Tara Murray
Williamstown CYMS’s success isn’t just measured by the on field results of the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
The premier B division side has made a massive focus on youth and ensuring the long term future of the club.
While it means there might be some short term pain, there’s already some really good signs for the future.
Coach Con Terzoglou said there were some really encouraging signs for the club.
“We are focused on the long term and being sustainable in premier B,” he said.
“That’s our objective we set internally and we’re being patient and getting more confident at this level.
“We’re getting more time and more games into people and it’s a great opportunity to learn.
“We are quite young. We have six under-19s from last year playing their first senior year of football. We had another debut on the weekend.”
Terzoglou said the majority of under-19s from last season stuck around and are now part of the senior program.
He said that was one of the ways that they measured success.
“We want to make sure the kids are having a good experience and want to stay,” he said.
“We want to make sure they’re here the next three to four years and we can look to build on things.”
Terzoglou said with such a young group there has to be some patience and understanding that they make mistakes.
He said it’s about not overreacting and looking at the bigger picture.
“Irrespective of the results, we have been getting better and hopefully that will keep coming,” he said.
“Results will come from that.”
On Saturday, the CYs got their second win of the season, beating Old Trinity.
They led by three points at quarter time, 25 points at half time and then 29 at the last break.
The margin stayed steady with the CYs winning 14.11 (95)-9.10 (64).
Oskar Manton and William Smyth scored three goals each for the CYs, while Jai Haines, Rohan Diwell and Jack Noonan were their best.
“The win was recognition that we have been getting better,” he said.
“We feel like we have improved the way we play and we’ve had a more defensive focus the last four weeks and improved the last four weeks.”
In good signs for the CYs, their under-19s, who are a new squad this season, continue to show signs of improvement.
They are in the top under-19 grade.
“The team is competitive at that level,” he said. “We set the goal eight years ago to have our 19s in the top level of Ammos and in premier B. This is huge for us.”
Meanwhile, the CYs women’s had a win against the Parkdale Vultures on Saturday in division 2.
The CYs controlled most of the match, winning 3.9 (27)-0.1 (1).
Ella Day was named the CYs best.
