What Mid Coast FC had to overcome on January 28-29 to claim the 2023 under-15 boys Bathurst Cup trophy wouldn't have been out of place on the small screen.
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That's what their coach reckons - and he knows a thing or two about broadcasting after spending more than 20 years in various roles as a football commentator with Fox Sports, Channel 10 and Paramount+.
Now in his role as Mid Coast coach, Andy Harper was inspired by their run to glory which saw them navigate their way through seven games in two days, finishing with three extra-time finals matches.
If that wasn't remarkable enough, they had to do it with a playing squad who were either running on empty, injured or riddled with cramps.
At one point midfielder Bailey Kane had to be left behind lying on the floor in the dressing room because he couldn't walk.
Of those seven matches overall, five came back-to-back in stifling 35-degree heat which will normally take a toll.
But it was their grand final comeback win against Macarthur Rams that was most impressive.
Down 2-0 and with eight barely fit players on the field, the Middies found something to equalise at 2-all before they squeezed every ounce of juice out of their failing bodies to emerge 4-2 penalty shootout winners.
"It should have been on television," Harper said.
"It was a game of survival, but in the end they didn't just survive... it was incredible. You're looking at kids on the bench who could barely hold themselves up, but when the whistle went they dragged themselves off the canvas.
"It was a remarkable physical achievement, honestly. There were a lot of broken bodies playing under extreme duress and still finding a way through. It was remarkable, really remarkable."
Kane's heroics saw him return as a substitute in the second half of the grand final where he scored a scorching free-kick from 30-metres which gave the side hope before Jack McAuliffe equalised.
The penalty shootout win over Macarthur was the culmination of seven games in two days where matches were played in two halves of 17 minutes. There were only one or two minutes for half-time.
Mid Coast defeated North West Sydney (1-0), Western NSW Football (1-0) and Sutherland Shire (1-0) in the round games with a 1-0 defeat to Albury-Wodonga their only loss.
They then defeated Pitt Town in the quarter-finals and Bankstown in the semi-finals before the shootout success over Macarthur.
All three finals required at least extra-time which added to the Middies' heroic effort and placed even more strain on their bodies.
"They just refused to buckle against a very strong club out of south-west Sydney. It was one of these great, inspirational turnarounds," Harper said.
"There are no massage tables rubbing them down and we didn't have any resources other than loving parents trying to get some blueberries and strawberries into the kids."
Harper said teams and clubs came from all over New South Wales to compete in each of the respective divisions including under-13 to under-16 boys and under-18 boys.
"Football doesn't have one of those tournaments that sums everything up like your Junior State Cup (touch football), but there's a lot of big ones around the place that are very well patronised and the Bathurst Cup is one of them," he said.
"You might have 30 teams in any particular age group that sign up to play so it's a very difficult tournament to survive in, let alone win."
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