This weekend sees the commencement of the second half of the 13/14 season as the Boomerangs travel up the Hume Highway for the third weekend in a row to take on yet another FNSW Futsal powerhouse club, Dural Warriors.
Earlier this season – in Round 1 (at home in Canberra), the Boomerangs managed to come away with four wins and two draws, which was a fantastic start to the season, given the known strength of the Dural club across all age groups. Back in October, wins were secured by the Boys 12s and 16s and the Open Men and Women. The 14 Boys and 16 Girls split the points with their Warrior opponents and the Warriors took full points in the 12 and 14 Girls and the Youth Men.
At the conclusion of the first half of the season, the Dural Warriors sit in fifth position on the Club Championship table with 96 points from 28 wins and 12 draws. This is lower than most pundits would have predicted at the beginning of the season. Clearly the Warriors will be looking for a stronger back end of the season. This is also what is required of the Boomerangs, currently sitting at the bottom of the club championship table with only 19 wins and 6 draws (for a total of 63 points). Whilst Dural remain in touch with the top half of the table, the Boomerangs sit in a cluster of three clubs that will be battling it out to not be the team that finishes at the tail end of the table.
After seven rounds of the 13/14 season, Dural’s best performing teams include their 12 Boys (4th), 12 Girls (3rd), 14 Girls (1st), Youth men (1st) and their Open Men (3rd).
Based upon relative table positions and results from Round 1, the Boomerangs will be looking hard at wins in the 12, 14 and 16 boys, the 16 girls and both the Open Women and Open Men’s games. The others age groups could also throw in surprise wins!!
Once again the marquee game – the Open Men’s will be a cracker – pitting two of the top teams in Australian futsal against each other. The Boomerangs men coming off the back of a loss to Inner West Magic last weekend, and the Warriors having a tough physical encounter resulting in a 3-3 draw against Quake last weekend (after an earlier catch up match the night before against Mascot Vipers resulting in a 6-1 win). Both teams have suffered only one defeat each this season, and this match will provide an opportunity for the winner to assert some psychological advantage before a potential clash in the finals in three month’s time.
The weekend will certainly be challenging – being away at Dural, but the Boomerangs teams have all trained well and are ready and focused for top notch performances this weekend.
The games kick off at 12.15pm at the Dural Sport and Leisure Centre
Boys 12 — 12.15pm
Girls 12 — 1.00pm
Boys 14 — 1.45pm
Girls 14 — 2.30pm
Boys 16 — 3.15pm
Girls 16 — 4.00pm
Youth Men — 4.45pm
Open Women — 5.30pm
Open Men — 6.25pm
The Football NSW preview of the Round 8 Men’s matches can be found HERE.