The Limestone Coast was swept up by touch football fever last weekend and Blue Lake Sports Park was the focal point where the annual Your Podiatrist Cup was held.

The one-day carnival is a celebration of touch football with more than 20 teams from all points of South Australia and Victoria coming to Mount Gambier for a huge day of fun, fitness and tries.

Since its debut in 2013, the Your Podiatrist Cup has grown each year and found a home in the Blue Lake City becoming one of the largest touch football competitions in Australia.

Teams fought for glory across six grades with some locals amongst the top contenders.

The Mixed Open Social competition went down to the wire with Mount Gambier’s Tiki Roos leading the way.

A strong side featuring a nice mix of youth and experience proved to be the perfect combination during the minor-round phase of the day, going through undefeated to book a Grand Final berth on a high.

But it was a captivating fight to see who will join them as little separated Tiki Blues, Portland Eels and South Australia Under 14 boys.

Another local team Tiki Blues faced off with the Eels in a classic semi-final which went down to the final play.

Being down 5-6, Luke Johnston tried to his best save the day and pushed the game into extra time, but a last-gasp defensive effort from Portland denied the local on the wing in front of the joyous Eels supporters.

The unforgettable finish set the stage for the decider between the Roos and Eels which proved to be a survival of the fittest with players having already competed in more than 10 games on the day.

It turned out to be a tight, low-scoring arm wrestle between the fatigued sides, but eventually the local Tiki Roos side prevailed 3-2 to lift the Your Podiatrist Cup on home turf.

Tournament organiser Sean Fulton was in the heat of the action playing in the final and was quite relieved to finish on the winning side.

“We thought we would go okay and we ended up playing Portland in the final and managed to sneak away with a 3-2 win which was quite pleasing,” he said.

“It felt like the game took forever after all the pool games we played during the day.

“Personally I played 12 games across men’s and mixed divisions, so by the time we made the Grand Final we were pretty spent.

“There were a few more errors going on due to fatigue, but we managed to dig deep and put in a pretty big defensive effort to hold out a much younger team.”

Tiki Roos also competed in the Open Men’s division, but struggled to match the others.

However, Johnston formed a local side called the Canaries and they broke through to the semi-finals.

The Canaries fought hard, but could not stop RMRKBL from entering the decider which was won by AUTC Everest 2-1.

Mixed Open Elite division was controlled by the city teams.

AUTC Olympus was the class side of the competition, beating all comers to the title including a comfortable 6-1 win over Wolfpack in the final.

A five-round Women’s/Junior competition also took place where the young cross-border stars shone.

Victoria Storm’s Under 16’s team proved to be unbeatable in the tournament followed by its Under 12 counterparts.

Junior state of origin games were also played between Victoria and South Australia also took place on the Sunday.

Fulton said the Your Podiatrist Cup once again produced a vibrant atmosphere with music pumping, players performing and high-class referees.

“We were so pumped with how the day turned out with lots of support from travelling and local teams,” he said.

“We also had around six or seven level 6 referees which is the highest you can go including Amanda Sheeky who is classed as the best female referee in the world right now.

“She is incredible because she is South Australian and is keen to referee our local Grand Final which is a massive coup for us.

“We are ecstatic with the support and turnout we received from the touch football community across Victoria and South Australia.”

Fulton said he was pinching himself during the day after all the effort it took to overcome the constant COVID-19 hurdles.

“We are lucky that we decided to push through over the last couple years and hold the tournament in whatever format to accommodate with the COVID-19 environment,” he said.

“We knew if we started to cancel events it would be very hard to get back so we are fortunate not lose any momentum.

“There were so many boxes to tick when it came to setting up the event, but the Mount Gambier City Council was a terrific support helping out through line marking and sponsorship.

“We also had Blue Lake Soccer Club cater for the event and had Jens Hotel booked out to hold our presentations which was great.

“We tried to have people in our own touch football bubble and worked really hard on the COVID safe aspect of the whole tournament.

“We were so lucky local businesses even though they are suffering still are still willing to put some faith in us and help us out to get the tournament off the ground.

“It all came together so we could produce this beautiful result at the end which was just amazing.”

The touch football world now casts its eye to the Your Podiatrist summer season which is played at McDonald Park each night and has two rounds to go before finals.