Ben Roberts brings up a Ton

In the Men’s Premier’s last home against East Coast Bays Ben Roberts made his 100^th appearance for the Men’s 1^st team. It’s a sad reflection on the amount of club hopping that goes on nowadays that very few players now achieve such a milestone.

Ben played his first game for the Club as 13 year old and is now in his 10th season with the Club.

He made his first team debut on the 30th March 2013 as an 18 Years old. The result a 4-2 loss to Metro at Becroft.

During his time at the Club Ben has had 3 different coaches. All he describes as awesome.

His first coach at the Club was Grant Machin (2013) and was followed with David Mulligan (2014-2015) and then current coach, Andy Boyens (2016-Present).

Ben said “Grant gave me a lot of responsibility as an 18 year old, captaining my first game for the club. Although we didn't have the best season I personally think I benefitted from that year with Grant and I'm very grateful for the opportunities he gave me as a youngster breaking into men’s football.”

Reflecting on his time with David Mulligan as his coach Ben noted that “Mully is one of my good friends to date, but we also held a love hate relationship on the field. He yelled at me constantly and drove me crazy all the time but he knew it was what I needed to get the best out of me. He gave me the captaincy in 2014 and it was a huge honour to lead a Club that was on the up and improving week by week. This was a credit to Mully and all the hard work and belief he put into me, the players and the Club. I have all the respect for Mully and what he did for the Club - leading us to back to back promotions as well as winning Division 1 in 2015. It was a pleasure to play under Mully. He got the best out of his players and also created the best team environment that I have ever been a part of.” 

On Andy Boyens, Ben described Andy as a family man.  “One of the nicest guys and a great friend to me and all the players. Andy was the assistant to Mully during our back to back promotions and deserves to take credit for getting the Club to where we are today. Andy and Mully formed a great partnership for the club and helped me improve into a better leader and player for the Club. Andy has the current squad looking very sharp. I'm looking forward to this year under Andy and seeing what we can achieve with this young squad.” 

Ben is now involved as coach taking charge of a 12^th Grade Boys team.  His experiences with the 3 coaches he has had at the Club has obviously rubbed off well as Ben has received great feedback on his coaching efforts.

Well done on your 100 games milestone, Ben. All at the Club look forward to celebrating game 200 with you!