this week.

It also means that after a long hot summer it’s time to start thinking about footy. It has been over seven months since we played our last game and we can’t wait to see all of our players and families back out on the playing field. We are as excited as you are to get out our first Roos News for 2022 and can sense the anticipation in the air for the return of the greatest game of all.

As we launch into season 2022, here is what we’ve been focusing on over the last 4 weeks.

Registrations for 2022

2022 registrations are now OPEN! Currently there is an EARLY BIRD SPECIAL of a $30 DISCOUNT until 6 FEBRUARY 2022.

Click here to register for tackle and league tag: https://bit.ly/3mbqrn8

Come & Try Day – 6 February 11am

Our first Come & Try Day will be held on Sunday 6 February from 11am – 1pm at Willoughby Park. This will be a great opportunity for the kids to come and have a run around with their friends.

If your child has a friend who is keen to learn more about Junior Rugby League (or Tag) bring them along!

Key Recruitment Areas for 2022

Our early indications is that most of our Roos will return for 2022, but there are some areas where the club needs help from the Roos Community to fill our potential gaps for this season.

For these age groups the club will be offering a $50 Rebel voucher for any Roos player that refers a mate, and they register with the club for this season.

U13s Boys Tackle – As these boys head off to high school, the age group always struggles to compete with private school sport and the club has struggled to retain in recent years.
U16s Girls Tackle – The club is still actively pursuing this history making team for the Roos and to date we have half a team that want to play the tackle variant.

If you know or your Roo knows any kids that may want to play in either of these teams, bring them down to the Summer Squads, our Come and Try Days or normal season training and let David know you’ve brought a referral to claim your $50 Voucher!!

Key Season Dates

We have some dates for your diaries regarding the 2022 season:

All divisions and ages this year will start Round 1 on 2^nd April 2022, with Round 2 the 9^th April
A two week break will be observed for Easter and Anzac Day
Round 3 games resume Saturday 30^th April.
There will be no games on the Queens Birthday Long Weekend, or the middle week of the July School Holidays.
The season is planned to run through until 27^th August,

Pre-Season Training

We have an update on our hugely popular and most anticipated pre-season training.

Willoughby Council is currently upgrading some of their other parks and playing fields around Willoughby, due to this the Roos have been unable to secure any preseason ground bookings prior to 6.30pm on either a Tuesday or a Thursday

That, along with the challenges that have been presented January with Omicron, has forced the club to abandon the preseason program for Parents and Younger players this season. This is obviously deeply saddened to do this and we plan to be back in 2023 bigger and better than ever!

For our older kids, (Under10s+) we will be opening up our Summer Squads for the month of February, free of charge. The first free session will be Thursday 3^rd February, from 6.30pm at Willoughby Park, so players from U10s and UP are all welcome to attend.

And that is it for the first Roos News for 2022! Please contact anyone on our committee if you have any questions or queries or please email willoughbyroos@gmail.com.

Go ROOS!

Regards