Australia’s Oldyroos host over-70s football world cup

Tony Mott has photographed every big name in rock, his fingers closing the shutter on The Rolling Stones, Elton John, INXS and Divinyls.

But at 70 years old and with a storied career, he’s not precious about his digits when he puts on the gloves to play goalkeeper for the over-70s Australian football team.

“I’ve dislocated, broken and done all sorts of damage. I’ve got no knuckles on one side,” Mott said.

Mott’s devil-may-care attitude makes him a perfect fit to play goalkeeper for Australia’s next football world cup, which will be on home soil in Cleveland just east of Brisbane later this year.

Hot off the FIFA World Cup in North America, about 90 of Australia’s best older-aged footballers will gather in October to take on the world in over-70s, over-75s and over-80s matches.

They’ll be playing teams from the US, Wales, England, Germany and Japan.

Pierce, who founded the Oldyroos three years ago, said it would be the first world championship for any team sport doing an over-80s category.

“As far as my research has gone, there is nowhere in the world where there has ever been an over-80s competition in any sport,” he said.

World record holder among Australia’s most senior team

David Mudge, 83, who has recently had cataract surgery and recovered from a hernia, is the oldest player pulling on the green and gold in the over-80s team.

Mudge holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to play a full 90-minute competitive match, which he achieved when he was 79 in an over-55s Masters game for Kissing Point FC.

“Especially having the record now, it pushes me to keep going to try and upgrade it,” Mudge said.

Also lacing his boots up for the Australia over-80s is Doug Drysdale. Drysdale reckons it’s been his last year of football for five years, but somehow he keeps finding his way back onto the field.

He said despite having some injury setbacks, he was finding that as his competition got older, the game was slower, so he was less likely to pick up bad injuries.

“I’ve had a knee reconstruction and various arthroscopes in the knees, but the last one was quite a few years ago,” Drysdale said.

“I’ve had nothing serious for the last few years.”

Mr Pierce said despite the players representing their nation, Football Australia and other state bodies did not have anything to do with the Oldyroos.

“It’s usually the insurance companies that say, ‘No way in the world are we going to insure guys over 60,'” Pierce said.

702 ABC Sydney contacted Football Australia for comment but did not get an answer before deadline.

Pierce said while walking football had become more popular for seniors, many were coming back to the “running” version of the game when they found competitions with similarly aged opponents.

“We don’t want to be rivals. We’ve got to work together with this.”

The secret is to keep on going

Even at 83, Mudge, who plays at Kissing Point in Sydney’s north, was determined to keep playing but admitted he was taking it season by season.

He said the fellowship and fitness were invaluable. He tries to do an hour of fitness every day, whether that’s football, veteran rugby (where he wears shorts that indicate he can’t be tackled to the ground) and regular Zumba classes.

“A lot of the young guys seem to get injuries that I don’t seem to get,” Mudge said.

“Maybe it’s because I try to keep myself fit all the time.”

Charging out of goals and throwing diving saves, Mott wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down either.

“I’ve been thinking I’m too old for this since I was about 48,” Mott said.

“I really enjoy playing soccer. It’s just great to keep you relatively fit, and I genuinely enjoy it.”