The longest serving CommBank Pararoo and just months away from setting a world record holder for the longest career in international football history, stalwart David Barber is still going strong hungrier than ever as preparation for the 2025 IFCPF Asian-Oceania Cup heats up.
The 46-year-old has been a mainstay in the team since his debut way back in 1999 and the captain shared his thoughts ahead of the tournament in Indonesia.
Importance of stability in the squad
On-field chemistry is always important. Obviously, in a structure like ours, where players only come together a handful of times a year, then that familiarity gives you an advantage in terms of not starting from scratch every single time. But more than that, we sort of understand what each other can and can't do, and everyone has a pretty, pretty strong memory of what worked and what didn't work last year too. So collectively, working in the same direction, that's the most important thing.
Anticipating against Indonesia
It's actually really exciting to see a team like Indonesia on this stage for the first time. We're really lucky. We get to open the tournament up with them, so expecting them to have a really strong home presence as well and to put on a great show. So really looking forward to seeing what they bring on the field and creating some challenges for them.
Feeling when called up to Pararoos
I don't get as nervous as I used to get. These days it's very much more a pleased and accomplished sort of approach. But every time I get a call up is still very special, and the fact that I get to share debuts for players that are coming in for the first time, just to see the magic that sort of lights up on their face that very first time that they walk out. I still get such a buzz out of that as well. So that's really special.
More grateful for these opportunities
Early on I probably took it for granted sometimes in terms of just 'football is football, it's great - playing for Australia is great'. But never really understood how special it was until I started to really build into my career and get a finer understanding of how many people that it actually touches off the field. When you come into training camps and you see the little kids turning up for the first time, and, you know, they're in, you know, in awe of that they could do that one day as well. So for us to be able to be that for them and to be able to help steer that myself, still is really, really special.
What winning the Asian Cup would mean
I think that's one of the biggest reasons why I keep playing. To be honest, I really want to lift that trophy for us. We only go for first. That's our goal. Obviously, you want great results and you want to perform well, but tournaments are ultimately about winning, and that winning feeling is what we want. We watched the Paratillies to get the World Cup last year, which was incredible and, quite frankly, made us very jealous. But they deserved every bit of it. And yeah, for our guys to see them enjoy that moment, we want to feel that too. So if we can do that at the Asian Cup this time around and lift that trophy, that would be incredible.
Belief in the squad
The guys have been really comfortable in training the last couple of days. There's been some really good performances on film now that the coaches can take away and try and work out what the best starting lineup is actually going to be. Competition has been very strong, which is fantastic. It gives the greatest sort of satisfaction to know that every player is pushing so hard, and from that our potential in this tournament is very, very high.
IFCPF Asian-Oceania Cup in Indonesia
When: November 12-23, 2025
Where: Surakarta, Indonesia