The Wollongong Mustangs are rebuilding their men’s team through their colts program, after the club’s senior side was discontinued in 2019.
President Morgan Whittall and his coaching staff reinstated the program to develop young talent for their senior team, with the pathway already delivering results.
Mustangs player Grigory Pan is entering his fourth season after three years in the colts division and said the move into the men’s side required an adjustment, despite already understanding the game.
“The difference between colts and men’s was that there were two extra players on the pitch at all times,” he said.
“That difference was the multiple types of strategies and everything like that had changed. So, it’s harder, but it’s much easier to understand the game if you’ve played colts.”
President Morgan Whittall said developing young players was key to maintaining the club’s senior side.
“We’re reaping the rewards of that now. We’ve got, I think, almost 10 players moving up into the men’s team,” he said.
“Where other clubs that aren’t putting much effort into their colts are finding out three years later, when they don’t have any players aging up, that they’re starting to lose their men’s team.
“If you’re just relying on people that have already been there, once they start retiring, you start to lose it.”
Whittall said recruitment remained a challenge, with gridiron still relatively unknown across the Illawarra.
“This is our 35th season as a club, and I still get people saying to me every time I wear a Mustangs shirt to an event that they never knew about the club,” he said.
The Mustangs are continuing to bring new rookies into the club as they build the next generation of players and continue to grow across the Illawarra over the next five years.
For Pan, the pathway provides an opportunity to keep developing as a player while helping build the future of the Wollongong Mustangs.
