Roughly 190 kids were part of the junior program in 2019 and president Keryn Phillips said the numbers that have flooded into Endeavour Oval in the last few months took her and the club by surprise.

"It blew us out of the water," Phillips said.

"Seven years ago we were in the low hundreds and now the junior numbers have gone through the roof."

According to Phillips, several factors have contributed to the spike in members but the leading cause is the cancellation of both Kinross' and Stannies' external rugby programs, leaving a stack of young players with nowhere to run around.

"Those events not going ahead has brought a few extras in over the last few weeks," she said.

"That, and the fact that everyone just wants to get outside again now that there's a competition up and running."

On the senior stage, much has been made of Emus' efforts to be proactive and commence training the minute it was logistically possible and the juniors followed in those footsteps which Phillips believes gave the clug a leg up over its rivals.

"We were back on the field a good four to six weeks before contact was allowed," she said.

"A lot of the kids were coming to training because there was finally something to do.

"Orange City didn't start its training sessions until about a month after we did."

Readily available rugby certainly helps but there's a host of other things that the club does that's led to the boost in numbers, starting with enforcing a positive culture.

"We don't have a win at all costs attitude... we just want to get kids on the field playing rugby," she said.

"We get so many compliments about the way everything is run and about how family-friendly it is.

"The increase in players has also meant the need for more coaches and so many people have stepped up and taken on those roles."

Emus are fresh off an intra-club derby on Tuesday night as the under 14s played against each other under lights.

Almost 440 people were in attendance.