Soccer a hit with the kids at Rovers

by James Poyner
25th August 2026

WITH AN INFLUX of volunteers and interest in the game, the Junior and Girls’ programs at Doncaster Rovers have seen a dramatic transformation in the last five years.
To understand what has happened, and how the club is planning to continue this development, M&N Bulletin spoke with Andrea Jamieson, Coordinator for the Junior program and the Women’s and Girls program, and Nick Ansell, Technical Director for the Juniors and MiniRoos programs.
Andrea said when she first took on the coordinator role in 2023, there were only six Junior teams, and only three girls in the whole program.

“This year we’ve had 14 teams, and we’ve had waitlists for nearly every one of our age groups.
You don’t like turning kids away, but unfortunately we had to cap our numbers due to our facilities.”

Andrea added that, since 2024, there have been significant developments in the Girls’ and Women’s programs.

“We had our first Girls’ team in Juniors in 2024.
This year, we’ve got our three Girls’ teams, one in MiniRoos, and we have a very successful Women’s team as well.”

Andrea said the Rovers have 380 kids registered, with 222 of them playing in the Junior and Girls’ teams.
She says the growth in the programs, and the club in general would not have been possible without their enthusiastic community of volunteers.

“We’re a not-for-profit, volunteer-run club.
So, all our coaches, team managers, and people that work in the canteen are all volunteers.
We’ve been lucky enough to have enough volunteers to cover the growth in the club and to cover all the teams that we’ve got here now.”

Andrea said that in previous years, they have had to turn kids away due to a lack of volunteer coaches.

“But this year, I think nearly every single one of our Junior teams has a coach and an assistant coach.”

The club has seen real growth in the MiniRoos program as well, with the enthusiasm for soccer further energised by the Socceroos’ performance at the World Cup earlier this year.

“Bree is our MiniRoos Coordinator.
I think she is still getting multiple emails each day for kids wanting to join the club, and I think a lot of that would be on the back of the World Cup.”

The club held watch parties and other events during the World Cup.

“We had some great events on here at the club, which had great participation and good numbers.
I think one of the biggest issues that a lot of coaches had was kids were coming to training, and they were so excited they wanted to catch up and talk about the games they had been watching.”

But the recent success of the club is not just due to the enthusiasm generated by the Socceroos, former A-League player, Nick Ansell, has returned to his footballing roots, after a stint playing overseas, and while playing in the Senior Men’s team at Doncaster, has taken on the role as the Technical Director for the Junior and MiniRoos, coaching the coaches to help the kids get the most out of training and games.

“I’m here as a support to the coaches and also coaching the coaches at the same time, trying to give them a bit more knowledge.
Hopefully by the end of the year, they feel a lot more confident in their role as a coach.”

He added that the MiniRoos program has seen a lot of growth.

“We’ve had a lot of kids.
We’ve got numerous teams in each age level, so it’s fantastic for the club.
The kids love it, and I think that’s what we’re trying to create here at Doncaster, a really family-oriented club where the kids can come down, enjoy their football, which is the most important.
And then hopefully, from enjoying it, they continue to come to the club through under-eights, under-nines, and under-tens, and go through all the way to seniors if that’s what they really want to do.”

Looking forward, the club is launching a High-Performance program in 2027.

Initially aimed at 10-to-17-year-olds, the program, led by Nick, will help young, skilled players develop their football more quickly.
Nick provided a brief outline of what participants can expect.

“It will be for kids who love the game and want to develop their gameplay at the highest level.
Trainings will be three times a week.
It’s going to be overseen by me, and I’ll be very hands-on for the program.
The kids will also do one training session with me each week throughout the year, and we’re also looking to put them in tournaments in the school holidays to get their games up.
The kids will be playing around 40-plus games.
So it’s a really exciting time to be at the club.
This is a great step in terms of also supporting those kids that want to play at a high level at Doncaster Rovers.”

Those interested in learning more about Doncaster Rovers MiniRoos, Junior and Girls, or High-Performance program can find more information and details about registering your kids’ interest at doncasterrovers.org.

This article is based on a video interview recorded for the Manningham & Nillumbik Bulletin NewsPod podcast.
Click here to watch

 

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