Forged from thin air, one local team took the Australian Football Skool Shepparton Cup by storm at the weekend.
Shepparton Represent won the under-13 division on the tournament’s last day, topping the group and overall standings to take out the entire age grade.
Not bad for a side that didn’t exist until a few weeks ago.
Team manager Kirby Cirillo said the team was whipped together in a month or so, uniting players from Shepparton South, Shepparton United, Shepparton Soccer Club and Tatura to form a hybrid team jam-packed with ability.
“We called ourselves Shepparton Represent because we were representing our area with the talent,” Cirillo said.
“We did a couple of trainings, we got our own kits made, we had sponsors to help with the kits.
“We put the team in, one of the dads coached it, Mario (Cirillo), who selected the teams and then we did a couple of trainings.”
Shepparton Represent trained more than a couple of times ― but not many more.
Cirillo said the newly-formed band of players had four sessions in total over a month, thrust into the tournament with vastly less time to prepare than all of their opponents.
Watching on, you wouldn’t have been able to tell.
Shepparton Represent recorded wins over Keilor Park and Cobram Roar as well as a 1-1 draw with Roxburgh Park United on Saturday, backing it up with a stunning 4-2 scalp of Melbourne powerhouse Dandenong City on Sunday.
It placed them in the cup final against Southern Tasmania, but the Apple Isle outfit was forced to forfeit due to flight changes.
The 3-0 default win was a fizzled ending to what was otherwise a whiz-bang run from the makeshift team of locals, but it hardly took much gleam off the achievement.
“We had very happy kids and really happy parents because the year wasn’t great for us,” Cirillo siad.
“From the year that we had, there was lots of things that went on, but the kids were just super excited to finish off their year with the win.
“We were competing against Melbourne teams that are training three and four nights a week, and here we are, putting a team together with four weeks of one night a week training and managed to take it out.”
What happens to Shepparton Represent now the dust has settled?
Sadly, Cirillo said it was an endeavour that would remain a flash in the pan and a memory for the players and parents, with the team to disband just as quickly as it was formed.
But as the name suggests, everyone now knows exactly who they are and what their mission was.