“It’s the first time the club has done this and the kids are having a great time out on the field learning the basics of the game,” Junior Strikers club committee member Mark Henderson said. 

“We want to build a bridge between the junior and senior club members and felt this was a great way to achieve that.

“Hopefully with more events and better connection we’ll see kids continue playing the game into the senior grades.” 

The clinic covered shooting, passing, dribbling and defence skills in a round robin style with each senior player acting as a group mentor. 

On Wednesday the kids who wanted to become goalkeepers had a special day working on those skills with senior goalkeeper Kevin Atherton, who is playing for the strikers an import player. 

Mr Henderson said they have had nothing but positive comments from parents about the clinic which ran from 9am to 12pm on each day with two fruit breaks and a lunch to finish each day. 

“Parents said that their kids were so tired out they were going to bed early after a day playing soccer which can only be a good thing during the school holidays,” he said. 

A highlight for the youngsters at the end of the day on Tuesday was the chance to score goals on the full field against the senior coaches. 

The youngest child at the clinic was five-years-old and the oldest was 15 but it didn’t matter in the big finale with 72 kids, six soccer balls and some very scared coaches trying to fight the numerical disadvantage.