Belconnen United proved they were the cream of the crop in the Capital Premier League by winning the 2025 League Championship, doing so in some style as they romped to a 7-0 win over Wagga City Wanderers at McKellar Park.
The Blue Devils were insatiable in front of goal on a memorable evening for the McKellar Park faithful who were off their seats inside thirteen minutes as Jayde James-Ward opened the scoring.
More was to follow as Dustin wells made it two before half-time, bit it was a second-half powerhouse display that secured the points. Tupaia Ringi scored two, either side of goals from James-Ward and a first of the night for Jake Bishop.
Fittingly, it was the outstanding Bishop who wrapped it up, scoring the seventh in the 87th minute, his tenth league goal of the season, and top-spot for his team.
Earlier in the week, Brindabella Blues kept their mathematical hopes of making the top four alive and put any Belconnen United title celebrations on hold in midweek as the hoists claimed a 2-0 win at Ipan Park.
A Blue Devils win would have won the Capital Premier League title on the Wednesday evening, but as it was a goal from Curtis Schaeffer inside the opening half-an-hour, his sixteenth of the season, left the visitors playing catch-up.
And when Jonathan John made it 2-0 with fourteen minutes to go, any thoughts that Belconnen had of sealing the crown were done and dusted. The Blues thus entered the weekend six points behind Canberra Juventus, and hoping for a Juventus slip-up, but could still count themselves in the race.
That hope was dashed following the weekend’s results as Canberra Juventus earned the point that they needed to secure a top-four place with a hard-fought 1-1 stalemate away to ANU FC.
Juventus were forced to come from behind against the University side who were still chasing second-place on the table and gave themselves a chance to do so as they took the lead through a goal midway through the first-half from Tom Huizenga.
Juventus drew level in the 67th minute though as Patrick Shore scored his second goal of the season, and that proved enough for Juventus to edge the four points clear of the Blues they needed to secure an Elimination Final place.
Brindabella Blues did what they needed to do in order to keep Juventus honest as they claimed a narrow 1-0 away win over West Canberra Wanderers in a match that took place at Melrose Synthetic.
The only goal of the game was struck in the 65th minute as Blues leading scorer Curtis Schaeffer found a way past the Wanderers defence with his seventeenth goal of the season, one which keeps the forward in the hunt for the CPL Golden Boot.
Meanwhile, Canberra Olympic remained two points ahead of ANU FC in second place as they struck three goals in quick succession in the first-half to shake off the challenge of White Eagles in a 3-0 success at O’Connor Enclosed.
Luca Florez began the blitz by finding the back of the net in only the twelfth minute, putting the Eagles on the back foot.
A double within three minutes of each other from the in-form Julian Borgna made sure Olympic had the points in the bag before the break, the double from Borgna taking him to double figures for the 2025 campaign.
RESULTS
ROUND 16
Wednesday 20 August
Brindabella Blues 2 (Schaeffer 26’, J. John 76’) Belconnen United 0
ROUND 20
Saturday 23 August
Canberra Olympic 3 (Florez 12’, Borgna 23’, 26’) White Eagles 0
West Canberra Wanderers 0 Brindabella Blues 1 (Schaeffer 65’)
Belconnen United 7 (James-Ward 13’, 54’, Wells 17’, Ringi 47’, 75’, Bishop 57’, 87’) Wagga City Wanderers 0
ANU FC 1 (Huizenga 21’) Canberra Juventus 1 (Shore 67’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Belconnen United | 20 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 55 | 23 | +32 | 46 |
| 2 | Canberra Olympic | 20 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 59 | 36 | +23 | 41 |
| 3 | ANU FC | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 58 | 28 | +30 | 39 |
| 4 | Canberra Juventus | 20 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 48 | 35 | +13 | 33 |
| 5 | Brindabella Blues | 20 | 9 | 2 | 9 | 39 | 30 | +9 | 29 |
| 6 | White Eagles | 20 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 29 | 48 | -19 | 18 |
| 7 | Wagga City Wanderers | 20 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 43 | 77 | -34 | 16 |
| 8 | West Canberra | 20 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 22 | 76 | -54 | 7 |
TOP SCORERS
18: Jack GIBSON (ANU FC)
17: Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues)
13: Kade LYONS (Wagga City Wanderers)
12: Cristian BARRESI (Canberra Juventus), Mate BARISIC (Canberra Olympic), Sergio LINDNER (White Eagles)
10: Jake BISHOP (Belconnen United), Julian BORGNA (Canberra Olympic), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United)
9: Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
8: Jayde JAMES-WARD (Belconnen United)
7: Juan DIAZ-TELLEZ (West Canberra Wanderers), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Own GOALS
6: Remi GACHET (Canberra Olympic), Michael RINAUDO (Belconnen United)
5: Micheal ADAMS (Canberra Juventus), Jacob HART (ANU FC), Nicholas HOPE (ANU FC), Adrian MACOR (Canberra Juventus), Jak MATIC (Canberra Juventus), Zachary MILCZAREK (Canberra Olympic), Maxwell PREST (Wagga City Wanderers), Tupaia RINGI (Belconnen United), Ali SOHANI (White Eagles), Antoni TIMOTHEOU (Canberra Olympic)
4: Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (Canberra Olympic), Zac CHADWICK (ANU FC), Abderrahim DELLAHI (White Eagles), Luca FLOREZ (Canberra Olympic), Ramon LINDNER (White Eagles), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Andre OLIVEIRA (ANU FC), Mark SHIELDS (Canberra Olympic)
3: Tom COSENTINI (Canberra Juventus), Finn HARMER (Brindabella Blues), Jonathan JOHN (Brindabella Blues), Orlando JEFFERY (ANU FC), Samuel LYE (ANU FC), Luca MACOR (Canberra Juventus), Adam NEOU (Canberra Olympic), Van NGUYEN (West Canberra Wanderers), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues), Riley WILLIAMS (Brindabella Blues)
2: Dylan BARRETO (Canberra Juventus), Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Adam BROOKS (Canberra Juventus), Izach CLEMENTS (Belconnen United), Juan DIAZ-BURGOS (Wes Canberra Wanderers), Oliver GRIST (ANU FC), Marcus GRZIC (West Canberra Wanderers), Christopher JOHN (Brindabella Blues), Tony MADAFFARI (Canberra Juventus), Jasper MILIN (Canberra Juventus), Alasdair MOORE (ANU FC), Jack MURRAY (White Eagles), Patrick O’ROURKE (Belconnen United), Zac OWERS (Wagga City Wanderers), Babin PAUDYAL (Canberra Juventus), Patrick SHORE (Canberra Juventus), Bailey SORENSON (Canberra Olympic), Regan WALSH (Belconnen United), Oliver WIRTZENS (Brindabella Blues)
1: Andrew AITCHISON (West Canberra Wanderers), Deng ALEER DENG (Brindabella Blues), Joel BAIRD (Belconnen United), Nikolas BLASKOVIC (Brindabella Blues), Elijah BROOKER (Wagga City Wanderers), Isaac BROOKER (Wagga City Wanderers), Eliseo CASTRO (Canberra Juventus), Eddie COGGAN (Belconnen United), Lewis DOBBIN (ANU FC), Nick FAUST (Canberra Olympic), Daniel FOX (West Canberra Wanderers), Geordie FREEMAN (West Canberra Wanderers), Josh GASPARI (Canberra Juventus), Monteagh GRACE (ANU FC), David GURNEY (Brindabella Blues), Benjamin HADFIELD (ANU FC), Ben HICK (White Eagles), Tom HUIZENGA (ANU FC), Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers), Damien KENNEDY (White Eagles), Tomas KRKLEC (Canberra Olympic), Ethan KRUG (ANU FC), Daniel LINSTEAD (Canberra Olympic), Tyler LOCHNER (Canberra Juventus), Daniel MAKENY (Brindabella Blues), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Daniel MUNOZ (Brindabella Blues), Nik NOVESKI (White Eagles), Jacob OCHIENG (Wagga City Wanderers), Riley PATTERSON (West Canberra Wanderers), Noah PRAIL (West Canberra Wanderers), Max RAWLINSON (ANU FC), Ferney RENTERIA (White Eagles), Ilies SAADI (West Canberra Wanderers), Pedro SERRANO (Belconnen United), Kye SMITH (Belconnen United), Naser SMOQY (Wagga City Wanderers), Ethan STAMATIS (West Canberra Wanderers), Ethan TUDEHOPE (ANU FC), Liam VICKERS (West Canberra Wanderers), Oliver WIEDERKEHR (Canberra Olympic), Kyle YEATES (Wagga City Wanderers)
