The club has successfully brought up a strong breed of youth players. 

Benefits of a development philosophy are shining for the Bombers, who have had more than 10 under-17 players feature in the senior line-up during the 2017 season. 

The club placed a strong emphasis on its junior program five years ago after the Bombers saw a proven success rate with clubs such as Horsham Demons, Kalkee and Laharum. 

Under-17s coach Heath Francis said the club saw its development program as a formula to play consistent football. 

“We make sure we are strong in junior numbers and then we educate them,” he said. 

The under-17 footballers won both the 2015 and 2016 premierships and are in the hot seat to make it a three-peat, sitting at the top of the table with a 15-0 season record. The under-14s are a strong outfit in the league and sit in fifth spot. 

“There are a lot of families out there now. It’s a real community,” Francis said. 

“Hopefully kids keep filtering through to the seniors. It might mean we are able to get some sustained senior finals. I think we will be disappointed if we don’t make finals next year.” 

Twelve of the current under-17 squad will play senior football in 2018 and Francis said about six of them would slot into the senior team. 

“They are more than capable,” he said.  

This junior development has also filtered through the Bombers’ netball teams for years and it is visible with the amount of success on the court. 

The Bombers have won 38 trophies in all netball grades since 1986 – a fact the A Grade co-coach Yolanda Molineaux is proud of. 

“We have always had a great junior program and we try to carry them through the ranks,” she said. 

“We are passionate about getting them to play senior netball when they are in the under-17s so it’s not such a big shock when they aren’t playing juniors anymore.” 

Looking at the current A Grade side, two players stand out as youngsters who have worked through the Bomber ranks – being Maddy Focroul and Lucy Brand. 

“Maddy has been playing A Grade netball for three to four years now and Lucy was in B Grade last season,” Molineaux said. 

“It is a great achievement by a great club and the netball success is nothing without the club administration.” 

Bombers veteran Jason Walter holds a special place at the club, being the only man to play every year since Noradjuha and Quantong merged in 1997.

It will be an extra special week for Walter, who hopes to line-up for the first time with his son, up-and-coming midfielder Jye, in the reserves.

A large crowd will cheer on the pair as they celebrate the anniversary of the club’s formation.

 “I’m pretty much retired now but I’m hoping to get the opportunity to play with Jye – it would be fantastic,” Jason said.

Jye is one of the Bombers under-17 players to take the leap to senior football this year, making his debut against Pimpinio.

It’s been a year of achievements for the Walter family, with Jason’s wife Kylee notching her 350^th game of netball last week.

The club’s president Tim Kelly said he hoped a number of familiar faces would make it back to the club celebrate their achievements.

“We’re proud of what we’ve done here – particularly in terms of redeveloping the facilities. For anyone who has had something to do with the club over the past 20 years, we’d love for you to come down,” he said.