Gold for NSW at 7-A-Side championships
The NSW was the defending champions for this year’s National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships which was being held at the same time as the under 13/14 Championships in Coffs Harbour from the 30 Sep 2013 to 3 Oct 2013. There were 5 states competing for the title this year, which were NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, and WA.
The NSW team was led by PARAROO’s vice captain Chris Pyne and he was joined by fellow PARAROO’s Sam Larkings, James Turner, Ben Atkins, Brett Fairhall, Jack Williams, and Ned McCabe. Joining them was youngsters James Hunt, Logan Campbell, Gordon Allen, Ben Sutton and Shaun McCann. The team was coached by Ian Menzies.
In what was a nice moment prior to the match against South Australia kicking off former Socceroo Alex Tobin presented NSW with their playing shirts for the tournament as they looked to defend their title.
The NSW team started off the competition with a 3 – 0 win over South Australia on the first day of competition. They then had a 1-1 draw with Victoria in the morning on day 2, which shocked them into gear for the afternoon match and last year’s runners up Queensland. They were determined to make their mark on the competition and defeated Queensland 5-0.
On day 3 they then defeated Western Australia 8-0 and confirmed their place in the final and had to wait until the last match on day 3 to find out who their opponent would be. It was Queensland who triumphed over South Australia on the day to also join NSW in the final.
The only worry for the NSW team was that their skipper Chris Pyne was injured in the last match of the rounds and was ruled out for the final.
PARAROO player Brett Fairhall opened the scoring for NSW in just the third minute of the game after some excellent 1 touch passing from the NSW team. It was only 6 minutes later when Brett Fairhall after a fumble by the Queensland keeper Jamie Paulsen.
Queensland young gun Stacey Sarago-Ahkees pulled back the NSW lead in the 27th minute after a mistake by the NSW defence.
However NSW restored their two goal advantage in the 29th minute after Brett Fairhall scored his third goal for the match.
The half time score was NSW 3 leading Queensland 1.
In the 36th minute 15 year old Gordon Allen scored NSW 4th goal of the match after some excellent build up work from the young NSW players James Turner, Shaun McCann and James Hunt.
Unfortunately Queensland tried gallantly throughout the second half to try and back into the game but former PARAROO’s goalkeeper Sam Larkings was not going to let anything past him.
The NSW team were presented with their gold medals by former Socceroo Craig Moore. Craig Moore also presented the team with the National Trophy as well. This was NSW 5th title in a row and a remarkable 9th title in the 10 years of the championships.
James Turner was also named overall player of the tournament and NSW player of the tournament.
Sam Larkings received the George Tonna Medal after being named man of the match in the final.
Chris Pyne received the golden boot for the tournament.
