The U/18 team will be touring Thailand from 22nd September to 2nd October 2008.

The team will play 5 games and full details will be announced shortly.

We are in the middle of organising a tour of England/Scotland/Germany in January 2009 with games against a number of top clubs. Details will be given once they are confirmed.
STAY TUNED.

ENGLAND TRIP AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

If the flight to England at the start of our trip was anything to go by then we should have known that it was going to be a truly unforgettable experience.

The DOC Academy touring party consisted of our four players Nathan Long, Jordan Odd, Richard Ferguson and Trey O’Sullivan, plus staff member David O’Connor.

Parents joining the tour were Daniel Odd, Janine O’Sullivan and Bill and Dot Long with their children Jessie and Michael.

A very excited group left Melbourne airport with Emirates airlines on a warm and sunny January day heading for England on a mission. The reason for the trip of course was for the four Academy boys to train with and be assessed by Premier league club Sheffield United.

The flight was a pleasant one with a number of our party flying for the first time and as we approached Manchester airport everyone was in good spirits and enjoying the flight but oh that was about to change in a big way. As the plane approached the runway it started to rock violently from side to side and at the last minute the pilot decided to abort the landing and took the plane back up. At this time we did not know anything was wrong but when the second attempt to land was aborted again due to the plane being thrown all over the place by gale force winds even the most frequent of fliers had sweaty palms. The pilot then made an announcement “ ladies and gentleman, by now you will have realized that we are having a problem landing due to the weather. We will try to land once more but if we are unsuccessful for the third time then we will have to detour to Glasgow, Scotland to land “ As we came in for the third attempt to land, the plane was still rocking from side to side, passengers were screaming and getting sick and you could see the runway on the TV screens above. Nerves were on edge as the plane continued towards the runway appearing to be offline as we were about to hit it, however at the last minute the pilot managed to force the plane online and we hit the runway with an enormous bump and loud bang. As the plane came to a halt after a nervous few seconds swaying down the runway the passengers broke out in loud applause for the skill of the pilots. The smell of vomit was all around the plane as it all proved too much for many passengers.

As we made our way off the plane into the airport a number of our boys were looking worse for wear with poor young Trey O’Sullivan the worst affected. What an introduction to your first ever flight!!!

Things were not about to get much better because we were then told that the under carriage of the plane was damaged on landing and they could not open the door where our luggage was so therefore we had to leave for Sheffield without our clothes etc.

What a start to our trip, surely it could not get any worse OH YES IT CAN, AND IT DID.

Gurdip Singh the father of Hardip who trains at the DOC Academy met us at the airport. They were already in England and Hardip was joining the four other boys training at Sheffield United.

Gurdip met us in a mini bus and we set off on what should have been an hour’s drive to our Hotel in Rotherham where we were staying. Anyway to cut a long story short we had a nightmare trip as most of the roads to Rotherham were closed due to the storm that caused us so much trouble trying to land our plane. There had been 100 miles per hour winds in England that had caused havoc everywhere. The motorways were closed down as trucks had overturned and roofs blown off houses etc. So we had to detour across the only road that we could get through to Yorkshire. As we made our way along dangerous windy roads in the pouring rain where we could hardly see in front of us, what do you think happened? Yes folks WE BROKE DOWN. Anyway after we overcame that and fixed the van we finally arrived at our hotel safely even if we had taken seven hours for a one-hour journey. IT COULD ONLY GET BETTER FROM HERE and thankfully it did MUCH BETTER.

The hotel was situated next to a bowling alley so the boys had plenty of practice during their stay. The luggage finally arrived after four days much to the relief of everyone.

There was lots of sightseeing to be done and the boys were taken to London where they saw Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey etc. We also had a great time in York where you can relive the history of England with their quaint buildings and cobbled stoned streets.

The weather was freezing and a real culture shock but the boys rugged up and of course survived. They went to watch Sheffield Wednesday Play Sunderland on the first weekend and also watched Rotherham United play Doncaster Rovers. They had an interest in watching Rotherham as they had met David’s Nephew Steven Brogan just days before when they visited the ground and watched them train. Steven had just broken into the Rotherham first team recently at just 17 years of age and the boys could identify with him and asked him lots of questions.

They spent a week training at Sheffield Uniteds Football Academy and had a great experience in doing so. Sheffield United were terrific and really looked after us very well. Two of the boys, Jordan and Richard got to play in a practice match and they enjoyed it very much. All the boys did really well at Sheffield United and they did not look out of place at all in fact they gave a very good account of themselves which reflected very well on the DOC Academy.

On reflection the trip was a big success as it allowed us to mix our boys with boys of the same age hand picked for a Premier league club. They were not over shadowed and stood up tall. They were proud to be there representing the DOC Academy and it goes without saying that everyone at the DOC Academy was proud of each and everyone of them.

We will continue to forge friendships with clubs in England and other countries and give our Academy kids the best experiences possible by doing so. We plan to tour Brittan with three teams in 2008 and Asia in 2009.