It’ll be a case of not just the future but also the past as the Sunbury Kangaroos hold their season launch on Saturday night.
The Kangaroos will be kicking off the 2017 season with a celebration of those who have been at the club before them, as the club celebrates its 30th anniversary.
The club has come a long way since it started in 1987 when it was called the Sunbury Rovers.
Current senior coach and club life member Jarrod Dixon said they would like to see as many past players as possible on the night.
He said they were keen to share the history of the club with the current playing group, while also trying to update the club’s records.
“The club started as a break off from Sunbury Lions juniors,” he said. “We played at Diggers Rest as we didn’t have a ground. We did it hard for quite a few years.
“We have quite a few records that haven’t been kept up to date. We’ve had 600 or so players who have played for the club and we’ve been trying to track them all down.”
The night will include naming the football and netball teams of the past decade. Players need to have played at least 40 games for the club.
Dixon said the past 10 years have been some of the most successful in the club’s history. “We’ve had some talented players who have come through,” he said.
“We won the senior flag in 2012 and won four reserves flags. The netball program was highly successful [including an A-grade premiership] and is now rebuilding and looking really good.”
Dixon said they were also looking at other ways to remember the club’s history this year. The side’s guernsey’s this season will have the Sunbury Rovers initials on them. The club changed names in the early 2000s.
“You always need to know about the past,” he said. “We forged a relationship with North Melbourne at the time [North] was looking to have a kangaroos side in every competition.
Any former players or officials who would like to attend Saturday night, or would like to have their playing records updated, can contact Jarrod on 0419 598 490.
