Most kids their age would have been at home in front of the Playstation or hanging out at their friends’ places, but during their winter school holidays the Metropolitan North under 11s boys side braved the cold and won the NSW State Titles in Nowra.
The league featured some of the best young players in the state, and Metro North put in an outstanding effort to finish on top, winning seven out of their eight matches and scoring 27 goals while only conceding four to take out the title by one competition point over runners-up, Metro South.
The competition was played across six different age groups for boys – under 11s to 16s – and three for girls – 12s, 14s and 16s.
Metro North are traditionally strong in the girls, with the under 16s winning last year’s title and getting the sweep of 12s, 14s and 16s in 2006. But this year it was the boys who took the spoils.
This year’s under 11 boys comp went down to the wire, with late morning matches on the final day deciding the championship.
Metro North was victorious against Metro West 3-0 and Metro South accounted for Metro East 3-1 in the final games to clinch the top two spots. Metro North were runners-up in the under 15s tournament.
The Metro North regional team consists of boys from Ku-ring-gai District, Gladesville-Hornsby and Manly-Warringah, coached by Chris Williams from Manly United, and they competed against the nine NSW regional teams over five days in some of the most intense and exciting football the competition has seen.
Five Ku-ring-gai under 11 representatives, including co-captain Daniel Alessi, George Blackwood, Anthony Kalik, John Bachelard and Ryoya Ito, helped Metro North win the title.
The boys all played their junior football locally in the KDSA competition: Daniel played for West Pymble and Sacred Heart Pymble; George for Berowra; Anthony for Northbridge; John for Wahroonga Tigers; and Ryoya for Lindfield.
Under Chris Williams’ instruction, the Metro North boys played attractive football all over the park, with swift ball movement, outstanding finishing and tenacious defence all contributing to their success.
The team improved with each match and finished the competition playing quality football.
All the regional outfits excelled, with Country West and Riverina challenging the more-favoured Metro teams in some close matches.
There were a number of unexpected results as Far North (Central Coast) and Far South (Sutherland and Illawarra) collected wins from Metro East and Metro West, respectively, showing that football in this country has a strong future.
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