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SEPT 2025 THE REVIEW | 13 FEATURE “He’s made new friends and has formed connections with other kids who experience similar physical challenges to him.” speed, balance and coordination have all improved. “A year ago I would have said he gets tired easily but in June he played a tournament. It was five 20-minute games and he ran the whole time. That’s when I really saw the improvement in his fitness and stamina. “He’s made new friends and has formed connections with other kids who experience similar physical challenges to him.” Flynn and his fellow players loved their weekly training so much that they were desperate to play actual games, so a team was formed and they joined the club’s in-house league on Saturday mornings. The team, called Nottingham Forest, play two games each morning in the 7th grade division. Flynn, a centre midfielder, loves the challenge of adaptive football and playing with his friends. “[They are] a lot of fun,” he says. “We all have different challenges but I think we work well together.” Most of his team mates have Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi and many of them use their e-Card funding to pay for their fees. “[Cerebral Palsy] does make me a bit slow when I run so I have to try hard to get to the ball first,” Flynn says. Adam Thomas is the Community Development Officer at Eastern Suburbs AFC and says the aim is to make the adaptive football programme feel like every other programme at the club. “We wanted to make this as close to our other football programmes as possible. We wanted to get the kids playing competitive games. “It’s literally trying to copy the other programmes. We train, we get prepared for the match, we do a bit of tactics, we play the match, we go back to training, and we work on what happened in the match.” Adam says the parents like the fact the programme isn’t “too adapted”. “It’s got to be adapted a bit, but we still want them to improve their skills, improve fundamentals, teamwork and start to understand how to play against other teams.” The programme runs with a low coach-to-player ratio and Adam says the key to being a successful adaptive football coach is having the right personality. “It’s finding someone who has the patience, understanding, and empathy.” Adam is keen to see more clubs run an adaptive football programme. “I think if most clubs got one going there would be kids turning up. “My vision is to have enough clubs so that we can have Opposite page: Flynn says his team mates are a lot of fun. Photo: JC Photography NZ. Above, top-bottom: Flynn, front centre, dad John, brother Kian, and mum Laura are a football-mad family. Kian, left, and Flynn, are huge fans of Auckland FC and player Francis de Vries. an interclub competition and have a league like all the other leagues,” Adam says. “I think there is the need. I think if a few more clubs jump on board, we’ll get there. I think we definitely need to come together and share what’s going on.”