Photo: Aaron Brazendale holds the two trophies after the weekend's game to complete the double [Aaron Brazendale]; Aaron Brazendale, who has just done the double in the Queensland State League, in his Tilford Zebras strip [PlessPix]
Former Tilford Zebras midfielder Aaron Brazendale has had a terrific and successful season with Sunshine Coast Fire in the Queensland State League.
The 25-year-old left Tasmania in January to join the Fire and the club won this season’s league title.
On the weekend, they also won the grand final, beating Brisbane Strikers 1-0 to complete the double.
Brazendale, who has been playing as a right-midfielder, has scored 4 goals this season and he is an integral part of the senior line-up.
“Things are going pretty well up here and I’m working for an accounting firm,” Brazendale said. “And, I’m playing a bit of football.
“I’ve mainly been on the right side of midfield, but I have been playing up front sometimes, but not very often.
“My season has been pretty good, but I’ve had to adapt to the way this team plays. I think I’ve fitted in all right.
“I had a few niggling injuries mid-season, but it’s been a pretty solid year and I’m happy with it.
“I’ve been starting, and I started in the grand final on the weekend, too.”
Brazendale said the Fire played in the Queensland State League and that makes life and football a lot different to the set-up in Tasmania.
“The league has eight teams and ranges as far north as Cairns and as far south as Brisbane,” Brazendale said.
“We play every team three times and that can involve a lot of travel.
“We fly to Cairns, for example, and we do that over two days. They fly you all over the place. We always fly.
“The only bus trip is to Bundaberg, which is three hours to the north.
“Next year, they’re expanding the league and Gold Coast is coming in.
“I’ve also caught up with David Abela as he’s in charge of the Queensland Academy of Sport side, which plays in our league, and they also have a younger side as well. They’re based in Brisbane. We’ve beaten them every time we’ve played them, but they’re a good side.
“Obviously, they’re feeding into the Brisbane Roar Youth Academy.
“Other places we go to are Townsville, Rockhampton and Mackay.
“Hopefully, I’ll play for the Fire again next year.”
Brazendale decided to leave Tasmania and go to Queensland after returning from a European trip last year and his football career has flourished.
“It’s been an unbelievable year, and to do the double was just great,” he said. “Everyone is just over the moon.
“I scored four goals from out wide, so that’s okay.
“We’ve played some great teams this year outside the competition, too.
“We played the Brisbane Roar pre-season and we also played against the Japanese Under-21 national team when they came here.
“We also played the Football Superstars team from that television series.
“This coming weekend, we play the Northern New South Wales champions.”
Brazendale hopes to come home for Christmas to catch up with family and friends.
“I might come down before, though, as my sister has just had a baby,” he said.
The Sunshine Coast Fire website is at:
http://www.sunshinecoastfc.com.au/
9 comments:
Well done Brazza.
Very good to keep hearing about our successful players Walter. Just wondering how you found out about this breaking news? Get a tip off? Or does Aaron have a media manager? Could it be somebody we know?
Now that is a great story, a kid with endless potential who needed to be further challenged in life and football, he made a big step and has shown what he is capable off, fantastic news and well done to you Braz, my kids will be rapped to see your picture as you were always a favourite of theres, pat on the back to your family who no doubt also supported you though this big move
Well done..
Brett P
Congratulations mate, excellent achievement.
Mat Sanders scored the first goal in Green Gully's 3-0 victory in the Victorian Premier League Final. Well done Mat.
Well done to Azza & Matt on their great efforts.
Another one is young Sean Howe who, at the age of 18, won our club B&F last year then moved to Townsville & played against Azza in the Queensland State League for the North Queensland Razorbacks. He's another guy with enormous potential & relished the step up.
It's great to read of the progress of these guys Walter. Keep it up!
Hi Walter.
Great to hear about Azza & Matty Sanders. Hopefully Julius or whoever is doing the Mercury write up these days has also read your article & they too will do a story for the paper. We need to have these stories published for all to read. It lets the younger kids see that they can achieve things in this game in Australia other than the A-League. After all, we are always told about some country kid going to play AFL in some other outback country town or some young kid getting the oranges ready for some local AFL team (Big DEAL).
It would be great if you could get a list of all former Tasmanians that are playing around Australia in top leagues as well as those playing over seas. I know Dylan Fennell was playing for a while in England but not really sure @ what level. I know it wasn't Premier League. haha
I also heard that Zebras trio of Dylan Fennell, Josh Smith and David Cox went to the UK but mainly for work and travel. Not sure they played though?
dylan fennell, david cox and josh smith could go to melbourne and clean sanders boots
Yeah that would be it wouldnt it. Why did you even post that?
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