YOUTH :: HERITAGE YOUTH CUP FINISHES FOR ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR •

By Skip Fulton

After four weeks of non-stop football across thirteen age groups, the Heritage Youth Cup ended this weekend following a successful 2015.

South Melbourne FC had two teams playing in the Semi Finals and these were the Under 8s and the Under 10s. Unfortunately, both teams would be defeated despite putting in a strong performance. Our Under 8s played against Cairnlea and went down 4-0 whilst it was Northcote City winning 5-1 against the Under 10s.

Overall, all the boys and girls playing in the competition were the winners who were able to enjoy four weeks of competitive football against teams they may have never played against during the regular season. This is yet another development opportunity for the sub-youth to gain match experience and play against great clubs from different areas around Melbourne.

Andrew Mesorouni, South Melbourne Board member and Director Youth Development recently spoke to smfc.com.au about the strength of the youth program and what the club hopes to achieve through tournaments like the Heritage Youth Cup and beyond in 2015. “It’s always about development for us at South Melbourne. I’ve made it publically known to everyone within the club and outside the club and obviously through Chris Taylor, our aim is to produce footballers from a young age and one day get them in our first team. That’s what we are here for” he said.

Looking through the four age groups for South Melbourne, from Under 8s to Under 11s, there were a number of clubs we had the opportunity to play with through the course of the tournament. These included:

– Beaumaris
– Bundoora United
– Cairnlea
– Eltham Red Backs
– Lalor United
– Moreland Zebras
– Northcote City
– Pascoe Vale
– Point Cook
– Spring Hills
– Whittlesea United

South Melbourne Results

Under 8: Finished first in Group 3. Defeated by Cairnlea in Semi Final.
Under 9A: Finished third in Group 4.
Under 9B: Finished third in Group 1.
Under 10: Finished first in Group 1. Defeated by Northcote City in Semi Final.
Under 11: Finished second in Group 3.

South Melbourne would like to recognise the efforts of the Moreland Zebras FC, tournament organiser Lou Nardella and the team of volunteers who ran the Heritage Youth Cup for a second year bringing together one hundred and forty seven teams from across Melbourne. Nardella was kind enough to speak with smfc.com.au about the success of this years tournament saying “It’s been fantastic. We’ve had some great clubs here. The atmosphere has been good, football has been played with great spirit, games have been entertaining, you can’t ask for anything more.”

Asked about the growth of the tournament his year, Nardella was positive in the opportunities the tournament presented for the young footballers in Melbourne and how clubs were embracing the concept. “This year it’s just doubled in size. We had to knock back clubs unfortunately. We hope to improve it but we’ll wait and see how much we can extend it next year to make it a bigger and better tournament. We hope to grow in the future, we’ll just have to wait and see how many clubs want to be involved” he said.

Overall Tournament Winners

Under 8 – Box Hill United
Under 9 – Spring Hills
Under 10 – Northcote City
Under 11 Boys – Beaumaris
Under 11 Girls – Spring Hills
Under 12 Boys – Bentleigh Greens
Under 12 Girls – Eltham Redbacks
Under 13 – Hume City
Under 14 Boys – Moreland Zebras
Under 14 Girls – Spring Hills
Under 15 – Northcote City
Under 16 Boys – Sunshine George Cross
Under 16 Girls – Brunswick Zebras