By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE hits are hard, the skills are often breathtaking, and the love of the game is pure.
Cranbourne’s All Abilities football side is the real deal.
The team’s jumper presentation at Casey Fields on Tuesday night kicked off a new football season which, for this squad even more than any other, can’t come soon enough.
Each player who received a 2013 guernsey from coach Mark Goodrick did so with absolute pride – like donning the Eagles’ blue and gold is the single greatest feeling on earth.
“Come down to Casey Fields in the middle of a freezing winter and the side will still be training with incredible intensity,” Goodrick said.
“And when training is finished and it’s blowing a gale, they still want to kick the footy.
“These guys love playing, they love their training but they really just love belonging to the Cranbourne Football Club.”
Club president Gerry Kelly was on hand to help present guernseys to players with a range of different playing abilities.
The biggest thing they have in common is the bond they share at the Eagles’ nest.
“If you’ve had an aide at school or been to a special school, or if you’ve got an acquired brain injury, you fit the criteria (of the side),” Goodrick said.
“With some of our players it’s hard to pick the disability. With others it’s obvious.
“But everyone is treated equally and everyone walks off the field at the end of every game with their heads held high.
Goodrick’s son, Jack, is in his fifth year with the side. The coach said it meant the world for his son to be an Eagle – part of such a tightknit, inclusive environment.
“He’s got quite a few health issues but he just loves his football and that’s really all that counts,” he said.
Goodrick, now in his second year as head coach, said leading the side was one of the most enjoyable things he’s ever done.
He put plenty of that down to the support staff behind the team.
“We have our moments like any footy club but we have a great team behind us,” Goodrick said.
“Mel Lindsay, our co-ordinator, is fantastic. She’s positive but firm, and sometimes we need that.
“But (for the most part) these boys are sensational.”
All Abilities football shares the same rules as the mainstream game – 18 on the field, an interchange bench – the works.
But Goodrick said: “After most games I still walk away with things I’ve never seen before.
“The teamwork shown here, and the support amongst the playing group – many mainstream teams could learn a thing or two.”
One of Goodrick’s proudest footballing moments came two years ago when his Eagles won a premiership.
Another came in the closing stages of last season.
“One boy, Christopher (Gialanze) – he didn’t play football until last year,” Goodrick said.
“But he gave me my highlight of the year when he kicked his first goal in our last game.”
The spirit of grassroots football can often get amongst the glitz and glamour, controversy and scandal of the big league game.
But Christopher’s moment at the end of the 2012 season serves as a remind of what Australia’s game is really all about.
“He was helped by a player from an opposition team,” Goodrick said.
“He knew how desperately Christopher wanted that goal so he gave him a handball over the top and he turned around and kicked it.
“Everybody, both teams’ players and coaches, and all their supporters celebrated together.”
The Cranbourne All Abilities football side is always on the lookout for new players and sponsors.
To get involved, call Mel Lindsay on 0432 595 780.
