Walter Pless on Football

Vic Tuting Silver Medal Preview

By Walter Pless

Glenorchy Knights’ Brazilian midfielder, Igor, is the favourite to take out the 2008 Vic Tuting Silver Medal as the southern Premier League’s best-and-fairest player.

The medal count takes place on Friday evening, 10 October, at the Wrest Point Hotel Casino.

Igor - full name Igor Oliveira Sao Jose - joined Knights this season from Brazil and scored 13 league goals for the club.

Igor with his trophies from the recent Knights presentation evening

He also had a trial with Melbourne Knights during the latter stages of the season.

Hobart Zebras striker Ben Crosswell is Igor’s biggest threat as he caught the eye by scoring 27 goals to easily finish as the league’s leading marksman.

Crosswell has silky skills, but his goalscoring touch deserted him towards the end of the season.

Ben Crosswell scored 27 goals in the league this season

Zebras captain Brett Pullen, who has a hat-trick of medals to his name, should also poll well, as should Zebras central defender Andrew Telega.

Hobart Olympic will be represented by Chris Tsakiris, Danijel Djekanovic and goalkeeper Dmitri Nester, while Clarence’s Ben Parker, Paul Bremner and Dwayne Walsh are also in the running.

Tsakiris and Bremner may well be the dark horses in the count.

University’s three leading vote-getters are Alexis Bull, Aaron Hindmarsh and goalkeeper Ryo Matsuo, while Kingborough Lions United’s representatives are Charles White, Mark Iseli and Ross Hinkley.

Goalkeeper Ben Peter and midfielder Jacob Gordon are Igor’s team-mates from the Knights who are in the running, while league champion South Hobart will be represented by midfielders Jonathon Ladic, Bart Beecroft and David Abbott.

Beecroft and Abbott cannot be discounted despite probably taking votes off each other.

Alex Leszczynski, Chris Wass and Andrew Clark are New Town Eagles’ invitees, while goalkeeper Michael McKenna, defender Mohand Rahni and midfielder Aaron Marney will represent Metro.

Taroona’s candidates are Tom Sherman, Marcus Atkinson and Jack Elliot.

Tasmanian juniors perform well at national titles

By Walter Pless

Tasmania’s boys’ under-15 football team finished a creditable fifth at the national championships in Coffs Harbour, NSW, last week.

Tasmania’s Sam McIntyre scored with a blistering free-kick to give his side a 1-0 win over Victoria Metropolitan to seal fifth place.

In the earlier games of the week, Tasmania lost 7-2 to Western Australia but then recovered to score some impressive results in the tournament.

Tasmania beat Country NSW 3-2, with Dylan Postma, Sam McIntyre and Brayden Mann scoring the goals in the first half to lead 3-1 at the break and move into third spot in Group B.

Tasmania scored an unprecedented third win in a row when they downed the highly rated Northern NSW 2-1 through a brace by Andy Baron.

They then lost 3-0 to NSW Metropolitan, but still finished third in their group to earn the play off for fifth and sixth place against Victoria Metropolitan.

The Tasmanian under-14s finished in eighth place after going down 5-1 to Capital Football, the ACT representative side, in their play-off match.

Tasmania had begun the tournament well by overcoming Queensland 2-1 on the opening day.

They then drew 1-1 with Northern NSW, 1-1 with Country NSW and 1-1 with South Australia, Jordan Muller netting in the game against the South Australians, to finish fourth in the their group and earn a showdown with Capital Football.

Meanwhile, the Southern Tasmania under-13s left for Newcastle, NSW, on Sunday for a tournament also involving Tasmanian sides from the north and north-west and local Newcastle clubs, including a Newcastle representative side.

The tournament was organised by former Football Federation Tasmania CEO, David Smith, who is now the coaching director for Northern NSW.

The Southern Tasmanian squad of 16 players, coached by Rodney Bones and assisted by Nick Di Martino, began training in February this year after lengthy trials to identify players began last November.

The squad was whittled down from 80 players who began the selection process.

The team has been competing in a southern under-15 competition all season and also played in the Festival Cup and Launceston Cup junior competitions.

“The experiment of playing the these boys up in the under-15 competition shone through in these under-13 tournaments and the guys’ confidence grew when they were once again playing against their own age group,” said Bones.

“I believe the guys will hold their own in Newcastle and, if we apply ourselves in the right ways, we will play a very positive and free-flowing game of football.

“As long as we play football in the style we have shown these guys, then we will be more than competitive against opposition I am expecting to be tough.

“I have a very talented squad of 16 boys this year who work well as a unit and complement each other in every aspect of football.

“Everyone is looking forward to the challenge and I’m positive the boys will make themselves and Tassie football followers very proud whilst away.”

The squad is:  Jake Hartshorn, Nicholas Green, James Ince, Jarron Lulitanond, Ben Aitken, David Mcclung, Brendon Hay, Zac Bury, Greg Mcdonald, Gift Ochaya, Lucas Hill, Nicholas Mearns, Chris Mcdonald, Sam Fahey, Christian Di Martino, Mitchell Stalker, (Coach:  Rodney Bones;  Assistant Coach:  Nick Di Martino;  Sports Trainer:  Wayne Aitken;  Manager:  Brett Hey)

In other news, Igor Oliveira Sao Jose has been names as Glenorchy Knights’ best-and-fairest player and leading goalscorer, while goalkeeper Ben Peter was the players’ player-of-the-year.

In the reserves, Carlos Fuentes was the leading scorer, Marcus Burn the best and fairest, and Peter Frank the players’ player-of-the-year.

Brodie Green took out the Under-19 best-and-fairest award and the players’ player award, while Will Stalker was the most improved and Amadu Koroma the top scorer.

Anthony Grundy and Marina Brkic were awarded life membership.

Stacey Bennett was the Women’s Premier League best-and-fairest player, Brenda Nevin the players’ player and Lauren Griffiths-Lee the leading scorer.

In Women’s Division One, Steevie Coulson was the leading scorer, Jemma Dacy the best and fairest, Michelle Luck the players’ player of the year and Agnes Parr took out the encouragement award.

Spencer Gibbs was the top scorer in the men’s Division Three side, while Jarrod Cumming was the best-and-fairest player and Tony Dzelalija the player’s player of the year.