Soccer by Design

⚽️🔥 U9 DIAMOND LEAGUE — MELBOURNE🔥⚽️

🌟 What an incredible three days it was for our U9 Full-Time Academy team competing at the Diamond League in Melbourne!

📈 These tournaments provide such an important development opportunity for our young players. Playing multiple games over a short period against strong opposition challenges them technically, tactically, physically and mentally.

👏 The improvement we witnessed across the three days was huge. The players continued to grow in confidence, make quicker decisions and understand how we want to play as a team.

⚽️ Our final game gave the group a fantastic example of the level we are working towards. Against stronger competition, the players showed bravery to pass the ball, use the wide areas and continue trying to play our style of football.

🎯 The results were never the main focus for this group. This trip was about development, learning and creating experiences that will help shape them into better players and they certainly achieved that.

🖤💛 A massive thank you to all our players and families who travelled from Adelaide and supported the team throughout the tournament. We understand the time and financial commitment involved in these trips, and we are incredibly grateful for the support.

🔥 We are extremely proud of this group and cannot wait to see how much more they develop throughout the remainder of the year!

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au
📧 [email protected]

🏆 DIAMOND LEAGUE — U10 TOURNAMENT.

🔥What an incredible tournament from our 2016-born U10 Full-Time Academy team! 🔥⚽

👏 The group started the grading day with some fantastic football on display, moving the ball confidently between the lines, opening up the pitch and creating opportunities to attack in the final third.

⚽️ After finding their division, Day 2 saw the competition really begin. The team produced two big wins before suffering a narrow one-goal loss, which was still enough to secure their place in the semi-finals on Day 3.

🏆 The tension was building heading into the semi-final, but the players delivered the best performance of football we have ever seen from this group. Against a very impressive Melbourne club, they showed confidence, composure and determination to come away with a brilliant 1–0 victory and book their place in the Grand Final. 🙌

🥈 In the final, the players gave absolutely everything they had. Unfortunately, they were beaten by the better team on the day, but finishing runners-up in such a strong interstate competition is an achievement they should all be extremely proud of.

🧠 The development we have seen from this team over the past 18 months has been amazing. Their confidence, understanding of the game and ability to play our style of football continues to grow with every experience.

🙏 A massive thank you to Legacy Photography for capturing so many incredible moments and providing the team with fantastic media throughout the tournament. 📸

❤️ Finally, a huge thank you to Coach Mat and Coach Jason for the work they continue to put into this group and for helping build the confidence in every player to achieve what they did during this competition.

💪 A very special tournament from a very special group. We could not be prouder! 🖤💛

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au
📧 [email protected]

🏆 DAY 3 — DIAMOND LEAGUE MELBOURNE

⚽ Today marked the final day of an incredible three days of football for our U9, U10 and U12 Full-Time Academy teams.

🔥 There has been so much happening both on and off the pitch, with our players gaining valuable experience, building stronger friendships and continuing to develop against quality competition.

🥈 A huge congratulations to our U10 team, who reached the final after a fantastic tournament. Unfortunately, they went down 3–1 in the final, but finishing second is an outstanding achievement and something the players should be extremely proud of.

📈 The development we have seen across all three age groups has been huge. Every game provided new challenges, learning opportunities and moments that will help our players continue to grow as individuals and as teams.

🖤💛 We are incredibly proud of how every player represented Soccer By Design throughout the tournament, and we cannot thank our coaches, parents and families enough for all their support.

✈️ We now turn our attention towards Term 3 as we begin preparing for our next interstate tournaments in Queensland at the end of the term.

👏 What an experience. What a tournament. Well done, Legends!

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au
📧 [email protected]

⚽ DAY 2 — DIAMOND LEAGUE MELBOURNE ⚽

🔥 It has been another huge day for our U9, U10 and U12 Full-Time Academy teams, with plenty of competitive football, great moments and valuable experiences across all three age groups.

📊 Day 2 Results:

U9 — 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss
U10 — 2 wins and 1 loss
U12 — 1 win and 2 losses

🏆 A massive congratulations to our U10 team, who have qualified for the finals in their division. A fantastic achievement and a great reward for all their hard work throughout the tournament.

🎄 Our U12 team also enjoyed a brilliant afternoon, celebrating Christmas in July at their accommodation with all the players and parents.

💛 We are incredibly fortunate to have such a strong SBD family. Travelling together, supporting each other and sharing these experiences makes every trip even more special.

🚀 Day 3 tomorrow, and we cannot wait to see what our teams can produce in their final games of the tournament!

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au
📧 [email protected]

✈️ DAY 1 IN MELBOURNE DONE! 🇦🇺⚽

🔥 After a huge day of travel yesterday, all of our U9, U10 and U12 Full-Time Academy teams made the journey from Adelaide to Melbourne, ready to take on the Diamond League.

⚽ Today the tournament officially kicked off, with our U10 and U12 teams in action during the morning before our U9s took to the pitch in the afternoon.

👏 Following three grading games for each team, all of our squads have now been placed into divisions that will provide competitive football over the final two days of the tournament. This is exactly what these trips are all about giving our players the opportunity to challenge themselves against teams at the right level.

🎳 Once the football was finished, our U12s headed out for a fun afternoon of bowling before everyone came together for a massive buffet dinner at the Water Gardens Hotel. It was fantastic to have 108 players, parents and coaches all in the one room enjoying the evening together.

❤️ Moments like these remind us why we love what we've built at Soccer By Design. The football is a huge part of the experience, but the friendships, family atmosphere and memories created away from the pitch are just as important.

🚀 We can't wait to see what the next two days of football bring. Let's go SBD! 💛🖤

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au

🔥 We’re heading to Melbourne!

⚽ Our Soccer By Design U9, U10 and U12 Academy teams are off to compete in a massive 3-day tournament at the Diamond League on the 10th, 11th and 12th July.

🏆 This is another fantastic opportunity for our players to step outside of Adelaide, challenge themselves, and test their development against players and teams from all around the country.

✈️ These experiences are such an important part of player development. Travelling together, competing in a new environment, facing different styles of football, and learning how to perform under pressure all help our players grow on and off the pitch.

💪 We are incredibly proud of the players selected to represent SBD in Melbourne and we can’t wait to see them compete, learn, and enjoy every moment of the experience.

🖤💛 Melbourne 2026. 1,2,3 let’s go SBD!

🖥 www.soccerbydesign.com.au

🔥TERM 2 COMPLETE🔥

⚽ We have now come to the end of Term 2, which means we are officially halfway through our 2026 Academy year.

🙌 It has been an exciting term full of learning, development and new experiences for our players across every age group.

🔥 This term we launched our brand new 1v1 Baller Clinic, which was a huge success and gave players the opportunity to improve their confidence, creativity and ability to beat players in 1v1 moments.

💦 Players also attended more recovery sessions at Plunge Recovery and had the opportunity to experience their incredible new recovery centre in Seaford, using hot and cold pools, saunas and compression as part of their development as young athletes.

🏆 The IFA Winter Season also kicked off, with 8 rounds of fast, exciting 7v7 football giving our players valuable game time, competitive challenges and plenty of opportunities to put their training into practice.

📈 Across the term, players worked through 10 weeks of training and covered 5 different training cycles, each designed to continue building their technical, tactical, physical and mental development.

🥗 Nutrition was a key topic in our classroom sessions, with players learning about macronutrients, calories and how important the right fuel is for a young athlete’s body, especially when training and playing at a high intensity.

🎓 Players also took part in workshops on what it takes to become a professional player, including valuable talks from our ex-professional Academy coach Sam Nicholson, who shared his knowledge and experience from the professional game.

🎥 We also continued our internal 9v9 games, supported by video analysis and in-depth stat reports to help track player development and monitor each player’s progress throughout the Academy.

👧 We have continued building our Girls Academy, and we are extremely excited to be moving towards full-time girls squads in 2027. This term, 2 girls from our Friday Girls Only Training sessions came through and played competition games with our full-time Academy teams in the IFA, which has been fantastic to see.

📝 Players and parents also had their half-year sit-downs with their coaches to discuss each player’s development, highlight key areas of progress and set clear focus areas for Terms 3 and 4 before we meet again at the end of the year.

👏 Parents also attended a valuable Parent Information Night, where our Director helped families better understand the club system, player pathways, the State system, State League, NPL and how each player’s next steps can look once they leave the full-time Academy environment.

💛 At Soccer By Design, we believe player development is about much more than just training. It is about educating players, supporting parents, creating the right environment and helping every player understand what it takes to keep moving forward.

✈️ We now head to Melbourne with our full-time U9, U10 and U12 Academy teams all competing in the Diamond League Tournament.

🏆 This will be a huge 3 days of competition games and finals against some of the best clubs and academies in Australia.

⚽ This is now the 4th year we have travelled to Melbourne, giving our players the opportunity to experience football outside of Adelaide, test themselves in a new environment and continue building memories that will stay with them for years to come.

🔥 Good luck to all of our players heading away. We cannot wait to see them represent Soccer By Design with pride.