Dubbo Junior AFL's decision to give home matches to Forbes Swampies a success

The Forbes Swampies teamed up with Orange Tigers to compete in the regional league this season, and on Sunday the club was able to have home games thanks to the Dubbo juniors.

Dubbo opted to take its own home round to Forbes in a show of support for the fledgling club.

It's believed it was the first time since 1986 Forbes has had competitive AFL matches in town and Swampies club president Alex Milsom was thrilled with how the day panned out.

READ ALSO:

Dubbo Junior AFL president Merinda Roll was also delighted to see the idea come to fruition.

"To the Forbes Swampies, they've done a great job. They did all the hard work on how to run a game day," she said.

"The field is amazing, the location is beautiful, and the weather has been the icing on the cake. That gets people out and great footy gets played."

In a real highlight for the Swampies, two Forbes juniors were co-captains of the Orange under 14s side on the weekend.

The first side in action on Saturday was the under 12s, and six Forbes juniors got the chance to wear the blue and white of the Swampies in a victory.

"We started the game really strongly with our normal formation of how we like to go into games, and got a really good start," coach Dale Hunter said post-game.

"Defensively it was probably one of the stronger games we've played, just with the size of the ground which probably sucked all of our opponents into the contest, and we held a little bit of structure."

Hunter added the Orange-Forbes partnership has been great for both clubs this season.

As much as its helped boost numbers for the Tigers, Hunter said he would be happy to see the Swampies keep building and form their own standalone club in the future.

"The region benefits if they can get their stand alone team up and running. That's the aim for the region and the competition," he said.

The under 14s were captained by Forbes pair Cayden Metzeling and Zane Clark and the Tigers went on to score a resounding win over Dubbo.

Coach Nathan Totten was pleased with his side's improvement almost out-of-sight over the school holiday break.

"They started out really well and maintained that all day," he said.

"Good pressure and effort all day."

Milsom was delighted by the support the day received and he's hoping that can help more people give the sport a go.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: