A NEW sport has officially arrived in town and organisers have issued a challenge to family and businesses to add friendly rivalry to the local competition.
Touch Football — a six-a-side fitness orientated sport loosely based on rugby league — kicked off its first official competition in Swan Hill last night, the last piece in the Northern Victoria puzzle for the Touch Football Victoria.
With current competitions in Echuca, Bendigo and Mildura, Swan Hill was added to the map last night with a come and try night.
Boasting of simple drills to explain to new players the basic structure of the game, organisers have decided to call on family teams to form to play their friends and extended family.
Swan Hill Touch ground controllers David and Teesha Jonkers said it would add a new element to the code in the region.
“We are excited, this season will be awesome. It is great to have a new sport in Swan Hill and being Kiwis it is great to be able to bring something different to Country Victoria,” Mr Jonkers said.
“It is a great sport for men, women, mixed and kids. It is the only sport where the whole family can be on the field at the one time. Hopefully it will take off here, it is a lot of fun to watch and hopefully people just give it a try, something new and different.”
Adding to the family sentiment, Mrs Jonkers believes business houses could also have fun and take their opposition on outside of work.
“It will be a great way to get some friendly rivalry for business and family teams, to get out and beat each other in such an exciting way,” she said.
“It is great fitness, the social aspect is great and it is a great deal of fun too.
“It is new to town, so it does not matter if you are sporty or not-so-sporty, it caters for everyone to play and get or keep fit.”
The competition will be run in a social manner for the first season to try and draw people into the competition.
Touch Football Victoria sport operations coordinator David Diack said there could be options to take on other touch regions, but for now, it was about the fun.
“We are really excited about it, we get to bring a new sport to the area and hopefully give people an understanding to try something new and maybe use it as pre-season training for other sports,” he told The Guardian.
“We are expecting a bit of a cross section of people top come down, maybe some with touch experience and we want those who have never seen it to come as well, who are just keen for the challenge.”
The official start of the season will be Tuesday, February 23, at Ken Harrison Oval.
If you missed last night’s come and try night, you can still sign up by calling David Diack on 0431 420 142 or by visiting www.facebook.com/SwanHillTouch/
