{"id":110343,"date":"2025-02-24T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=110343"},"modified":"2025-02-20T17:16:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T06:16:01","slug":"dig-into-masters-footy-for-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/dig-into-masters-footy-for-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Dig into masters footy for men"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MEN over the age of 35 looking for a new sport to try, or to get back into footy, are invited to join the Ballarat Diggers Football Club.<\/p>\n<p>President Paul Grech said the nationally-recognised masters AFL football club is all about sport for fun, men&#8217;s mental awareness, and a family atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club is tailored for players over the age of 35 with a vast mixture of demographics and ages, with some of the oldest players being well into their 60s,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s open to everyone to enjoy regardless of your playing experience and ability.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We offer a welcoming environment that offers more than just a place to play for many Ballarat and regional men.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With a great group of blokes the club strongly encourages the &#8216;footy for fun&#8217; and &#8216;looking out for your mates&#8217; camaraderie and mateship.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This allows a place of belonging for everyone and gives an opportunity for everyone to be involved in an inclusive and supportive environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/image1_38538.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"439\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The club is all about camaraderie and mateship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Diggers are part of the AFL Masters Association, fielding over-35s and over-45s teams.<\/p>\n<p>The club is based at Russell Square, Brown Hill, is run by volunteers and is supported by local business sponsors and donors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Training has started as of the 5th of February and will continue now every Wednesday night from 6pm, generally training for approximately 45 minutes to an hour once a week,&#8221; Mr Grech said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The teams play generally once a fortnight on a Sunday afternoon in a reduced home-and-away season, consisting of approximately eight to 10 games.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whilst the club is encouraging people to play, we are also fully welcoming of guys just wanting to train only for a run and interaction allowing exercise, fun, footy and socialising to be the main drivers of the club.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Visit The Diggers \u2013 Ballarat AFL Masters FC Facebook page for more information or contact the officials: Mr Grech on 0457 709 629, over-35s coach Keegan Devereux on 0403 507 033, and vice-president Matt Johnson on 0409 911 781.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEN over the age of 35 looking for a new sport to try, or to get back into footy, are invited to join the Ballarat Diggers Football Club. President Paul Grech said the nationally-recognised masters AFL football club is all about sport for fun, men&#8217;s mental awareness, and a family atmosphere. &#8220;The club is tailored [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/dig-into-masters-footy-for-men\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":110346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-110343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dig into masters footy for men - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Men 35+ in Ballarat? Join the Diggers Masters Footy club for fun, fitness, &amp; mateship! All skill levels welcome. Train weekly, play fortnightly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/dig-into-masters-footy-for-men\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dig into masters footy for men - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Men 35+ in Ballarat? Join the Diggers Masters Footy club for fun, fitness, &amp; mateship! All skill levels welcome. 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