FNSW PL1 Round 14 Wrap

The final regular round of the 16/17 NSW Premier League futsal competition had the Boomers club travel to Wollongong to take on the South Coast Taipans club at the University of Wollongong.

The heatwave weather conditions forecast for the day forced Football NSW to implement their hot weather policy across all futsal games and all divisions, to cancel any unnecessary matches and to have all matches completed prior to the heat of the day kicking in. As such a rescheduled day of fixtures was advised on the Thursday prior, which had included the cancellation of games that had no impact on top four ladder positions. For the Boomerangs/Taipans fixtures, this included the 12 and 14 boys and the Open Women. Additionally, FNSW had cancelled all development and academy matches.

A hectic schedule of three-way discussions ensued in order to try and reinstate as many matches as possible, as many of the Boomerangs players and families had already made commitments to travel to Wollongong for the weekend to take part in the Round 14 matches (as originally scheduled). An agreement was reached that cancelled matches could be played, but they would not have any official status and that all matches needed to be completed early in the day.

Our appreciation goes to the Taipans club for assisting to make this possible and reinstating the three academy/development games (non-competitive) and two of the three cancelled competitive matches (12 and 14 boys played, but as non-competitive friendlies). The only match which was not able to be rescheduled was the Open Women (neither Boomerangs nor Taipans were in finals contention).

With this in mind, the rescheduled day commenced at 9.00am with the competitive matches on the regular court at the UoW URAC Centre and the friendlies on an adjacent smaller court.

Photos of Match Day 14 at the Boomerangs photo site.

A summary of the day’s results:

12 boys – friendly/no score recorded
13 girls – Boomerangs 1 – 9 Taipans (ht 1 – 3)
14 boys – friendly/no score recorded
15 girls – Boomerangs 2 – 2 Taipans (ht 1 – 1)
16 boys – Boomerangs 0 – 8 Taipans (ht 0 – 5)
17 girls – Boomerangs 2 – 4 Taipans (ht 2 – 2)
Youth men – Boomerangs 1 – 5 Taipans (ht 0 – 1)
Open Women – match not played
Open Men – Boomerangs 3 – 4 Taipans (ht 0 – 2)

Highlights
The 15 girls put in another strong effort to highlight as the match of the day. The Taipans 15 girls were desperate for the win, to finish the regular season in the top four, and to play in the finals series. The Boomers girls had little to play for but pride and next season – and they certainly lifted for the occasion.  Both halves saw the Taipans take the early lead, with the Boomers girls fighting hard to level it up, at both the half-time break and at full time. It was a cracker of a match and much credit goes to the players and coach, Mark Dowling, for putting in such a quality effort in the final round of the season. Whilst the end result of the season (ladder position and win/loss ratio) does not flatter the team, they have shown resilience and courage time and time again and tested most other teams in the competition – especially in the back end of the season.

The Men’s team required a win in their match against the seventh-placed Taipans if they were to guarantee their participation in finals this season. When they met earlier in Round 7 in Canberra, the Taipans took out the match 4-2 after leading by a solitary goal at the break (1-0). And the home team started this match full of confidence and energy in the 37 degree heat of the stadium. They were the first to score and consolidated that with a second prior to the half-time interval – they appeared to be coping with the heat and humidity better than the visiting Boomers.

Much like last week’s match against the Majik, the Boomers men came out stronger in the second stanza and put the pressure on the home team. However, it remained difficult to convert the better play to goals. In desperation Coach Collins instigated the fly-keeper power play when down 4-0, and was rewarded with goals bringing the margin back to a single goal, but with little, then no time, left to level the game up, or indeed take the win. The Taipans defence held up strongly over the final period – and they deserved their win.

The loss of this match thus required favourable results in other matches – and there was always a good chance that the Majik and UTS, both contenders for the fourth position on the end of season ladder, would find it difficult as they were drawn against the top two teams for the final round. As it was, Dural Warriors and Inner West Magic, continued their fine form and defeated the other two finals aspirants (Dural only just overcoming UTS), ensuring the fourth spot went to the Boomerangs.

So for the second time in the club’s history, the Open Men’s team will be participating in a finals series in the FNSW PL1 competition. The two men’s finals will be at Dural on Saturday 18 February at 5.15pm.

The official FNSW write-up of this week’s men’s round by Dan De Nardi follows.

Round 14 of the 2016/17 Football NSW SELECT NSW Premier League saw Inner West overcome UTS Northside 4-1 to claim the premiership, Dural beat Mountain Majik 3-2 and South Coast edged Boomerangs 4-3.

Magic (34 points) placed ahead of Warriors (31) and Rovers (22), with Boomerangs (17) taking fourth place over Majik (17) and UTS (14). Taipans (12) leapfrogged Vipers (10) who had their final-round match against Enfield cancelled.

It certainly felt like one of the tightest competitions – a 6.7 goal average per game the lowest on record and the average winning margin also the lowest – and the point spread also backs up this claim with 24 points separating top-dogs Inner West from bottom-side Mascot. This is matched by the 2011/12 summer but tighter than 31-point gaps from the last two seasons; 2012/13 produced the greatest margin of 35 points.

Just 17 goals were scored in the weekend’s three games making it the second-lowest on record (last season’s final round registered 15), and four of the 12 lowest round-totals have come this season. South Coast’s 31 and Mascot’s 33 goals were the third and fourth-lowest tallies on record but far greater than Sydney City’s paltry 15 tallied in 2012/13 (which followed a stunning championship win over premiers Dural the season before). Phoenix netted 27 times in 2013/14.

And despite the usual grumbling toward officiating, an interesting stat from this season is the amount of bookings distributed over summer is actually 30 fewer than the next lowest total – 132 (including nine red cards) compared to 162 in 2013/14 (which had 19 reds).

Dural Warriors 3 (Wade Giovenali 2, Jacob Basden) Mountain Majik 2 (Kaan Klinic, own goal)

UTS Northside 1 (Karim Moursi) Inner West Magic 4 (Hayden Macerola, Jonathan Barzel, Miles Downie, Brian Griffin-Colls)

South Coast Taipans 4 (Matt Mazevski 4) Boomerangs FS 3 (Michael Reeve, Brad Sawyer, Daniel Giovinazzo)

Taipans nip Boomerangs

South Coast Taipans lifted themselves off the bottom of the table following a gutsy 4-3 win against finals-bound Boomerangs FS at University of Wollongong Sports Hub.

Matt Mazevski ran amok scoring twice in each half to establish a 4-0 South Coast lead forcing Boomerangs into a fifth-man press with 10 minutes to go, and the visitors came storming home with three goals making it an edgy final few minutes – but Taipans held their nerve to win 4-3 and jump Mascot on the points table.

Taipans have won three straight over Boomerangs and victory broke two wooden spoons for the club in its previous premier league campaigns. South Coast coach Bobby Mazevski was thrilled.

“I am delighted with the result today as it’s reward for our improvement over the last four weeks,” he said. “Although Matt Mazevski bagged four goals, it was a collective effort with all available players playing their part… we couldn’t be denied what was in my view a well deserved win.”

“I’m not sure if we’ve ever put back-to-back wins before [ed: once, in 2011/12] but its a great way to end the season for us. We’ve beaten Boomerangs twice this year to cap off a much improved second consecutive season in premier league.

“With more than half the squad youth players, the future looks bright. It was also great not to finish on the bottom of the table,” Mazevski said.

Boomerangs coach Kristian Collins wasn’t overly happy with the hit-out but was ready for an all out assault in this Saturday’s do-or-die semifinal against Enfield.

“It was a disappointing performance for 40 minutes; we played well for the first five but started forcing things. We managed to find the back of the net at the end but it was too little to late,” he said.

“The positive is we still managed to qualify for the finals, and the last time we lost we beat Enfield in the next game. Michael Rinaudo back is a big inclusion for us; hopefully he will give us the added spark we need to get going.”

Next week’s games

Both Football NSW SELECT Futsal Premier League semi-finals are being held at The Centre, Dural on Saturday as premiers Inner West Magic face Dural Warriors (5.15pm), and Enfield Rovers play Boomerangs FS in the knockout bout (5.15pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.