Northern Demons Juniors - Australia's Most Traveled Team?
Could Port Pirie have Australia’s most-travelled soccer team?
The boys in the Northern Demons under-15 team come from far and wide to train, with only five of the 14-strong squad living in Port Pirie.
Whyalla is home to four players, and the assistant coach, with other players travelling from Crystal Brook, Jamestown and Georgetown - just for a training session.
Northern Demons’ coach and officer-in-charge of the Crystal Brook police, Stephen Garden, equates the travel to a total of 2000 kilometres for the team to get to and from training.
“I don’t think there would be, certainly in South Australia, a team that travels as far for training, and I would like to know if there is!” Mr Garden said.
The reason for the travel is the difficulty for country players to train and play at such a high level, with the Northern Demons playing quality teams in the Junior Premier League in Adelaide.
To play in Adelaide, players usually meet in Port Pirie before taking two mini-buses to travel to play against teams as close as Gawler to as far away as Hallett Cove.
While they obtain their fuel free from Pirie Home Hardware, the total travel for an away game can more than triple that of a training session.
But according to the boys, the travel is all worth it to play the highest level of soccer they can.
“It’s worth it,” he said. “All of us just want to play better football.”
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