St George Dragons slay Centenary Cup field
This year was the 30th Anniversary of the Centenary Cup which was first played in 1980 and since that time St George have won the Cup on three previous occasions in 1982-1984 & 1991 but there could not have been any more talented teams in those years than this 2009 team and from the moment Man of the Match Anthony Krkovski snared the first of his two goals, this team were in there with a chance. Ku-ring-gai were very formidable opponents and a few of us had this team favorites for this cup since day one and they pushed last years U/11 Champions (St George) all the way in a very exciting final played before a huge crowd.
Earlier in the day, to reach the finals St George had an extremely tough match against a Canterbury side that could just have easily made it to the final as this match was an intense affair and could have gone either way until the late goal from St George. Canterbury were outstanding in this tournament and can hold their heads high.
In the other Cup semi final Ku-ring-gai had an even tougher encounter with the very courageous Central Coast Association and at full time neither side had given the other a sniff and it was down to a penalty shoot-out which was won 5p-3p by Ku-ring-gai. Like Canterbury, Central Coast could quite easily have also been in the Final and they can travel back up the M3 confident in the knowledge they have matched it with the best.
In the Plate semis Nepean defeated a talented Western Branch 3-0 and because Nepean were played so well, Western Branch were every bit as talented and probably rue the fact they do not play regularly in the Metropolitan Representative League. Blacktown Association defeated Glasdesville-Hornsby Association 3-2 in the other semi final which was as exciting as the score indicates. Blacktown?s Jarrod Biczo was a very deserved man of the match in the Plate final.
This saw Nepean and Blacktown fight out the final of the Plate competition and Blacktown came away deserved winners 3-1 over a tenacious Nepean side. Blacktown, ironically had defeated St George 4-0 in the first round of this tournament, but as Con Papadopoulos, the St George coach commented at the presentations, this match woke the Mighty Dragon and from a perusal of the subsequent result, he hay well have been right.
Assisting in the presentations, were Football NSW General Manager Mr Ian Holmes, FNSW Life Member and George Churchward medal winner Florence Stephenson, Illawarra President Mr Zoran Jovanovski , FNSW Competitions Coordinator Kim Burge and FNSW Coaching & Development Manager Mr Norm Boardman together with Illawarra committee personnel.
Football NSW would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful Balgownie Soccer Club committee for the tremendous support and professionalism they displayed throughout a very big week of football and in particular the very popular Mr Andrew Park who was more lovingly referred to as ?Barney Rubble? for his tireless efforts.
A very big week, with very large crowds and exciting football and we all look forward to returning for another dose of the same when we stage the 31st edition of the Football NSW Centenary Cup.
Larry Grant
Competitions Secretary
