Miniroos FAQs – Season 2024

The Gap Football Club runs several competitions for Miniroos aged between 5 and 12 years old.

In-house competition – for U6 and U7s

In-house competition focuses on development of basic skills, playing with friends and most importantly, having fun. There is no grading of teams. Teams in U6-U7s are formed based on requested friendship groups.

There are 4–6 players in a team with four players on the field at one time. There are no goalies. Teams will play against other in-house U6-U7 teams on Saturday mornings at the club. Players must wear shin pads for training sessions and games. Coaches and managers are volunteer parents.

The minimum age for this cohort is 4–5 years old (i.e. kids turning 5 during the season). Children will play in the appropriate age cohort based on the year they were born NOT based on school year. As such, they may find that some of their friends from school play in either the year above or below them. Playing up or down for friendship reasons is not an acceptable reason for dispensation and cannot be approved.

Intra-club mixed competition (Wallabies) – for U8–U12s

Intra-club mixed competion for U8 to U12s is based on friendship groups as well, however, teams in this age group are graded. TGFC has Kanagroo and Wallaby grading. Kangaroos are our high-performance teams and are selected at the end of the previous season via trials (refer to the grading information below for further detail). Wallabies are our mixed community teams.

There are 8–12 players in a team (dependant on age group) with 7–9 players on the field at any one time. The role of the goalie is rotated amongst the team (i.e. there are no dedicated goalies at this age group). Teams will play home and away games against other U8–U12 teams on Saturday mornings across Brisbane, generally in the northern hub. Players must wear shin pads for training sessions and games.

All U8–U12 teams are coached and managed by parent volunteers. Coaches are supported by our Miniroos Technical Director.

Intra-club Girls-only competition (Girls) – for U8–U12s

TGFC is proud of our Female Football programs and runs girls-only intra-club teams for ages U8–U12. The rules are similar to the intra-club mixed competition, however, the teams will play other girls-only teams.

Girls registering to play in the Miniroo age group can choose to play in girls-only or mixed teams.

Miniroos Kick-Off Program – for U5–U8s

TGFC has established a Miniroos Kick-Off Program, which caters for children age 5 to 8 who have never played previously as an introduction to the game. The program starts in September/October and runs over school Term 4 for a period of 6–8 weeks and it is aimed at developing fundamental football skills whilst having fun. The sessions run once a week on a Tuesday night. There are no formal games and there are no fixtures against other clubs. For further details or to register your EOI, please contact kickoff@gapfootball.org.au.

Squirts – for U2–U5s

TGFC has partnered with Ginger Sport to provide families with an opportunity to introduce their little people to the game of soccer. Our Squirts program (run by the wonderful folk at Ginger Sports) runs on Saturday mornings and is term based. The program is mixed (boys and girls) and they offer a free trial prior to signing up. For further details, or to register, please contact info@gingersport.com.au.

First games for the 2024 Miniroos season will commence on 20th April 2024. Miniroos teams will start training in the week beginning 4 March 2024. Training will be once per week on a designated day.

Registrations for the season open on 1 January and close by start of school term (i.e. end of January). Whilst we do accept some later registrations, places in teams do become very limited and registrations received after the end of January may not be able to be accommodated.

We welcome new families to come and play at our club. All players new to the club will be invited to a Miniroos Welcome Day prior to start of the season where they will get an opportunity to meet some of the other players and the Miniroos volunteers, and learn more about TGFC and the season ahead, as well as ask questions.

You can register on the club's registration site. Once you complete the club registration you will be prompted to register through Squadi. Your registration is not complete until you have registered in both places and paid your fees for the year.

Club football is a season-long commitment and similar in format to other club sports such as netball, rugby and AFL. The season (winter) runs generally from March/April to September/October each year. Unlike sports aimed at younger age groups (i.e. younger than 5 years), the commitment to football is a whole season commitment, rather than based on school term. Registration for the season is for its entirety.

All payments for the season are to be made prior to the season commencing. The registration fees allow for governing body registrations, insurances, unforms and field maintenance. As such, payments have to be made prior to the season starting to ensure registration and insurance payments for each child are covered and cannot be deferred until after play has commenced.

High performance (Kangaroo) trials are conducted at the end of each season for the following year. Trials are available to all players at TGFC through an expression of interest. Players are ranked on their performance at the trials, and on feedback regarding skill and behaviour by their coach for that year.

Kangaroo players are expected to sign a contract regarding their behaviour and commitment for the season. Positions on Kangaroo teams are by offer only, and are confirmed by signing the player contract and paying the required deposit to the club. No Kangaroo positions are guaranteed from the previous year, all players must re-trial.

We do not hold trials for general community mixed Miniroos teams. All teams start the same and are allocated teams by our Age Group Coordinators. We do not have open days or ‘come and try’ days prior to registration closing.

Players wanting to try out for our high-performance teams are expected to register and try out at the end of the previous season (i.e. Sept/October of the year before). Positions are offered, contracts are signed, and teams are locked in place prior to commencement of registration for the season ahead.

Any new players to the club that haven’t trialled and are registering at the start of the season, will be registered into the intra-club mixed competition, regardless of whether they have played in high performance Kangaroo teams previously for another club. The coaches and managers will monitor the performance of the players and may invite individuals from the mixed competition to either play up into Kangaroo squads for particular matches or the season, or to shadow the high-performance teams in training for the season or part of the season.

All Miniroos games are held on Saturdays.

In-house teams (U6 and U7s) will play at TGFC on Saturday mornings between 8.30am and 11.30am. This is subject to change depending on field availability and the number of teams in each age group.

Intra-club teams (U8–U12s) will play against other teams. They will play both home and away games (which will require some travel to other clubs in Brisbane). Home games are scheduled with younger age groups playing earlier in the day (~8:30am kick-off) and older Miniroos teams playing after midday, and possibly as late as 5pm kick-off. Away games are scheduled dependent on individual club field availability.

The Miniroos season generally starts in the first week of the second school term. The first game of the season for 2024 for all Miniroos teams will be Saturday, 20 April 2024.

The Miniroos season generally finished at the end of school Term 3. The final Miniroos game for 2024 season is on Saturday, 7 September 2024.

Our Miniroos train at a number of locations in The Gap, including TGFC fields, Payne Road State School Oval, The Gap State School Oval and The Gap Sate High School Oval. Training field allocations will be provided a week before Miniroos commence training. More information about fields and your allocated places. 

The fixtures for in-house teams (U6 and U7s) are completed by a volunteer at TGFC. They will be made available once we have confirmed final team numbers and will be posted on the club page one week prior to season starting.

The fixtures for the intra-club (U8–U12) teams are completed by Football Queensland after registrations are closed and they have had time to assign teams across the Brisbane region. These fixtures are often not available until the week prior to the first game of the season. An email will be sent out to teams advising once these become available.

• U6
• U7

U8–U12 fixtures are found on the Squadi website.

• U6–U11 Playing Format and Rules
• U12 Playing Format and Rules

All referees for Miniroos games are young TGFC players. Referees, like the players, are still learning the art of refereeing and as such, tolerance and patience is requested of all parents (including coaches and managers) sitting on the sidelines. Abuse (verbal or physical) of any of our referees will not be tolerated.

Training times and allocations vary from year to year subject to numbers of teams registered across the club in various age groups.

Generally, U6–U11 teams will train either Mondays or Tuesdays, however, training allocations cannot be confirmed until registrations for the season are closed.

Despite our best planning efforts, final team numbers are not known until after the registration period has closed, which makes it difficult to confirm the training schedule prior to this date. There are more than 40 Miniroos teams at TGFC, each with specific training requirements. It takes a lot of organising and many drafts before we come up with the final training schedule.

We will aim to send the final training schedule to you at least a week prior to training commencing.

All Miniroos teams start training the week beginning Monday, 4 March 2024.

High Performance (Kangaroo) teams will start training earlier as advised by their coaches/managers.

Yes, you can request team specifics when you register your child. The club will accommodate these requests wherever possible, however, not all requests can be accommodated, particularly in older age groups.

We try to ensure all requests are considered, however, we receive a huge number of requests and cannot promise that all will be successful. This is particularly relevant in situations where players from the same school year were born in different calendar years and therefore have to play in different age groups.

Requests late in the registration process are more difficult to process than those received earlier.

The club will not start allocating teams until registrations close in late January. There is then a huge amount of information to process before we can confirm teams. We will aim to get your child’s team allocation to you two weeks prior to the start of training.

All Miniroos coaches and managers are parent volunteers. We do not provide paid coaches for the Miniroos age group.

We encourage active involvement of the parents in our community club and as such we encourage parents to coach their child’s team if they play in a Miniroo team. The teams will not be able to train or play unless a parent coach and manager volunteer to do so.

Coaches will be informed when their equipment is ready for the season.

TGFC fields and school grounds are closed over school holidays to allow the fields time to recover. It is assumed there is no Miniroos training over school holidays unless your team is informed otherwise.

An email will be sent to coaches informing them when they can return their equipment at the completion of the season. Even if you are considering coaching again the following year, we ask that you return all of your equipment so we can do a stocktake and order new equipment as required.

Please contact admin@gapfootball.org.au to organise collection of more training equipment (if available).

All players are required to have football boots (no metal studs) and shin pads to attend training. Your child will not be permitted to take part in training if they do not have this equipment.

All Miniroos are provided with training (yellow) and playing (purple and gold) kit consisting of shirt, shorts and socks. Kits are provided at the beginning of the year.

Uniforms will be coordinated via the team manager or coach at the beginning of the season following team allocation. Additional (spare or replacement) uniforms and club merchandise can be purchased from the club. If you wish to purchase an additional kit, please contact uniforms@gapfootball.org.au.

U6 teams have a Welcome Day held at the clubhouse at the start of each season. Uniforms are available to hand out at this time to this age group.

All other teams (U7–U12s) will have their uniforms handed out at their first training session. The unfirms will be collected by coaches/managers and distributed to the team members. Uniforms will not be distributed at the club to individual players.

Club merchandise can be purchased from our online shop.

Your first point of contact should be your team manager. If they cannot answer your question it can be escalated to the Miniroos Director.

If you have some great ideas on how to improve our club then please contact the Miniroos Director miniroos@gapfootball.org.au.

In 2020 the club implemented some new online software to help with keeping track of players and to ease the burden on volunteers. You will need to register at the club level using this platform. Football Queensland also requires you to register as a player through their registration hub, Squadi. Your registration is not complete until you have registered through both the club and Squadi.

Yes! TGFC is run by volunteers and we welcome any contribution you are willing to make, no matter how big or small. Please contact the Miniroos Director (miniroos@gapfootball.org.au) to express your interest in volunteering with TGFC.

The general answer to this question is ‘no’. Playing up a year level is not encouraged by the club and is actively discouraged by Football Queensland.

This is usually only possible if your child’s current age group is full, and there are spaces in the age group above. Written dispensation is required.

If your child does play up an age group, you will need to sign a document giving permission for this to happen. Your child will only be able to play up an age group for that season, the following season they will be expected to play in their original age group.

Playing up an age group in order to play with friends is not a good enough reason for Football Queensland to make an exception.

Playing down an age group is generally only acceptable in exceptional circumstances. Dispensation for playing down a year level will need to be sought from Football Queensland and will need to be supported by relevant documentation to make a case for this to occur. Children who are small for their age, have problems with social interactions, or who have a medical reason to play with a younger age group will need documentation for this to be approved. Please contact the Miniroos Director (miniroos@gapfootball.org.au) if you would like your child to play down an age group.