State titles finals winners spread wide across metro regions whilst Riverina excel in country championships
All championships were spread across all Sydney Metropolitan regions and Riverina Branch again impressing with three of the four Country Championship titles.
Grade 11 winners were Metro North on 21 points following their fine 3-0 win this morning against Metro West, while Metro South (who beat Metro North on the first day of the tournament) finished one point behind in 2nd place following their hard fought victory this morning against Metro East. Riverina proudly claimed the Country Championship for this group.
The Grade 14 title went to Metro East, but only on superior goal difference, as they finished with 20 points and a goal difference of +27, just to pip Metro South who also finished with 20 points, but a goal difference of +23 conceding the spoils to Metro East by a bare +4 goal difference. The Country Championship was also a very close affair with Western Branch (7 points) beating Riverina Branch (also on 7 points) on goal difference.
In the Grade 15 tournament, Metro Far South confirmed their superiority in this age division by defeating Metro West 2-1 this morning to finish on 19 points, three clear of Metro North who finished on 16 points following their 1-1 draw with Country West this morning. The Country Championship for this age division went to Riverina Branch in an another impressive display.
Whilst in the Grade 16 Championship this morning it was down to the wire with the top four teams playing each other. After Metro Far South took the lead in their early game to move to 17 points following their great 3-2 victory over Country Riverina they then had to wait for the last game of the tournament to decide their fate. Metro West however, going into the match with 16 points were not going to lose it from here and took out a very exciting final match 1-0 over a courageous Metro East team to move to 19 points and victory. The Country Championship for this age went again to Riverina Branch who impressed everyone with their talent and they finished the tournament in third place overall on 15 points, a mighty effort indeed.
The decision to take referees from the Premier elite group to these titles was an inspired decision by the FNSW Referee Manager, Craig McCullum as these young referees were outstanding in all aspects of their officiating and their demeanor on and off the field. With referees of this caliber coming through the ranks our future looks very good indeed.
Thanks must also go to the Regional venue coordinators and their volunteer staff who worked tirelessly throughout the week.
We must also thank our players for their outstanding talent and commitment, their coaches and team officials for their expertise and most importantly the parents of these players for taking the week off to ensure the success of these State Titles. A special thank you to Kim Burge for ?holding the fort? at Football NSW and ensuring all scores were posted for every match every day immediately the games were concluded.
Larry Grant
Competition Secretary
