Kiama Junior Football Club is celebrating a successful season, capped off with a couple of premierships, but the on-field action is not over yet.

Nine of the club’s 12 graded teams qualified for the recent finals, four progressed to the grand final and two of those teams - the under 12 girls and mixed under 15Bs emerged victorious. 

“It was a good year for us, that’s for sure,” president Ben Morgan said.

“The big challenge is always retaining players, not just at the club, but within the sport itself. We’ve got a good technical director, Alan Appleby, which always helps.

“He’s always trying to advise other coaches to maintain our level of playing ability but also the enthusiasm and willingness of kids who just want to stay in the sport.”

The under 15Bs beat Shellharbour 2-1 while in the under 12 girls’ decider, they took on Port Kembla and after a scoreless first half, Kiama scored the only goal of the match with about 10 minutes remaining.

“They played really well. It was a strong performance from the girls,” Morgan added.

Kiama have invested heavily in girls football in recent years and it’s paying dividends.

“Our female numbers have been growing year on year. We’ve got about 615 players and a third of them are females, which is great,” he said.

“They’re getting really strong and we’ve got a big crop of girls in the under 9s and under 10s. It’s partly due to the Matildas effect with the World Cup being here a couple of years ago, there’s been a big boost in female numbers.”

The club is also hosting a football festival this weekend with around 80 boys and girls teams from far and wide converging on the Kiama Sporting Complex.

Under 7s and Under 9s sides will take to the field on Saturday with Under 10s and Under 12s doing likewise on Sunday.

As part of the weekend of football, there will also be an event at Kiama Leagues Club on Saturday night where Sydney FC players will drop by to chat to the youngsters and pass on a few tips.

There will also be plenty of kids activities including a Silent Disco and EA FC free play, as well as live music from 8:30pm, exclusive Sky Blue meal deals, and raffle prizes (signed jersey, signed Xbox + more!).

The event kicks off at 6pm and to secure your table, click here for booking details.

It is the third year that the event has been held in Kiama with Sydney FC, thanks to a partnership with Destination Kiama and it will be on again for the next two years as well.