Once again the AFS North-West collected the most awards at the State Championships; the teams recorded the following results:

Under 11- Gold Medal Winners

Under 12- Fourth Place

Under 13 -Fifth Place

Under 14- Gold Medal Winners

Under 15- Gold Medal Winners

Youth- Silver Medal Winners – on a Penalty shoot-out.

What makes these results even more impressive is that :Our Under 11’s have had a change in Coach, change of four venues – yet the players idolise their new coach Nabil, HE also took charge of the Under 12’sOur Under 12 – Squad had only four players and needed Under 11’s to assist in honouring its game commitments.Our Under 13-Under the Guidance one of our Senior Representative Coaches – Mr Tony Altieri whilst finishing fifth , with an average playing age of 12 – the Team probably played the most entertaining soccer of the tournament, Certainly stars of the future in this group.

The Under 14 –Under the Guidance of never give in Coach- Mark Cassar -just went about their job methodically and provided some players to assist the 15’sThe 15’s and Youth Squad were decimated from last minute withdrawals , by players and Coaches- which included bereavement leave to our Youth Coach and Injury to our most experienced player ,our Head Coach and Senior Representative Coach –Mr Anthony Sabato  took it in his stride and decided to take on the challenge to win both age groups.

 Our 15’s and Youth Squad, with only fifteen players  and one coach to compete in both ages groups . the true character of the North-West coaching staff and players  shone, with most eligible players playing in at least eight games.With all the Squad on its last legs , the situation was getting grave by the minute with three players injured , The Under 15’s Grand Final  could have been over in the final seconds with a post deflection causing the game to proceed to a Penalty Shoot-out . Ultimately , North-west won 8-7 on penalties.

As soon as this was over , there was no time to celebrate, as the players had to quickly proceed to the next game – where the Referees were threatening to cancel the game ,as it was delayed due to the 15’s penalty shoot-out.

Once again, with barely 5 fit players out of the initial 15 , the game ending in a nil all draw – much to the amazement of the highly fancied Casey outfit.(who only played 4 games with 17 players)The penalty shoot-out – unfortunately did highlight the tiredness of the players , and Casey ran-out winners 3-nil.

To our Credit a Silver medal ,with 5 fit players , and all bar 4 players Under the Age of Fifteen was certainly a massive accolade to the Players and Coaching staff for North-West.We must not forget the tireless work of Joe and Maria who ran around all day making sure that North West ran smoothly.