THE YourPodiatrist Cup Touch Football competition was played at Blue Lake Sports Park on Saturday and was hailed a big success for the region as it attracted some of the finest players from South Australia and Victoria.
The independent event was first staged in 2013 and was designed to pit the best teams in Victoria and South Australia against each other to compete for touch football bragging rights.
This year was the first time the cup has been held in Mount Gambier, with all the previous competitions staged in Portland.
A total of 26 teams including six Limestone Coast sides and around 250 players converged on the city to compete.
A $1000 cash incentive was awarded to the winners of each of the five separate divisions – men’s open, women’s open, Under 18, mixed elite and social.
There was a strong “local” presence in the finals, with a Mount Gambier side in every decider, apart from the open men’s which was won by Victorian side Storm 5-nil against Snakes and Dadders, plus the mixed elite final won by an Adelaide side 4-1 over the Squids.
The Under 18 final was an all Mount Gambier clash where the Lakers defeated the Eaglehawks 3-1, while in the open women’s final Mount Gambier’s Wildfires lost to Melbourne’s Galaxy 6-0.
In the mixed social final, Mount Gambier’s Tiki Crew lost 8-1 against RMRKBL, who were undefeated for the day.
Cup co-director Sean Fulton was proud of how the competition has grown since its interception.
“Originally it was only played between Mount Gambier and Portland teams and it has grown into the richest cash-prized tournament in Victoria and South Australia combined for its kind,” he said.
“There are much bigger tournament’s in terms of teams, but they do not offer the amount of money we offer.
“When your offering $1000 winner takes all in each division, it tends to get a few people to come and visit.”
Fulton was also pleased with how well the local teams competed against the more experienced city competitors.
“We had six local teams entered,” he said.
“Two out of the three Under 18 sides were from Mount Gambier and they played off in the grand final in that division where they will gain a lot of experience from that.
“We had a men’s open team enter as-well called the Green Surfing Kangaroos.
“We did not win a game, but managed a draw with Melbourne’s Monash Universtiy and we should have won that one.
“Our women’s team the Wildfires made the grand final in their division and went down to Galaxy from Melbourne in a pretty big effort to get up there and take on the city girls.
“In the mixed social one of our local teams called the Tiki Crew made the grand final and were the best performed mixed country team on the day.
“Victoria and South Australia had many of their state men and women open players mixed throughout the competition.”
Fulton noted how not just the high quality of players in the competition, but also the high quality of referees helped raise the standard of the competition.
“We had a number of high-level referees as well, including level-six referees who have officiated in world cups,” he said.
“We had one referee here – Amanda Single – and she has officiated at world cups and is currently the number one female referee in Australia.”
Fulton hailed the competition as a huge success in its first time in the region.
