The Kiama Junior Football Club (JFC) capped off a successful year on Saturday September 7 with three teams winning the South Coast Regional Football Competition.

The U12-B, U13-B and U14-B teams all came away with wins in their grand finals at Myimbarr Park in Shellharbour. 

The U18’s Kiama team also played in the grand final on Sunday September 8, but unfortunately ended up second best after a 1-1 draw led to the match being decided through penalty shootout, which they lost.

President of the Kiama JFC Andrew Wales says that 2024 was a very triumphant year for Kiama Football, and on Sunday September 8 they also had their presentation where all grand final teams were given standing ovations.

Kiama Junior Football Club had a very successful year which led to us having four graded teams in the grand finals. This is an outstanding result for a club like Kiama and we’re very proud of that,” says Wales.

The U18 Kiama JFC Runners up

“And last night we had our major graded presentation evening which we used as a celebration of not just the year for all teams, but specifically those four teams. And we had all four teams come on stage throughout the night and they all got a standing ovation but the biggest round of applause was for our U18s. Not only because they fought hard and didn’t quite get there but because this is their last year with Kiama Juniors.”

Wales says that when he came on board as club president in late 2021, the committee agreed to complete a full rebuild which, if successful, would result in more competitive teams by 2024.

“We’ve had a fantastic year, Kiama JFC has been through a major rebuild over the last three years. When we started the rebuild three years ago we said that by 2024 we wanted to see the results of that rebuild reflected in more competitive teams and the fact that with only 15 teams, we had four of them in the grand final, and three who won, is a fantastic achievement,” says Wales.

The rebuild of the club began with the new committee stripping the club completely and starting from scratch. This included new branding, governance, administration, changing the way teams were managed and coached as well as technical and operational elements of how the club ran.

We looked at clubs around the world who are doing really well and looked at how they operate and we’ve taken the best features of those and applied them to Kiama Football Club. We put in place really good committee members who bring their own skills in marketing or management,” says Wales.

The U13B Kiama JFC Champions

“And the end result is that the club, now in 2024, is run very professionally. It is still a grassroots club and a volunteer led organisation, but it’s run very professionally and with a view of achieving success but also balancing it with the fact that a lot of people just want to play football for fun.”

Wales attributes this rebuild, their new coaching and technical programs as well as the community culture that surrounds Kiama as the reasons why the club had such a successful 2024.

“A big reason for our competitive success has been an improvement to our coaching and technical programs, led by KJFC’s coaching coordinator, Alan Appleby,” says Wales.

“Kiama is unique because we’re such a tight knit community. There's very good attitudes towards sport and volunteering and that’s reflected in the way our juniors carry themselves on and off the field, the way in which they train and the attitudes they bring to their games. There’s a maturity and a balance and kindness to our players that we’re very proud of.”

Wales also says the popularity of football is growing in Kiama, especially in female participation, and identifies the rise of the Matildas as a key factor in popularising the sport for young girls.

The U14B Kiama JFC Champions

“We’ve also benefited from the global focus on football, especially the focus on Australia due to the rise of the Matildas last year. We’ve seen an incredible increase in, not only players generally, but female players. We’ve gone from, four years ago before we came on board, there wasn’t a single all girls team in the club. Now we’ve got over 20 all girls teams,” says Wales.

Wales says he wants to thank all of the people in the community who volunteered their time and effort to the club in 2024, and he says that ultimately it was everyone’s combined effort which has made the Kiama JFC the club that it is today.

“This work has been done by a group of really dedicated people. Not just me or a couple of people, there's a whole committee of really passionate people who captured that spirit of Kiama and turned it into something special at Kiama JFC,” says Wales.

The final scores for the three grand final wins were: Kiama U12B defeated Bulli in a penalty shootout after finishing 0-0. Kiama U13B defeated Gerringong 2-1. Kiama U14B defeated Oak Flats 4-1.