News

The Football NSW Fair Play Award acknowledges individuals or teams playing within Football NSW who have demonstrated an outstanding example of Fair Play and good sportsmanship during the 2016 football season.

The 2016 Fair Play Award Winner was taken out by Nepean Football Association’s Springwood United FC U16/3B team.

The Nepean Football Association nominated the U16/3 Black team after receiving an email from SUFC, acknowledging 3 of our teams that displayed fair play. The coaches of all 3 teams, decided to even the number of players taking the pitch because their opposition were short of players. The circumstances of the U16/3's was that during the match a Springwood player caused an injury to the opposition goalkeeper which resulted in this player leaving the pitch and unable to continue. This reduced the opposition to 10 players as they had no reserves. Springwood had 3 reserves and despite being 2-0 down at half time Coach Alex Damon believed under the circumstances it was unfair to continue the match with 11 players as he felt responsible for the opposition's player numbers being reduced. As the goalie is such a critical player Alex decided to take one of his players from the pitch to even the numbers. The rest of the game was played 10 against 10 and Springwood lost 4-0.

Alex later commented “I felt in the circumstances that it was only fair to take off a player.”
The Glenmore Park coach, and parents were so impressed that many of them approached Alex at the end of the game to congratulate him on his sense of fair play.

The other part of the story was that a win by Alex's team on this day would have secured them as Competition Winners. Unfortunately, they lost and slipped to second place. They then had to win the last game of the season to secure first place, which they did. It was a brilliant demonstration of not taking advantage of another team's misfortune for the purpose of winning the match and the competition.

The award night was held at the Novotel Norwest on Saturday 13th November and the award was accepted by coach Alex Damon and team manager Debra Beechy who were both proud of what their group of players achieved on that day.

Alex's act of goodwill and fair play has been recognised by Football NSW, which is a marvelous achievement. It is a demonstration of what our club represents in the community. Alex is very humbled by the accolade. It was a great occasion to have one of our teams recognised at this level.

Alex had nothing but praise for his team “To say that this team has depth of talent and commitment to the game and each other would be an understatement. This team boasts some of the most mature, well-mannered and respectful young men I have ever had the pleasure in coaching”.