The Harbord Football Club returned to the Kanga Cup for the second time this year. After falling short in the semi-final in 2023, this year their team in the under 14’s Open Shield competition fought right through to the end and claimed gold!
The Harbord Football Club joined the event from the Northern Beaches in Sydney, New South Wales, where they are a part of the Manly Warringah Football Association. Harbord FC came to be in 2003 as a result of a merge between the Harbord Diggers and Seasiders clubs. For the first 16 years of operation, the club was known as ‘Harbord Seasiders United’. It wasn’t until 2020 that the club officially rebranded that they officially changed their name and are now known Harbord FC!
The club is run by a dedicated and passionate committee of volunteers who contribute in many different ways. The Harbord FC provides an environment for footballers of all ages, prioritising participation, fair play, and community over anything else.
The coach of Harbord FC’s one team that travelled to Canberra this year, coach Eoin Behan, believes that the tournament is not about winning, but all about team spirit.
“I would say it is probably more about the team spirit that you build with your team, rather than actually winning the competition,” Behan shared. “I think bringing them down, this is our second year, and last year we lost in the semi-finals, just seeing what happened after the Kanga Cup and how all of the fun team spirit translated into the games that were going on, for me, that was the best. Oh, and the memories! The memories we could make down here were awesome.”
“For me, just the smiles on the faces of the boys. Also, I guess, some of the outside of the actual football, some of the events we have had, the special memories we have made down here in Canberra. We have all been staying in the same hotel, been together building team spirit, one of the guys even got his first goal ever! They are school mates, they are obviously club mates, and altogether just have a good team camaraderie,” he also added.
The Kanga Cup, in the eyes of Behan, provided his team with an opportunity to test themselves against teams they wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to come up against.
“I think it gives them a chance to play against an opposition that they have never played against before. Playing in the same league, they only ever get to see the same type of opposition,” he said. “Over here, we are obviously playing against academy teams, community teams, we even played against another age group. We played against an under 13’s team and they were awesome. That’s what I want to see, I want to see them step it up when it comes to testing themselves against other opposition.”
The Sydney area hasn’t provided their clubs with much opportunity to play football recently. When Behan was asked why they made the journey to Canberra this year, he responded:
“To actually play football! Coming from Sydney, we haven’t had many games,” he said. “We have played more games this week then we have all season back home because the weather has been so wet! For me, this was just a chance for us to actually play football for once, get together as a unit, as a squad and just enjoy the five days of fun.”
Following their grand final win, the young squad from Harbord FC could not stop grinning from ear to ear! With any luck, the Kanga Cup will see the return of these strong individuals to fight to claim gold for the second year in a row.
