On the 15th October in sunny Newcastle the Capital Football Referees team emerged victorious once again in the annual NewCanWarra Football tournament. This years tournament took a different structure with
Newcastle Referees entering a team, to play against the seasoned teams from the Illawarra and Canberra. Lots of banter was exchanged in the lead up and on match day before the 3 matches.
Our opening match was against Newcastle, Coach Pat Caggiano opted to with a mixture of experience and youth in the Squad naming Richie N, Greg T, Bruno K, Gareth B, Owen G, Jimmy K, Mitch W, Brady N, Lawrence A, Scott R and Nathan S to start the match. This paid off with the team keeping possession and dominating end to end on the park.
Three quick goals in the opening half match with Owen Goldrick capitalising on a terrible goal keeping blunder, Brady Nixon finishing a great attacking play with a classy tap in and Georgia Ghirardello making sure that the girls were accounted for with killer instinct to finish off the half. After the pep talk, and snacks at half time the team started with how they ended the first half.
Captain Richie Naumovski leading by example and proving that he can still match it with the young ones, scoring the Capital’s fourth and final goal for the match. The match ended 4 – 0, a dominant display leading into the grudge match with Illawarra to decide the winner of the tournament.
With much history and rivalry on the line both teams weren’t giving up much ground with physical challenges and even fiercer banter to match. Illawarra however were the first to concede, by the unlikely hero John Cena AKA Matthew Schofield; clearly the defence didn’t see his break onto the goal line and the following clinical finish.
This first goal opened the flood gates with Scott Robertson scoring a classy goal from outside the penalty area, followed by Nathan Shakespear scoring off his first touch before our very own “Wayne Rooney” Duncan McLaren wrapped up proceedings with a screamer from outside the area. Capital running rampant with another 4 – 0 victory securing the inaugural NewCanWarra Cup.
Special mention to the best and fairest player named on the day Bruno Kehl, who took home the Puskas award as voted on by all teams on the day. Not only solid in defence on the day but an all round sportsman, well done Bruno.
Thank you to all the players and supporters who travelled up for the day. A massive thank you to Coach Pat Caggiano, Assistant Coach Owen Goldrick, Team Manager Gareth Biggs, Social/Media Manager Delfina Dimoski, Team Assistant Ryan Caggiano, Bus Driver Pat Holloway and Adam and Alastair in the CF Office for the additional support, to both Newcastle and Illawarra Teams and to Newcastle for providing the facilities and post match function. We are looking forward to defending our title on home turf in Canberra next
October!
