In cool conditions, players over the age of 35 took to the fields and showed that their love of competition is still alive and flourishing with a display of highly skilled soccer.

Darell Orton, one of the event organisers, was pleased with how it ran despite smaller numbers than expected. 

"There wasn't as many Canberra sides as normal because the test match [between Australia and Sri Lanka] was on in Canberra," he said. 

"But overall it was a good weekend of pretty full-on competition, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves." 

'Full-on' is an apt description of the tournament, as the veterans often threw themselves around with the enthusiasm of much younger players, and Orton said that spectators are often surprised by the vigour of such events. 

"People think of 35 or veterans, and they go 'that's pretty cruisy'," he said. 

"It takes a while to get people convinced to play, and then once they do play they go 'wow, it's pretty competitive, isn't it?'"

Teams came from all across southern NSW, from as far as Wagga, with teams from the coast also present, but at the end of the weekend, the winner of the tournament was the Goulburn-based Southern United side. 

The tournament originally came about when Orton began going to similar veteran's tournaments in other cities, sometimes as far abroad as Wagga, and decided that he wanted to provide players in the Goulburn region with a similar opportunity. 

"Myself and a mate of mine started going to tournaments in Canberra and Wagga, and every two years there's the Pan Pacific Masters at the Gold Coast," Orton said. 

"There's a lot more older guys who are still playing, and it becomes very hard chasing guys who are between 18 and 30." 

For the 2020 edition of the tournament, Orton said that he and the other organisers will look to expand and include an Over 45 competition as well as the Over 35 which currently exists. 

He thanked the Southern Tablelands Football Association for its continued support in providing fields which will allow them to continue expanding the competition.