Walter Pless on Football

Preview for Weekend of 30-31 August 2008

By Walter Pless

South Hobart will be without goalkeeper Mark Moncur when they take on Devonport City in Saturday’s Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy final at 2.45pm at KGV Park.

Moncur became unavailable when the match was switched from 5pm to the earlier time.

His understudy, Sam Kruijver, will take over in goal and coach Ken Morton has every confidence in the youngster.

“Sam is taller than Mark and, whenever he’s been required to step in, he’s done a good job,” said Morton. “The players have every confidence in him.”

Everyone else is fit and striker Billy Gasparinatos returns from suspension, which means Morton has up to 17 players available for selection.

Englishman Daniel White, who has impressed at training, has not yet been cleared and is unlikely to play.

“Colin Wain came through a full training session and he will be available, but there won’t be any massive changes,” Morton said.

“We’re all aware of Devonport striker, Chris McKenna, but the main thing for us is to respect them and go out and play our football.”

Devonport will be at full strength and will not bring John ‘Snow’ Compagne out of retirement for this match.

Compagne has played the occasional important game for Devonport this season, but has largely been inactive in the seniors.

Coach Tom McGinn said he was simply delighted that his side had reached the State-wide cup final and that anything could happen in this type of game.

South must shackle McKenna, whose aerial threat is significant. He has scored many goals with his head and will be extremely dangerous at corners and set-pieces.

Paul Scicluna, Sean Howe and Simon Wilson are others who can make and score goals and South will need to be aware of their presence.

The day’s programme begins at 12.30pm with the Under-19 cup final between Clarence United and Taroona.

Clarence finished second in the league and Taroona fifth, with eight points separating them, but cup finals are one-off games and upsets are always on the cards.

At 5pm, Nelson Eastern Suburbs takes on University in the Women’s State-wide Cup final.

Nelson won the league, a massive 10 points ahead of second-placed University, and in this case, it should be a telling factor.

Nelson’s Nicole Hale is one of the major threats confronting the Students.

She netted five goals last week in a league match and has hit top form.

Bliss Cantrell, Shelley Cook and Vanessa Johnson are other expert goalscorers in the Nelson line-up and their combined firepower should be too much for the Students.

David Kruijver plays his last game for Christian United on Saturday as the Division One season comes to a close with this catch-up match.

Kruijver, who has played over 100 games for the club, will be in action for seventh-placed Christian as they meet fifth-ranked Kingston Cannons at Sherburd Park, a ground both clubs share.

Christian lost 4-2 away to third-placed Beachside at Sandown Park on Wednesday in another postponed match, David Nettlefold and Jesse Arnold scoring Christian’s goals and David Long, Patrick Bigg, Daniel Gardner and Bernhard Klasen replying for Beachside, which led 2-1 at the break.

Saturday’s game will be Christian’s third in a week and this will test the depth of the club’s squad and their physical fitness.

Thomas Van Sant, one of Christian’s up-and-coming stars, will be missing, but Brodie Kirkpatrick returns to the line-up and player-coach Dave Nettlefold will have a run.

“Things are starting to come together for us at the end of the season,” said Nettlefold. “We’re starting to take our chances and put balls in the back of the net.

“We’re really excited about the way things are going and really looking forward to what next year has for us as a club.

“David Kruijver has been a committed member of the club and is highly respected among the playing group.

“We’ll be sad to see him go because he’s a real leader on the field and a great man to have around the guys.”

The Cannons have beaten Christian 5-2 and 4-0 in their previous meetings this season, so Christian will have to be at its best to triumph in this final showdown.

Christian cannot improve on their second-last placing. They are 4 points ahead of bottom-side Huon Valley and 5 points adrift of third-last Kingborough Lions United.

Meanwhile, representatives from the group conducting a feasibility study into Tasmania having an A-League side in the national competition have met with Football Federation Australia officials in Sydney.

John McGirr, chairman of the Tasmanian A-League Taskforce, and Craig Seymour met with John O’Sullivan, Chief Commercial Officer, and Michelle Phillips, Head of Major Projects, of the FFA for the purpose of presenting work done to date and to provide details of the comprehensive feasibility study now underway.

Mr McGirr said that FFA was receptive to the concept of an A-League team based in Tasmania, but stressed that a compelling case was required before a licence would be granted.

“The FFA was complimentary regarding our progress to date and we are confident that we will be able to present an extremely strong business case to both FFA and the Tasmanian community and intend to be ready to put a formal proposal for an A-League licence by mid-2009,” Mr McGirr said.

“We are encouraged by recent comments made by FFA’s Chairman and by the results of our meeting with Mr O’Sullivan and Ms Phillips, but there remains a substantial amount of work to be completed over the coming months.”

Voting for the logo of the proposed Tasmanian A-League side, Tasmania United, can still be done at www.focussedstrategy.com/ALeague/.