Mid Coast had a strong chance of lifting the Kanga Cup for the third time in their history if you asked Football Mid North Coast female development officer Dean Pepper.
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Their girls representative team will now have to bide their time for an unconfirmed length of time after the competition was postponed due to the pandemic.
"Mid Coast has always been a very strong area for female football in particular and we have previously won the Kanga Cup twice at the top level," Pepper said.
"This team was as good if not potentially better than those teams so I think we had a very strong chance of winning the cup because the players were training well and spent a lot of extra time and put in effort.
"The squad was shaping up very well."
They were meant to head to Canberra on July 4, but now they hope to travel to the nation's capital in September or October.
Pepper remained confident the motivation levels would remain the same despite the uncertainty surrounding the competition.
That could all change if it was cancelled altogether.
"The motivation comes from having an end goal and whilever there is that possibility of an end goal being the Kanga Cup, that's what keeps the kids motivated in competitive football," Pepper said.
"Kids sport is very important especially in these trying times that they have something to get excited about and sport is one of the biggest things they do.
"It's important for organisers, governments and health departments to look at maintaining kids' sport in a safe manner as much as possible because it really is a focus for them."
More than 300 teams were believed to have been booked in to compete at the biggest youth girls tournament in the southern hemisphere.
"Everyone's got their fingers and toes crossed it will go ahead at some stage."
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