@Catrin Johnson @Sherriden Sherriden — this one's basically for you two this week 😅 I've been putting together a full Tournament Survival Guide. What to feed them 48 hours out, the night before, hour-by-hour on game day, fast food orders that actually work, hotel breakfasts, hot/cold weather curveballs, all of it. Before I finish it off, I want the people who actually live this to tell me what's missing. Here's a taste of two of the chapters: What NOT to Stress About: "My child had a chocolate bar." Fine. One chocolate bar isn't undoing a weekend of good fuelling. "They missed breakfast." Not ideal, but recoverable — just adjust the next meal and move on. "They had McDonald's." It happens on tournament weekends. A plain burger and a drink is a completely reasonable tournament meal, not the end of the world. Fast Food Guide (McDonald's): A plain cheeseburger or hamburger with a small fries works ok 2+ hours out. Closer to a game, keep it to juice or a soft drink with a small fries. A Big Mac or anything heavy on sauce suits a longer gap better. (Nuggets get reached for as "the protein option", but they're fried. Better for a longer gap than the 45 minutes before kickoff.) Genuine questions for you: - What's the one tournament moment that always throws you, that I haven't covered here? - Anything in here that doesn't match what's actually worked for your kid? - Would "The Tournament Survival Blueprint" grab your attention, or does something else sound better? (Poll coming on this soon 👀) Drop your answers/thoughts below. Building this with the people, for the people who'll actually use it.

Hi all, after messaging Craig yesterday of my sons ‘bump in the road’ with his fuelling at the moment, he mentioned it may be beneficial to post here for some other parents that are struggling with their kids wanting to eat or not eating enough on game day. 13 yo boy who’s never love eating meals, prefers snacks and has always struggled eating prior to games. Even this weekend he didn’t want to snack his usual foods or eat his usual breakfast. So a quick change of plans and this is what we came up for his fuelling - Very small smoothie- base was choc milk as he hates full cream, added a little oats, a bit of banana and a bit of Nutella to hide the oats and banana taste 😆 2 pieces of toast (he ate some) with berries on the side. Car ride to game - store bought pikelets Pretzels & grapes. He had a juice popper just before getting out of car and gave him a few snakes to eat before his game. He had an up and go after the game with a bbq lamb wrap they sold at the field ✔️ Is it a ‘picture perfect’ breakfast? - No, did he get some carbs in before going out on field - yes! Sometimes it’s something better than nothing. So don’t be afraid to give them whatever it takes on the odd occasion they refuse everything else!

We’ve driven over from Adelaide to Melbourne for a 3 day tournament. Our 13-year old daughter’s games start tomorrow morning at 9:50am: 3x 30min 9x9 matches. We’re fuelling up tonight with lasagne and garlic bread. Tomorrow is up n go and pancakes for breakfast and a snackle box (which needs refilling with fruit fruit tonight) in her bag for half times / between matches. All advice welcome!

Drop your match day meal below 👇 Doesn’t have to be perfect — we just want to see what’s working for your family right now

Parents… What’s ONE thing you wish you knew earlier about fueling young footballers?