Nearly 1000 male and female Aussie Rules footballers from across Australia attended the recent 2018 AFL Masters National Carnival at Coffs Harbour.
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As the premier event for masters footballers across the country, this is the largest participation football event in Australia.
For the week-long carnival Coffs Coast Sport and Leisure Park provided a great atmosphere on a quality surface with all fields in one location. All age groups and divisions were well represented in both male and female competitions.
The draw involved three rounds played over four competition days. Each game was composed of four quarters of 15 minute duration. Full contact applied except no knee contact was allowed to an opposition player.
It was estimated the carnival would inject over $3million into the local region.
Several well known AFL personalities were in attendance, including Ted Whitten Jr (former VFL Footscray player and founder of the EJ Whitten Foundation for awareness and prevention of prostate cancer for men’s health), Richard Champion (three times AFL premiership player for the Brisbane Lions, AFL media icon for Queensland and regular MC for the carnival presentation night) and Susan Alberti (former AFL Western Bulldogs vice-president, prominent supporter of women’s football and continuing patron for the women’s competition within the carnival).
Alberti was the keynote speaker for Women in AFL in a seminar conducted as part of the carnival schedule.
A special full race meeting day at the Coffs Harbour Racing Club that included the AFL Masters Cup, ladies high tea and fashions on the catwalk, sprints and long kick competitions ensured an entertaining rest day.
Sapphire Coast AFL representative footballers at national level all performed exceptionally well.
These included Tathra’s Neil Rainbow, Cymmon Parker and Naomi Shoobridge.
Rainbow continued his remarkable achievements at national level by winning his ninth national championship title with his Over 60s Vic Metro team. An achievement very few in Australia have reached.
Vic Metro always sets high standards to other younger age divisions with players intensely competing for positional roles within the selected team.
The Vic Metro Over 60s produced a clear win over Vic Country in the first game followed by an extremely tight battle against a strong Queensland team only overpowering their opposition in the last quarter to win by four goals.
For the championship game, undefeated teams of Vic Metro and WA clashed.
The class of Vic Metro dominated the first quarter crushing their opponents and ran away with over a 10-goal victory with Rainbow playing his team role.
Rainbow actually played six full games over the carnival. On top of his Vic Metro obligations he was involved in teams from Vic Country and Presidents (composed of various states and territory players) playing both offensive and defensive positions. A testament to his fitness.
SCAFL success did not end there.
Cymmon Parker who played for the State Vic Country Women’s team, which won two of its three carnival games, was awarded the prestigious All Australian Award for her brilliant on ground performances and also received the best Vic Country women’s carnival player voted by her teammates.
Parker was the driving force behind many defensive and offensive efforts filled with her strong tenacity and heart. She also won the AFL Masters Women’s Sprint against tough state and territory opposition.
Naomi Shoobridge, Parker’s teammate with Vic Country Women’s team again, proved her worth and was applauded for her personal playing performances by her coach, Wayne Allan, in locking down key opposition players in various positional roles.
Shoobridge was one of the most consistent players for the AFL Tathra Sea Eagles Women’s team in 2018 helping her team reach a grand final decider against the Eden Whalers.
In their first 2018 carnival game Parker and Shoobridge were the only goal scorers for Vic Country against a strong WA representative team and both performed really well in the Presidents team upon invitation.
At the young age of 70 Rainbow commented, “older people are doing remarkable things around the world”.
“If you have the physical and mental capacity to pursue your dream then age should not be an obstacle to your passion. No matter whether you are 10 or 100, male or female. Age is only a number.”
