Roaring pride of Tasmania
Football is very much an up and coming sport in Tasmania, however that means little to the University Roar under-12’s Boys team, which is at this week’s McDonald’s Kanga Cup and ready to give it their all.
The Roar, who are competing in the under-12’s Boys cup division this year, arrive in Canberra for the first time and team manager Brendan Johnstone said that the boys couldn’t be happier.
“We’re thrilled to be here,” Johnstone said.
“We made the decision to come up about 3 or 4 months ago and the boys have been on an absolute high ever since.”
The Tasmanian outfit, who are based near Hobart, wanted to participate this week so they could compare their standard of play with that of the rest of the country.
“We’re all keen to see how the boys stack up against the rest of the teams and basically we want to know how far we’ve come with our development in Tasmania,” said Johnstone.
However, getting here wasn’t that easy. Not only was there the great length to travel, but there were extensive financial costs as well.
Mr. Johnstone estimated the total cost to range between $16,000 and $17,000 in order to be able to facilitate the 14 squad members and 4 support staff on the trip.
“We only had the one fundraiser – a quiz night that raised $3000,” said Johnstone. “So the bulk of the expense had to come from the parents.”
Not only was that, but they were forced to do it all on their own. Mr Johnstone described their venture as “very much an individual one” when asked about the possibility of other Tassie teams joining the Roar in the future.
“The support from people back in Hobart was minimal. Our state football body, football federation Tasmania gave us a little pat on the back and a bit of a ‘Well done”, but not a lot of support really,” said Johnstone.
Despite all of this, the kids are determined to show they’re not just here to make up the numbers and an unlucky 1-0 loss to a quality Adelaide City side on the first day went a long way to proving that point.
South of the Bass Strait, the Roar under-12’s play up a division and an age group in the under-13’s competition – a tournament they are currently leading.
However, their manager did notice quite a difference in one aspect of play so far at the Kanga Cup.
“The physicality of the games is certainly there,” said Johnstone.
“Also, the control of the passing and the vision of the other teams are very good. You can tell the coaches have put a lot of time into preparing their players.”
At the end of the day, the boys are here to have fun and represent their home state with pride – not to mention the chance to play on some dry pitches.
So who knows, if they can swing some results their way, it may be the up and coming boys from Tasmania roaring with the under-12’s cup in their hands.