Young players kick goals with kindness

TWO young Grubbers have collected about 20 pairs of footy boots and mouth guards to donate to fellow competitors in a bid to make the game fairer.

Matilda Dalton and Issy Montgomery, who play for Ocean Grove Cobras Football Club’s under 10 girls’ side, said they came up with the idea after they saw that not all players were wearing footy boots and mouth guards.

Grubber members put out social media posts on behalf of the girls about the donation drive, which received about 20 pairs of boots and a box full of the teeth protectors.

Matilda’s mum Chantelle said she hoped more players and teams around the Bellarine would join the under 10 girls’ competition, because at the moment, her daughter had a bye every three weeks due to the low numbers.

The girls’ coach Jackie King said now was the perfect time for girls to sign up because the games were non-competitive.

“There are girls who have never played before, and it’s better for the girls to play girls than the boys,” she said.

Jackie said Ocean Grove Cobras Football Club started with 25 girls signing up to play football at the start of the training season, and by pure word of mouth, that number had jumped to 40 within four weeks.

“That’s just them going to school saying, ‘oh my god footy is the best’, and we can’t say no, so we say just train with us and we will put you on a waiting list,” she said.

Chantelle said the girls had won every game played to date, and they had improved so much because Jackie had trained them since March.

Matilda said Jackie was a fair coach, made it fun and not about winning – it was about getting to play because she didn’t when she was younger.

“You can’t stop smiling because it’s so family friendly and the kids have an absolute ball,” she said.

“We are so lucky they have this opportunity and it’s so much fun.”

Any boots or mouth guards left over will be donated to bootsforall.org.au.