It might not have been the season they had hoped, but Moree Suns AFL Club president Ashley Jones is looking on the bright side.
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"It was good to get a win this year, compared to last year," he said.
The Suns season ended on Saturday, with both men's and women's sides going down to the Gunnedah Bulldogs, cementing both teams' position at the bottom of the ladder.
Despite playing a good first quarter, the Suns men were downed by the minor premiers 25.16-166 to 3.1-19 in Saturday's final round clash at Moree Showground.
"Gunnedah showed the reason why they're the number one side in the competition this year," Jones said.
The women only managed to score one behind in their match against the Bulldogs, going down 10.8-68 to 0.1-1. Gunnedah's women's side also finished the season as minor premiers.
Although not reflected in the results, Jones said the Suns' women have improved "out of sight" this year, after being unable to get enough players to field a team in 2019.
"They've had really good numbers turning up each week at training, which was starting to show at the end of the season," he said.
"It's really good to see. The way they're looking, they could definitely step it up next year, especially if we can get good player retention in the off-season."
First-year player Colleen Fernando proved to be a key recruit for the Suns women and was recognised among the top 10 best and fairest players in the whole competition, scoring six points placing her equal fifth.
"It was great to see that she was recognised with some votes," Jones said.
Moree's Wyatt Roberts just missed out on the top 10 for the men's best and fairest, coming in at number 12.
Jones said he had a great season and should have earned more points.
Roberts played a pivotal role in helping the men's side improve on last year's efforts, with the seniors finishing the season with one win under their belt, compared to zero in 2019.
And while the men were boosted by a significant number of juniors who stepped up into the senior competition, they were unfortunately plagued by injury and saw a number of players leave town, including former Moree Champion journalist Jem Nash.
"It's been a fairly big struggle for the men, as we lost a number of core members over the year," Jones said.
Jones said they'll be working on building up the men's side and retaining the juniors who've stepped up in their off-season training.
It was a particularly disappointing year for the Suns' juniors, who, after winning last year's grand final, had to withdraw from the competition halfway through the season due to a lack of numbers.
Considering the juniors had made the grand final for the last two years running, not having an under 17s side was a big blow for the Moree club.
But Jones is hoping they can recruit some more juniors in the off-season to replace those who aged up into the men's competition.
"We've got a few things happening in the off-season to keep guys on-board," he said.
"We're also hoping to try to run a nines competition, depending on COVID restrictions."
Although the Suns are unable to hold a presentation night this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Jones said the committee is looking at other ways to recognise the award winners.
The club will be holding its AGM at 6pm on Thursday, October 8 at Moree Services Club.
"We're definitely hoping for a better season next year,' Jones said.
"It'll be good to see where we go with it next year."
