In the second week of the holidays, the Newington Football Program took 27 boys along with four coaching staff to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for a 3-day camp involving an intensive schedule of training, strength and conditioning and games against local opposition.

On arrival, we were quick to acclimatise to the extremely professional nature of the Institute with their strict guidelines on food, exercise and curfews. The boys got an excellent insight into the life of an elite athlete and even got to dine with a few of them during meal time.

Monday began with a quick training session followed by a night game against the U18 side from Gungahlin United. Newington certainly had the lion’s share of possession and shots on goal, but as is all too common in football, the opposition took the early lead to set us back. Despite a missed penalty, we worked hard to get on the score sheet to even the score up at 1-1 and with some more polished finishing, should’ve won the game by some distance. We finished off the night with a very intense trivia competition, with our Year 12’s showing their pedigree in seeing off the opposition which happened to be a rather underwhelming coaches team!

Tuesday began with an early morning training session in perfect conditions followed on by a hearty breakfast and some strength and conditioning. We were then privileged to be taken on a tour of the facilities at the AIS and everyone was impressed with what was available for the athletes on site. Tuesday night was taken up by another game against local opposition, this time the U18 from Belconnen. This game was a chance for some of our younger members of the touring party to get a run and they rose to the challenge. After sustaining early pressure and going a goal down, the boys showed great spirit to bring the game back to 1-1 with Connor Tran (12/JN) setting up Ellis Bellos (10/JN) for a cool finish. Again, the boys started to dominate possession in the last 10 minutes and were unlucky not to overrun the Belconnen team. Tuesday night was also spent playing some team bonding games conducted by our Year 12’s which helped forge some solid friendships amongst the boys.

Our final day in Canberra again began with an early morning training session in preparation for two simultaneous games against Marist College that afternoon. The culmination of three great days of training and matches resulted in two absolutely stellar performances from both sides. The ‘first’ team winning 8-0 with Connor Tran (12/JN) netting an impressive four goals in a great day out and the ‘second’ team winning 7-1 with some impressive performances all across the park. Marist then hosted a very enjoyable barbeque for the boys and many thanks go to them for what was a lovely afternoon. Wednesday night was spent testing the boys’ skill behind the wheel as we all hit the go-kart track. Particular mention must go to Hunter Karam (10/PR) and Carlo Ottavio (10/ME), who should never, ever be behind the wheel of a car again!

Special thanks must go to Director of Football, Mr Brian McCarthy for his meticulous organisation which meant that not a minute was wasted on the trip and to Mr Brian Baker and Mr Jablonski whose expertise provided the boys with an excellent insight into the life of a professional footballer. Hopefully the boys got a lot out of the experience and can build on it for further development and a successful season in 2016.

Mr Justin Verco
1st VI Football Coach