While Tuggeranong United coach Craig Lambert and son Charlie missed out on the knockout rounds in their first Kanga Cup, they and the rest of the under-12 team still went off to celebrate the week with some chips washed down with milkshakes.
Although Craig admitted he and the parents might opt for something a little heavier - like lemonade. Or something else with bubbles.
Overall, Craig said it was a great experience with the final two days now free to watch his other son play in the under-13 knockout rounds with the possibility of playing in the grand final on Friday.
He was blown away by how well the Kanga Cup organisers had graded the teams in the largest youth football tournament in the southern hemisphere.
Despite having thousands of kids from as far away as Taiwan and Indonesia kicking soccer balls around all over Canberra, the teams were still evenly matched.
And he was full of praise for the young officials taking charge of the games.
For Craig's under-12s it was a first introduction to keeping scores and ladders, which made everything a "bit more intense".
While that didn't equate to finals for Craig and Charlie's team, Charlie was still happy to be taking home his Kanga Cup beanie.
Something that was especially useful when they were kicking the frost off the Harrison grounds on Wednesday morning.
"Yep, my son's in the team, Charlie," Craig said.
"His first time playing Kanga Cup. I think he's probably most happy with his free Kanga Cup beanie.
"On these frosty mornings - today was our earliest start - so in the shade, it was still pretty frosty.
"[We] had a little bit of money left over so this afternoon we'll all go to our local sponsor down in Kambah and have some chips and milkshakes - maybe some of the adults can have something stronger, you never know."
And had the sunshine of Wednesday's beautiful Canberra winter's afternoon helped dry out the mud?
Not quite. Craig felt the ACT groundskeepers might've preferred there weren't thousands of feet running around on the rain soaked ground.
But this is the Kanga Cup and the game must go on.
"We had such high saturation points, didn't we? The water table was already so high and there's just lots of kids playing on it," he said.
"I can't do the maths off the top of my head, but that's a lot of feet running around on an oval."
