Eli Luttmer, the 15-year-old Tasmanian Institute of Sport player, will know this week whether he will be included in the Australian under-16 squad to compete in the Asian Football Confederation under-16 championships later this year.
Luttmer returned on Saturday night from a 4-day training camp in Canberra, where he was the only Tasmanian participant.
“The first day I arrived, we had a session in the afternoon and the next two days we had two sessions each day, and on the last day we had one session,” said Luttmer.
“Most of the sessions were just eleven versus eleven, with a couple of people on the bench.
“I played a bit at centre-back and at right-back.
“It was good fun and good experience.”
Luttmer said he should know on Wednesday whether he has made the final cut for the squad.
“At the start, I was a bit nervous and shy, but towards the end, I got more confident and I think I matched it with most of them,” he said.
“The pace of play was a lot quicker than here and they like to knock the long diagonal ball occasionally.
“Most of the time that works to switch play quickly.”
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Next year is the centenary of organised league soccer in Tasmania, the first competition having been launched in 1910.
Football Federation Tasmania should organise appropriate events to celebrate this milestone.
The South Hobart club was formed the same year and will be celebrating its centenary with an appropriate function.
Games were played before 1910, of course, and “The Mercury” carried results such as ST Artillery 0 TR Regiment 0 (27 August 1898), University 1 Artillery 1 (31 July 1899), and University 4 HQ Company 0 (26 August 1899).
Victoria’s first league competition started in 1909, NSW’s in 1885, Queensland’s in 1893 and South Australia’s in 1903.
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Taroona’s women’s Division Two side has done the club proud by winning its second consecutive league title with a 4-1 win over Kingborough Lions United.
Meanwhile, Hobart Olympic easily won the Women’s Premier League title, while Clarence United Red won the Women’s Division One (Green) league, and Beachside the Division One (White) league.
2 comments:
and we are surprised by this treatment from the Mercury? Just further confirmation of what we all suspect.
Good luck Eli.
Thanks for your support, Bradford.
Just to clarify the matter for other readers, The Mercury sports editor refused to publish this article as my Tuesday column. He said I had written about Eli the previous week, before he went to the national under-16 camp, and he wouldn't publish another piece about this 16-year-old's [sic] experience at the camp as it was not newsworthy.
I couldn't believe this attitude. It was pointless arguing the case as he wouldn't be swayed. The column was never published, so I thought I would post it on the blog in its entirety and see what readers thought. I felt Eli deserved a follow-up as people would be wondering how he went.
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