A select Beaumaris U9’s squad, made up of players from 8 and 9 years of age participated in the highly competitive Hellenic Cup. The tournament was made up by some of the traditionally strongest clubs in Melbourne such as South Melbourne, Oakleigh Cannons, Port Melbourne Sharks and Bentleigh Greens plus many more. This tournament was clearly a big challenge for the boys and they did Beauy PROUD!
The U9 team was lead and coached by Manny Seisdedos and Dima Malkin. The squad in itself was put together over a 2 week period prior to the tournament with the majority of the boys having never played together before. Nevertheless the Performance and Results were nothing short of remarkable.
The tournament was played over a 3 week period and it started against the Home team Port Melbourne Sharks who were physically much bigger in size to our boys. After a shaky first 4 minutes where the boys fell back 2 goals to Nil, we saw something that the club can be extremely proud and excited about for the future. The team ended up winning its first game 6-2 followed by big wins of 13-1 and 12-1 against Oakleigh Cannons and Bentleigh Greens respectively. The score-line aside, the most exciting aspect was the overall performance of the boys, both individually and collectively.
The team made it all the way to the Final and faced up against South Melbourne FC who are traditionally the strongest youth club in Melbourne. The final was going to be difficult due to the fact that South Melbourne U9s had played the whole season together and were undefeated all year. Nevertheless our boys were fantastic in the final. We took the lead by playing sensational passing football. It was an even affair all the way in the final but unfortunately, we just came up short in the end. All in all it was a great effort by the young boys.
The highlight of the tournament from a coaching perspective was the way the team expressed themselves by playing a highly technical and creative brand of football. It was amazing and absolutely outstanding for kids of this age and maturity to be able to express themselves in such a manner. We want children to feel free to be creative and not place restrictions on them. The development of the squad, compared to the other teams was for all to see - including opponents. The manner in which our young team they were able to absorb instructions and formations was a proud highlight as a coach. The brand of possession and passing football had caught the eyes of all the parents, spectators and opposition coaches at the tournament with many of them approaching us asking what we were doing so different at Beaumaris. This kind of feedback is a testament to the direction of our club as a whole. Ranging from our Coaching Director Rob Giabardo, Dima Malkin for is great work all season, to the committee, parents, volunteers and all the coaches who devote their time and passion to implement a philosophy that will be the benchmark and envy of all clubs in Victoria.
Finally a big thank you has to go to George and Michelle Perpina who devote so much of their time to organising all fundamentals so us coaches and players can get on with what we need to do. Thank you guys we really do appreciate all your efforts and hard work.
Go Beauy!
Manny Seisdedos
