Stars honoured at Gold Medal Dinner
The 2017 PS4 National Premier Leagues Gold Medal Dinner took centre stage at the Oatlands House on Friday 15th of September as players, coaches, officials as well as high profile guests attended what was a fantastic evening acknowledging the achievements from the top tier PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s and Women’s seasons.
It was a fantastic season for both males and females as they got together in a monumental evening where over 330 guests attended with the night proudly presented by Fox Sports’ Chief Football commentator Simon Hill.
There were a number of special guests which included FIFA’s Corporate Communications Manager Honey Thaljieh, FFA CEO David Gallop, Member for Riverstone’s Kevin Conolly, Sydney FC CEO Danny Townsend, FFA’s Head of Community and Women’s Football Emma Highwood, former Socceroos captain and coach Les Scheinflug along with the Football NSW Board.
The first major awards that kicked off the evening were the Referee awards.
For the second successive year Kelly Jones was awarded the PS4 NPL NSW Women’s Referee of the Year award for her outstanding season. In the men’s category, referee Kurt Ams took out the PS4 NPL NSW Men’s Referee of the Year for a solid year as determined by the weekly assessment of referees throughout the season combined with considerations from the Technical Committee of the Independent NSW State League Football Referees Branch.
The announcement of the Player of the Year and Golden Boot winners in the Under 20/Reserve grade competition were up next and what a season it was for both categories.
It was a joint winner in the Women’s Reserve grade as Blacktown Spartans’ Ashlie Crofts and Manly United’s Sophie Harding both ended up with 15 goals apiece.
The Player of the Year awards were up next and North Shore Mariners’ Teigan Collister grabbed all the plaudits for an outstanding year in the 20’s.
Goalkeepers were next on the awards block and it was Macarthur Rams’ shining star Shamiran Khamis who took out the PS4 NPL NSW Women’s category in what was an impressive year for the youngster. There was no separating them in the top tier Men’s competition as Sydney Olympic’s number one keeper Paul Henderson (his second successive year) alongside Rockdale City Suns’ Ante Covic both grabbed the glory for the PS4 NPL NSW Men’s category as the number one keepers in the competition. It proved that age really is just a number as Henderson at 41 and Covic at 42 turned back the clock putting through some outstanding performances for their respective clubs.
The Golden Boot award winners were announced soon after.
The ‘Debbie Tait’ Award for the PS4 NPL NSW Women’s Golden Boot was awarded to Manly United’s Remy Siemsen who scored 19 goals for the year. This award is in honour of Debbie Tait who sadly lost her fight with leukaemia on December 17, 1997. She was aged just nineteen. During her short lifetime, Debbie touched the lives of many people with her easy going, bright and cheery personality. Debbie loved her football and was a player of great talent. She achieved so much in so little time.
Finally, in the PS4 NPL Men’s category, it was a joint winner as Sydney United 58’s Panagiotis Nikas and Sutherland Sharks’ Tomohiro Kajiyama both took out the award notching up 13 goals each.
The announcement of the coveted 2017 Charles Valentine Medal was up next and this was taken out by well-known football figure Paul Smith from the Sutherland Sharks.
A true gentleman on and off the pitch, it was Smith’s thirteenth consecutive year as president of the proud club.
Smith has done it all in football, playing 26 seasons as a footballer before coaching for 21 years on top of his 16 years as an administrator, all massive stats within itself.
His pure passion and dedication to the beautiful game for his beloved Sharks is there for all to see week in week out at Seymour Shaw as he has truly played a pivotal role in the development of the Shire based club throughout his time.
One of the highest awards that can be bestowed upon a person involved in representative football, ‘Smithy’ as he is affectionally known to his fellow peers, lives and breathes the round ball game and was overwhelmed with this accolade.
It was onto the PS4 NPL NSW Men’s ‘Goal of the Year’ award and after 22 rounds there was only one clear winner. In what was a stunning year for goals it was Sydney United 58’s Nikas that won the award with his amazing half-way rocket that went viral against the Sutherland Sharks in round 4 of the competition.
The Coach of the Year category was next with Manly United’s PS4 NPL NSW Women’s Championship winning manager Chris Williams getting the nod from his fellow peers. It was a fantastic run for the Northern Beaches side and Williams played an integral role as Manly United finished runners up during the normal season before taking out the Championship. APIA Leichhardt Tigers’ Danial Cummins was then honoured in the Men’s category after awarding the former NSL side’s first Premiership victory in 30 seasons as well as reaching the finals of the competition and taking APIA to a round of 16 Westfield FFA Cup placing.
The time had come for the Player of the Year awards in what was the crucial part of the evening as the suspense was at boiling point for all players involved.
Things were tight in the PS4 NPL NSW Women’s category but it was Manly United’s hotshot Remy Siemsen who stole all the headlines as she was crowned the best player for the second successive year as voted by their fellow peers – it was to be her second award of the evening further pushing her cause as a future Westfield Matildas star.
The stage was set for the final award of the evening and that was the prestigious PS4 NPL NSW Men’s award for 2017, the Gold Medal.
After 22 rounds the award was presented to APIA Leichhardt Tigers’ left midfielder Sean Symons who dazzled his way with a number of fantastic performances that earned him the reputation as being crowned the best player in NSW.
Symons beat the likes of Sydney United 58’s Panni Nikas, fellow teammate Tasuku Sekiya and Blacktown City’s Connor Evans for the big prize and was humbled to have won such an accolade.
Unable to accept the award along with coach Cummins and the rest of the senior squad due to their PS4 NPL Finals Series playing commitments in South Australia where they will face Adelaide City, Symons was glowing upon receiving Football NSW’s top honour.
“I wanted to thank everyone for voting and picking me as the Player of the Year, I know there are a lot of great players in the league so I feel very honoured to have won this prestigious award.
“I want to thank my teammates, the coaching staff and the club at APIA for giving me the opportunity this season, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be able to have achieved this.
“I’d also like to thank my mum, dad and girlfriend, if it wasn’t for their support, I wouldn’t be here today.”
2017 Premier Leagues Award Winners
Fair Play Award
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – 18s – 1st Sydney FC
PS4 NSW Women’s – 17s – 1st Illawarra Stingrays & Manly United
Club Championship
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – 18s – 1st Blacktown City
PS4 NSW Women’s – 17s – 1st North West Sydney Women’s Koalas
Charles Valentine Medal
Paul Smith – Sutherland Sharks
Referee of the Year
PS4 NPL NSW Women’s – Kelly Jones
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Kurt Ams
Goalkeeper of the Year
PS4 NPL NSW Women’s – Shamiran Khamis – Macarthur Rams
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Ante Covic – Rockdale City Suns/Paul Henderson – Sydney Olympic
Golden Boot Awards
PS4 NSW Women’s Reserves – Ashlie Crofts – Blacktown Spartans/Sophie Harding – Manly United 15 goals
PS4 NPL NSW Women’s – Remy Siemsen – Manly United 19 goals
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Panagiotis Nikas – Sydney United 58/Tomohiro Kajiyama – Sutherland Sharks 13 goals
Coach of the Year
PS4 NSW Women’s – Chris Williams – Manly United
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Danial Cummins – APIA Leichhardt Tigers
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s Goal of the Year
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Panagiotis Nikas – Sydney United 58
Player of the Year
PS4 NPL Women’s Reserves – Teigan Collister – North Shore Mariners
PS4 NPL NSW Women’s – Remy Siemsen – Manly United
PS4 NPL NSW Men’s – Sean Symons – APIA Leichhardt Tigers
-Football NSW Media Release
