Sport
5 February, 2025
South West dominates in Ballarat
SOUTH West Victoria’s representative football teams have started 2025 with a significant flex.
The teams headed to Ballarat’s regional soccer facility on January 20 and 21 for a 6x6 one day event, with four of the eight teams making it through to finals.
South West Victoria’s representative football player coordinator Melissa Condo said it was extremely exciting to see the level of ability present, particularly in the younger player age groups.
“SWVFA has made deliberate steps in the last year to develop its more junior players and provide opportunities to train and play in competitive tournament settings while in the playing season, and also the off season,” Ms Condo said.
“The growth and development in that cohort, and also in our female playing group has been particularly noticeable.”
Ms Condo expressed gratitude for the support shown towards SWVFA in 2025, noting that the league and representative squads had attracted several return sponsors and had received indications from a number of other south west Victorian businesses.
“It’s wonderful to be able to share our RFP kids’ achievements with these businesses, to demonstrate the positive results from their financial support of our program,” Ms Condo said.
South West Victoria brought home two championship trophies, with an undefeated run from one of the boys under 12 sides, coached by Adam Nankivell, and south west’s newest under 10s team, coached by Nathanael Amartey.
South west’s other under 12 team, coached by Angelo Van Den Heuvel, took home the under 12 division one runners-up trophy, battling through despite losing two players to a suspected concussion, and heat exhaustion.
The under 13 boys, coached by Janis Vingrys, also played in division one making it through to the semi-finals to go down 2-2 in overtime to a golden goal.
The south west under 13 girls side, coached by Jason Willis, made it through to another grand final and finished runners-up in their division.
In the older youth divisions south west was also represented with two teams in the under 16/17 boys category, and two teams in the under 14/15 category.
“Our under 16 and under 17 teams, coached by Rod Perry, played competitively, coming away with several draws, and narrow losses in extremely hot and trying conditions,” Ms Condo said.
The under 15 boys’ team, trained by Samuel Boyle and supported on the day by team manager Anne Robertson, finished second in their group, defeated in an elimination semi-final.
SWVFA’s mixed under 14 boys/under 17 girls team, also trained by Boyle and supported by Melissa Condo at the tournament, finished equal fourth on points, missing out on finals due to goal difference.
SWVFA president and under 10 coach Nathanael Amartey said he hoped to expand upon the Junior Development Program after its successful pilot last year.
“The program focuses on core skills, ball mastering and the building blocks to help players from a young age (4-10) through the discovery phase and skill acquisition phase while adding my own personal knowledge and experience to these guidelines” Mr Amartey said-.
“The tournament schedule for our rep and JDP teams is full for another calendar year, starting in March with the Bendigo Boys and Girls FC, Dandy City Cup in April (girls only), Country Championships (June) in Albury-Wodonga, various smaller-format competitions in Melbourne, Western United cup (girls only) in Ballarat and lastly the biggest competition in Australia which is the AFS in Shepparton.
“SWVFA are keen to go one better in 2025, after narrowly losing the under 11 boys’ plate grand final on penalties in 2024.”
Amartey said that SWVFA is excited to transition to FV administration of their competition, which will further support significant increases in participation and growth for the foreseeable future.
The domestic SWVFA competition will now also have a third trophy to play for, the FA cup - a knockout phase competition through the season to add more games to the calendar for clubs.
SWVFA domestic season kicks off on April 27, with seven clubs across the south west Victoria participating across under 10, under 12, under 14 mixed, under 14 girls, under 17, seniors women’s division one and two.
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