Zac Standish
The Yallourn Yallourn North Football-Netball Club is set to embark on a new era after officially announcing their name change from the Bombers to the Jets.
The reigning Mid Gippsland football premiers made the move to the North Gippsland league at the beginning of the 2021 season and are rebranding as a result of a clash with existing club Traralgon Tyers United, who are also known as the Bombers.
This name change follows the release of a new jumper and dress prior to the season (designed by Traralgon local Cody Mostert), which after making its debut in a Round 6 clash against TTU, will become the club’s official strip as of this weekend’s matches against Heyfield where they will be known as the Jets.
Yallourn Yallourn North Football-Netball Club president Evan Sheekey described the process behind coming up with the new name.
“When we went into North Gippsland we had to totally rebrand i.e. jumper, colours, mascot name, etc. So what we did at our general meeting in January was put together a sub-committee to go out to members and put different names forward,” Sheekey said.
“From that about 50 names came up from the members and the sub-committee narrowed that down to three names which was then skimmed down to two where from there we went out to a club vote which found Jets as the name going forward.”
Sheekey revealed the two names members had the option of selecting in the final vote.
“When it came down to those final two it was between the Jets and the Chargers,” he told The Express.
“I would personally think (that Jets won out) because it comes back to the plane, but I can’t speak on behalf of everyone else, each person had their motives as to which name they chose and at the end of the day more liked the Jets than the Chargers I suppose.”
Since the announcement was made at the club’s mid-year ball on Saturday night, Sheekey said the response of the community has been overwhelming.
“Everything has been really, really positive, it is a really great example of what the Yallourn North community is all about – they have gotten behind the club, gotten behind our change and just adapted to everything so well,” he said.
“We are really excited to be going forward as a new franchise really and it is definitely a relief to get over all this talk of clash jumpers.”
Currently sitting on top of the North Gippsland football ladder after nine rounds, Sheekey said the transition into a new competition has been extremely smooth.
“The league could not have been more welcoming to us, every club we have been involved with so far has extended excellent hospitality to us which has been fantastic,” he said.
“It is a really positive league, a really competitive league, but all in all they are willing to help each other out and are very united.”
As the club pushes forward to what promises to be an exciting new era, Sheekey said they will always look back fondly on their more than 100 years of history.
“Since 1919 when the club was formed we have been known as the Brown Coal Mine, Yallourn North, Yallourn, Yallourn North, Bombers, Blues a host of different things, so we have a lot of rich history and this is just starting a new chapter.”
