Football Federation Australia and Northern NSW Football have recently staged the 2010 Westfield Women’s’ National Youth Championships in the beautiful northern NSW coastal fishing town of Coffs Harbour.
The tournament was held in the magnificent BCU International Stadium and attracted over 400 of the best young footballers from across the nation to what is Australia’s most prestigious junior tournament for women. Attendances over the five days at the tournament were also very good.
Attending the official opening and watching with interest was Tom Sermani, Head Coach of the Australian National Women’s team. The Westfield Matildas recently made history by taking out the prestigious AFC Women’s Asian Cup Tournament and the first Australian football team to be crowned Asian champions.
The victory also means the Matildas have automatically qualified for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
Players, coaches and support staff from each of the State teams were on hand to hear Tom encourage the girls to play hard but fair. He reminded them that they too were on the threshold of playing an important part in the future of football in this country.
However, not being in a winning team at the tournament is not seen as failure and could still lead to the start of their representative careers in the national Westfield women’s W-League, state representation or selection for the Matildas. There are a number of current Matilda’s under Tom’s care who have featured previously in this national tournament and in the W-League.
The tournament has grown significantly from the original competition between a few states, to hosting ten teams in each of the U15 and U17 divisions.
The representative teams came from Northern NSW, NSW Metropolitan, NSW Country, Queensland, Football West, South Australia, Victoria, Capital Football, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
NSW is now split into three representative teams, which shows just how popular football is in this state.
So let’s reveal the winners of the 2010 Westfield Women’s National Youth Championships.
In one of the closest results ever for this tournament, the U15s title was taken out by NSW Metro, which is made up of exceptional young female footballers from Sydney and the surrounding areas.
NSW Metro finished with 10 points, just one point ahead of three teams who finished equal on 9 points – Victoria, South Australia and Capital Football. South Australia and Victoria also equal on goal difference of +11.
You can’t get much closer than that, the top four within a point of each other.
The remaining U15 teams in order were; Queensland, Northern NSW, South Australia, Tasmania, Football West and the Northern Territory.
There was plenty of action too in the U15 tournament with 70 goals scored at an average of 3.5 per game. The Golden Boot Award for the U15s went to Kariah White from Victoria with 6 goals, closely followed by Zoe Michael from South Australia with 5.
In the U17s, NSW Country (12 pts) were the surprise winners. Led by Brooke Duffy and Jenna Collingridge, NSW Country had a great tournament winning every game, scoring 11 goals and conceding just one.
NSW Metro fell just short of a famous double after taking out the U15 title, with 10 points. A draw with South Australia coming back to haunt them, as the difference between the two teams.
Queensland, Victoria and Capital Football (7 pts each) were all very competitive and then followed Northern NSW, South Australia, Tasmania, Football West and the Northern Territory.
Capital Football’s Ashleigh Palombi has repeated her excellent club form for Woden Valley (ACT) in the national tournament with five goals, seeing her take out the U17 Golden Boot Award. She held off Young Matilda and Queenslander Brittany Whitfield and Victorian Morgan Anderson, who finished equal second on four goals.
Next month, in September, it’s the young Australian men’s turn to take the spotlight in the 2010 Men’s National Youth Championships at the same location, the BCU International Stadium in Coffs Harbour.
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