Tassie hits the big time

The semi-finals of the Division One section of the Summer Cup will be played simultaneously on adjacent grounds at Olinda Grove on Saturday at 10.30am.

What is the reason for this? Is someone fearing a ‘fix’? Are the games on the Pools coupon?

Will the two referees - Messrs Gadd and Balmer - look at each other across the expanse of grass at Olinda Grove, synchronise their watches, and then blow their whistles at exactly the same millisecond to start the games?

On TV, one sees the referees of important matches looking anxiously towards the sidelines, where officials are synchronising the start of games all over a country or continent, just so that everything is above board and beyond suspicion.

Oh, and also to meet the requirements of the television stations. At least that's one thing we don't have to worry about here. FFT have decided not to invest in TV coverage of local games on the Aurora channel, despite the fact that the clubs wanted coverage to continue.

The benefit of playing these games at the same time on Saturday morning is, of course, that people will be able to see both semi-finals. That’s good. But, at exactly the same time?

Spare a thought for this observer. I’ll either have to sit along the space reserved for spectators between the two pitches, preferably on some sort of revolving chair, or sit upstairs in the University club house and scan both pitches from there.

If it’s in the revolving chair, I’ll be spinning around at the shrill call of the two whistles. If I’m not careful, the chair will act as rotor blades on a helicopter and I’ll take off!

Enough of this tongue-in-cheek stuff and on to the matches. And, it is indeed good that these games don't clash with the Premier League games. I suspect that is why they are being played at this time. Well done, FFT!

_________________________________________
BEACHSIDE V METRO
__________________________________________

Beachside will have Sam Howarth back after he was unavailable last weekend, while Metro will be looking for top performances from their three Scottish imports.

One of these, Ricky Orr, scored the winner against Nelson last weekend.

“We played Metro recently in a practice game and won 2-1, but their squad appears to be far stronger than the one that played that evening,” said Beachside player-coach, Nathan Robinson.

“Metro looked impressive last week in attack, especially with the return of Nathan Brown, and caused Nelson many problems, so we are looking forward to taking up the challenge this week.

“I expect it to be a close encounter, but with some of our younger players like Alex and Patrick Bigg, Jason Szoka and Kurt De Jong in good form and gaining confidence with every game, I believe we are capable of progressing through to the final next Friday night.”

Metro coach, Darrin Chaffey, said: “We’re looking forward to the game against Beachside this Saturday, but not so much looking forward to the 10:30am start.

“What’s that all about?

“Beachside have some very experienced players and will be one of the teams to beat for the season proper.

“No doubt Robbo will have his team keen to move though to the final, so we expect this to be a good challenge to see where we’re at.

“We will use pretty much the same squad that we had for the round-robin games of the cup.

“With both Metro teams playing semis on Saturday, I don’t see the point of cup-tying more players.

“It’s more about ensuring all get a run at this time of the season.”

Prediction: Draw, with Metro to win the penalty shoot-out.
_________________________________________
NEW TOWN EAGLES V TAROONA
_________________________________________

New Town Eagles will be without Scott Graham (hamstring injury), Matt Williams (back injury) and Marty Nidorfer (work commitments), but Steven Bukowiecki, Adam Colgrave, John Holliday and Jack McCann will come into the side to play Taroona.

Bukowiecki is a very useful player when fully fit and he will need to be watched by the Taroona defence.

“Young teenage sensation, Alex Ayres, will return to the Under-19s, meaning Richard Leszenscki will play as a lone striker,” said Eagles coach, Marty Nidorfer.

“Taroona and New Town are like chalk and cheese, but our lads much prefer the softness and warmth of flannelette compared to a cold and cutting white collar.

“Of concern is the fact that six of our first eleven are specialist liberos, meaning half our side are extremely adept at marking nobody. Training this week has tried to address this issue.

“This is our final match before we get relegated to Division 2, so the boys are fired up for a good showing.

“I don't think any of the semi-finalists will beat Beachside and it's a fait accompli that they will take all before them this year.”

The New Town Eagles squad is:

Donahue, Colgrave, Pitchford, McCann, Bukowiecki, Proud, Wiggins, Hadfield, Louden, Reeve, Vernon, Holliday, Vernon and Leszczynski(x 2).

Given one of Nidorfer's comments, he must not be confident of winning this semi-final and playing in the final as he refers to it as being the side's final game before relegation to Division Two.

Nathan Meyers will be in goal for Taroona because Jon Burridge is working interstate.

“We’ve done a lot of work on finishing and we need to start taking our chances, but we’re creating plenty and I’m confident we’ll start to improve as we get a bit sharper with each game,” said Taroona’s assistant coach, Ben Horgan.

“We will have a fairly similar team to last week.

“We’ll miss our goalkeeper Jon Burridge, of course, who has been looking really sharp but is working in Victoria for the next few weeks, but we’ve signed Nathan Meyers and, although he won’t be a hundred per cent fit, he’s a quality keeper and will strengthen our squad.

“I thought we played fairly well in the first half against Christian United, but we were awful in front of goal and it nearly came back to bite us in the second half when they were a lot more competitive.”

Prediction: Taroona