One Got Past the Keeper

One Got Past the Keeper

Fertile FC

The true story of Fertile FC: A six-a-side football team’s journey into fatherhood.

One season they were a bunch of blokes, drinking and cheering their way through six-a-side soccer; the next season they were all fathers or expectant fathers playing as Fertile FC and going home straight after the game to nurse mother and child.

United in a desire not to come last, this assortment of men now found themselves united in something much bigger the challenging transition into fatherhood. Recounted in engaging, self-depreciating voices, the men write openly and honestly of the excitement, worries, hopes and fears that come with the looming responsibility of becoming a good team player in a completely new team.

They found themselves in a range of contemporary family constellations and birthing experiences. There is a young first-timer, one 48-year-old first-time father, one father having his second child, one with a step-child, and one dad already with children to a different partner. They recount natural home, water and hospital births, a birthing centre birth, a breech and caesareans.

Each chapter is one man s narrative about how he met his partner and contributed to the pregnancy and birth of their child; and what it was like afterwards. The only experts here are the actual men who went through it. Running alongside is their shared experience of their six-a-side football team, which in season one entered a social soccer competition as beginners, in season two became fathers, and in season three became champions.

A remarkable success story from a group of dedicated players