Soccer seniors sought
Volume 11, No. 52, September 21, 2006
By Barry Rollings

October 28: 8.30-9.30am, pre-briefing; 10.30am-12.30pm, Army women v NSW Emergency Services; 1-3pm, Army men v NSWES; 3.30-5.30pm, RAAF women v Navy; 6-8pm, RAAF men v Navy. October 29: 1-3pm, RAAF over-30s v Army; 3.30-5.30pm, RNZDF women v Army; 6-8pm, RAAF women v NSWES. October 30: 10.30am-12.30pm, RNZDF women v Navy; 1-3pm, Navy over-30s v Army; 3.30-5.30pm, NSWES men v RAAF; 6-8pm, Navy men v Army. October 31: 1-3pm, Navy over-30s v RAAF; 3.30-5.30pm, RNZDF women v NSWES; 6-8pm, Navy women v Army. November 1: 10.30-12.30pm, RNZDF women v RAAF; 1-3pm, ADF over-30s v NSWES; 3.30-5.30pm, Navy men v NSWES; 6-8pm, Army men v RAAF. November 2: 1-3pm, Navy women v NSWES; 3.30-5.30pm, RAAF women v Army; night, ADFFF dinner. November 3: 10.20am-12.30pm, ADFFF annual meeting; 1-3pm, ADFFF team training; 6-8pm, ADF women v NSWES representative team; 8-10pm, ADFFF men v Melita.

IF YOU are one of ADF’s soccer seniors, come on down. The focus will be on you at the ADF Football Federation’s (ADFFF) looming national carnival in Sydney.

The annual interservice event for men and women at Parramatta Melita Eagles Stadium at Fairfield from October 28 to November 3 will cater for over-30 players for the first time.

ADFFF president Leut-Cmdr Paul Denneny said there were many talented over-30 soccer players across the three services still playing and the aim was to attract them and build support for ADF football.

“If the interest warrants it, we could then look at expanding on that theme and move up to an over-35 category in the future,” Leut-Cmdr Denneny said.

The over-30s will be playing for the Patron’s Shield, named in honour of the ADFFF patron, Deputy Chief Joint Operations, RAdm Rowan Moffitt.

There will be plenty of incentive for the over-30s to pull on the boots with the prospect of selection for and participation in a Masters tournament in Thailand at Phuket in October next year.

“We also have the Arafura Games in Darwin in May, where he we hope to send men’s and women’s teams,” Leut-Cmdr Denneny said.

It is hoped the NSW Emergency Services (NSWES) will field teams in the titles again this year and that ADF over-30s will be able to test their mettle against their NSWES counterparts.

NSWES involvement has built from the original participation of the NSW Police in 2000.

Adding some international spice to the event, the Royal New Zealand Defence Force women’s team will attend the ADFFF titles this year and the ADFFF has a reciprocal invitation to go to New Zealand next year depending on the operational tempo.

With the expected entry of over-30s to the competition and the fact that ADF civilians are now eligible to compete, carnival numbers are expected to be boosted from about 180 this year to 240 next year, excluding the Emergency Services teams.

Six trophies will be contested with Air Force holding the men’s trophies as Service and carnival champion and Navy’s women holding the equivalent trophies in their categories.

The carnival also will double as selection trials for the ADFFF for any tournaments the organisation might contest next year.

A tour of Asia to play Asian defence force teams is in the wind for March 2007. Though not yet confirmed, likely opponents would be Singapore and China and possibly Malaysia or Thailand.