Girls join Thistles in record numbers

By Gill Lehn and Jason Bell, Helensburgh Thistle’s junior and senior club presidents

With registrations well underway, Thistles’ player numbers are already ahead of where we have been in previous years. We are proud to have 100 girls registered – the most we have ever had registered in the club, so we are definitely heading in the right direction for our female players.

Our District League team has already been set up for a positive season, with former player, Andrew Paine, appointed as Head Coach.

In a recent interview Andrew said: “There’s so much potential in this club. They’re strong throughout all the grades, they have the second-largest junior base and they’re close to the Sutherland Shire so they have a different player-market pull, so you don’t have to compete with everyone else and overpay.”

Andrew said he is enjoying working with the new group of players and believes the side will pose a serious threat to opposition sides. The calibre of the Helensburgh squad has made them one of the early favourites to earn promotion. However, after a ticket to the top flight was off the cards last season, Paine senses there are a number of clubs vying to finish first.

“There’s always only one goal for a season if you’re being honest. If we do succeed, the club does have ambitions of being in the Premier League.”

Our District League teams have already had a great start to the season, with a win and a draw under their belt in the pre-season matches. The First Grade side will compete in the annual Frat Cup in February and March, and there will also be more trial games before the season kicks off.

With such a strong Junior and Senior base, our ever-popular Mini Thistles program, some great fundraising events to take place and impressive games to watch, we look forward to an exciting season with lots of new and familiar faces in the Thistles this year. We also hope to see the wider community at Rex Jackson to show their support.

We’ll have more details soon on a new exciting shared community development near the clubhouse. Everyone will be able to use and enjoy this exciting space.