Round Eight of the 2015 national F-League competition was played out over the weekend (26/27/28 June) with home matches for both the Boomerangs men and women against Sydney teams, East Coast Heat and Dural Warriors.
The four matches provided high quality futsal and some close and tight tussles; however, the results once again did not go the way of the Boomers teams.
WOMEN
East Coast Heat
The Women’s team kicked off the weekend’s matches with an arm wrestle match up against the Heat on Saturday morning at mPowerdome. Several weeks earlier in Wollongong, the Heat snatched a 3-3 draw from a match the Boomerang women were leading by three second half goals with just five minutes to play.
This time around the Boomers were determined that they would not let a lead slip…. however, it was the Heat who started the game ‘hot’ and scored two goals within minutes of the commencement. The evenly balanced first half concluded with a single goal deficit (2-3) for the Boomers with Gurney netting twice for the home team.
The second stanza saw the Boomerangs ladies dominate across the court – but they could not put the ball into the net. The second half Heat ‘keeper, in tandem with the goal posts, worked to stop all shots on target in the second half – and there was plenty. The second half remained scoreless, despite the home team’s dominance, and the Heat went home with a single goal victory.
It is these tight matches that need to be won to become finals contenders in the F-League… and for several rounds now the Boomers ladies have not been able to lock down games and bring home the three competition points.
There remained an opportunity however that the match against Dural Warriors on the Sunday might provide an opportunity to bring home the full three competition points.
Boomerangs (Gurney 2) 2 – 3 East Coast Heat
Check out photos of the match HERE
Dural Warriors
The Women’s team kicked off on a sunny, but cold, Sunday morning against a travelling Dural team that had their full contingent of field players, but no spares for the substitutes bench.
The first ten minutes of the match played out as expected. Four goals to one in favour of the Boomers helped along by a tremendous hat-trick to Michaela Day. It appeared as though the Boomers ladies were on their way to collecting three competition points. However from the half way mark of the first half, the short-handed Dural team put in a massive performance scoring six goal to the Boomerangs one.
A stunning result for the Dural team given the shortness of their bench and the fact they had no recognised keeper. It is definitely a game the Boomerangs women should not have conceded under these conditions – and at home. But full credit goes to the traveling Dural ladies who put in above and beyond their usual effort to take home the three competition points.
A very disappointing game for the Boomers ladies, and indeed weekend, that promised six competition points, but delivered none.
Boomerangs (Day 3, De Marco, van Deyk) 5 – 7 East Coast Heat
Check out photos of the match HERE
MEN
East Coast Heat
The habit of starting games cold afflicted the men’s team again in their first match of the weekend against Sydney’s East Coast Heat. Three goals conceded in the first half made the job all the more difficult, even though they managed to score one of their own through O’Dwyer in the first twenty.
The lads conceded again early in the second half leaving themselves with an uphill battle for the remaining twenty minutes. Wilsener pulled back a goal with twelve minutes to play and the boys lifted in intensity, sensing an opportunity to grab the match momentum.
The second half performance was much improved over the first, but alas, the goals would not come. Leading by two with four minutes to play, the Heat used the innovative tactic of a fly keeper – something a team down by two or more goals would usually do in the dying moments of a match. Although the power play ploy did not result in additional goals for the Heat, it did put distract the Boomers from their offensive game (as they were focussing on their defensive structures) and from the task of scoring the goals they needed to get back into the match.
The final result saw a two goal loss to the Heat – a better result than the last time these two teams met – but a winnable game which the team would think slipped away.
Boomerangs (O’Dwyer, Wilsener) 2 – 4 East Coast Heat
Check photos of the match HERE
Dural Warriors
The men’s second game for the weekend – a Sunday matinee – saw them up against champion team Dural Warriors from Sydney. Matches between these two teams are traditionally close affairs – however, Dural have definitely held the advantage over the Boomerangs in both F-League and NSW Premier League competition over the years.
Several weeks earlier, the match at Dural saw a close affair where the Warriors took the honours 3-1. This time, it was hoped that a better result could be forthcoming at home in the Mpowerdome. However, even though Dural were ‘travelling light’ for their ACT road trip, their squad still included two Australian Futsalroo starters, the Giovenali brothers.
The match started all guns a blazing with several goals in short time, but as the defences of each team kicked in and some more structured futsal was played, it was Dural who took the ascendancy turning a 5-2 half-time lead into an 8-4 final scoreline.
This loss probably seals the finals fate of the men’s team, with it almost impossible to make the final four with just six games remaining to be played (including two of those against the Vic Vipers and the other four against teams in the bottom half of the table). The next six matches will need to be used to fully test the young team, and give them as much exposure to F-League standard as time permits – with the aim of once again shooting for the play-offs in season 2016.
Boomerangs (O’Dwyer, Sawyer, Smith, Wilsener) 4 – 8 Dural Warriors
Check out photos of the match HERE
Across the F-League
In other matches across yet another huge weekend of F-League futsal…
Men’s
South Brisbane upset their neighbours, Galaxy on Friday night by a solitary goal and Magic brought home maximum points from their Victorian road trip – including an impressive win over Vic Vipers.
The Capital FC men had a blinder of a weekend, defeating the Heat and matching it in a sixteen goal, goal-fest late on Sunday with the Warriors (8-8) — with perhaps both teams being ‘softened up by the Boomerangs men earlier the same day!
The top four has consolidated with Magic, Warriors, Vipers and Heat seemingly locked into finals places.
Women’s
The Magic cast their winning spell over the Vipers, whilst the Capital FC ladies could not match their men’s efforts and were defeated by both the Heat and (again impressively) by Dural Warriors.
The top four in the women’s competition also appears locked in with Magic, Warriors, South Brisbane and Heat seemingly finals bound.