What to Look For in a sports goal, net and portable soccer goal. Why the right choice is important.

When it comes to portable goals, cost is a key consideration. However, there are factors to keep in mind while searching for your next portable sports goal. Making the wrong choice could pose a risk to you or your children.

Price isn’t always the marker for the best or worst goal

So, what is the best goal? We think it is dependent on what you are using if for. But in short there are two main criteria – club and school use, or recreational (home) use. For clubs and schools, you should look at the Bownet, aluminium goals or tear drop goals for juniors. For recreational, take a look at the tear drop, pop-up and Fastnet ranges.

Make sure you get a guarantee

No one wants to be purchasing a goal and not getting some after-sales-service. SUMMIT Sport has at least a 1-year guarantee, and have staff/agents on hand to talk/help you. For clubs and schools, SUMMIT staff can usually come to your association and help you with your needs.

Parts and reliability

You might be able to get a cheap price on that goal from a brand you have never heard of. Will they be around in a year or two? Will they support you if something happens? Will you be able to get new nets or parts? SUMMIT has been working with Clubs and Schools in Australia since 1991 and have a large range of supplies and staff to help. Feel free to call, email or come and see us and we will be happy to help.

Components

This can be hard, as you sometimes won’t see the issues until you have already purchased the products. But if you have a chance, ask to test, try or see the product. You should be able to check how the folding mechanism feels, net quality and overall quality.

Does it have rubber, non-marking feet for indoor use? This can be important and bigger goals should come with them. You don’t want your Futsal goal scratching the timber floors, or leaving marks.

Locking pins – Be careful with the pins on metal frames that fold. Some are very easy to get a finger stuck when folding. A painful experience, but one that could be avoided with good quality components – see Bownet.

Fasteners on junior goals – on Bownet 3x5 and 4x8 goals you get Quick Clips to stop young kids easily pulling the cords off the fiberglass rods. This is a great safety feature as it stops poles flicking back and hurting people.

Metals – you can think that metal goals will be stronger, but weather will destroy poorly made goals very quickly. Rusting, sun damage and constant abuse will quickly render a goal useless. Make sure all parts are painted, galvanised or stainless.

Pop-Up goals

Stitching should be clean and have a good hold of the netting. It is easy for nets to be torn away from the nylon outer if not sewn in correctly. Pop-up goals can be easily bent if thin metal is used (sprung metal inside the nylon). It should feel taught and quick to flick back into place. They should come with instructions and pegs.

Guide ropes

Portable goals should not need guide ropes or wires to hold them into place. These are considered tripping hazards and shouldn’t be used.

PVC goals

There is NO place where we see PVC goals being better than other goals that are available. At best they take a long time to put up and can deteriorate, sag and be affected by weather. Worst, they are dangerous and may not pass Australian standards for goals that can harm or kill. Further reading:

• Read the Supplier Guide for Moveable Goals from the Government's Product Safety website
  
  
• Read about mandatory requirements for moveable goals on the Government's Product Safety website

Why is weight of a goal so important? Heavy goals are dangerous and can cause injury or death – see PVC goals. All goals that SUMMIT Sport sells fall under the minimum weight for Government rules on soccer goals (28kg+). This means that safety is paramount and the chances of goals causing injury is lower than what the government standards have set out. The heaviest goal we have in the range is the Bownet 8x24 full sized portable soccer goal at 20.80kgs.

Cross bar dangers

Watch a game of junior sports where there is a goal, one of the things you will notice is how kids will lean-on, pull and hang off the goal. This is a major danger and has caused serious injuries and deaths leading to government imposing rules and regulations to portable goals. If you have not so already, please read about the importance of goal weight and the dangers of PVC Goals. All goals supplied by SUMMIT fall within the rules laid out by these documents. Added to this, Bownet goals don’t have a solid cross bar. The flexible material makes it an incredibly difficult to pull done especially once properly secured down. Even under the extreme case of one falling over, the lightweight and soft material of the goal is considered well under the threshold of government required weight. The SUMMIT aluminium folding goals have a rigid cross bar, but are also well under weight and comes with metal securing pegs.