Australia's National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships

Day 1

Match 1 – Western Australia 1 - 2 Victoria

The competition started with Western Australia taking on Victoria.  This match set the tone so far for the tournament with hard football and a tug-of-war between the sides.  Victoria opened the scoring in the 5th minute through a goal from Cameron Gudgeon.  In the 18th minute Victoria doubled their lead through Ben Roche.  Western Australia tried hard and were rewarded with a goal in the 41st minute from some excellent work by Nicholas Prescott.  Neither team were able to add to their total in the last 19 minutes but both teams did have some excellent chances.

Match 2 – New South Wales 4 - 1 Queensland

Match 2 saw last year’s finalist taking on each other again.  NSW once again showed their dominance over the Queensland team by scoring in the 11th minute and 23rd minute of the game.  However Queensland were not going down without a fight.  An excellent long rang goal by Stacey Sarago-Ahkee right on half time.  In the 50th minute of the match NSW put the game beyond Queensland reach when Jack Starkey scored.  2 minutes later Zac Jones added to NSW total.  A very entertaining game ended with NSW winning 4-1 over Queensland.

Day 2

Match 3 – Victoria 2 - 2 New South Wales

The Victorian team came out and took it to the NSW team and thanks to this hard work they opened the scoring in the 5th minute through some excellent work from Ben Roche.  NSW hit back in the 18th minute with a goal to Ben Atkins.  NSW then took the lead in the 35th minute with a goal to Harrison Dowdell.  Victoria made it 2 all with 5 minutes to go with another goal to Ben Roche.  It was a real tussle until the end.

Match 4 – Western Australia 0 - 4 Queensland

This was an extremely important match for both teams as the loser would no longer have a chance to win the championships.   It was a tough match and the first half could not break the deadlock between the two teams.  Both teams had their chances in the first half to break the deadlock. Queensland came out for the second half and showed the power they have in their side with Angus MacGregors (32nd min), and Robbie Christie (38th min) scoring early to break the deadlock.  Stacey Sarago-Ahkee then put the icing on the cake by scoring in the 56th & 58th minute.

Day 3

Match 5 – Victoria 0 - 2 Queensland

This was a very important match for both teams as the winner would go on to meet New South Wales in the gold medal match.  It was a very tight tussle from the kick off.  Both Victoria and Queensland had chances but excellent goalkeeping work from both keepers kept the score at Nil all.  It was going to a piece of brilliance or some bad luck that would break the deadlock between the two teams.  Unfortunately for Victoria it was the back bit of luck when a ball deflected off the Victorian Defender and dribble past the keeper who was going the wrong way.

Victoria was not going to let this set back stop from trying to make the final.  They fought extremely hard but the experience of the Queensland team put the game beyond doubt with a goal to Stacey Sarago-Ahkee in the 59th minute of the game.

Match 6 – New South Wales 3 - 1 Western Australia

The New South Wales team having already qualified decided to put all of their young players on to start with against the Western Australian team.  The youngsters did themselves proud and you would not have noticed the difference between the first team and them.  In the 12th minute NSW opened the scoring through a goal to Harrison Dowdell.  NSW the doubled their lead 5 minutes before the end of the first half with a goal to Jack Williams.

The second half continued with NSW dominating and they added a third in the 38th minute.  Western Australia never gave up and were rewarded for their efforts with a goal in the 48th minute of the match.

Day 4

Bronze Medal Match – Victoria 5 - 2 Western Australia

Victoria opened the scoring in the 6th minute of the match and you could see the determination that they wanted the bronze medal for the tournament.  They extended their lead in the 16th minute with a goal to Cosimo Cirillo.  However Western Australia immediately hit back with a goal in the 17th minute to James Hunt.  Victoria then put the game beyond doubt before half time with goals in the 23rd minute to Ben Roche and 25th minute to Cameron Gudgeon.  Victoria took a 4 – 1 lead into the half time break.

Not long after the restart James Hunt for Western Australia scored his second goal for the match.  Ben Roche then scored his hat trick for the match by scoring again in the 59th minute.

Gold Medal Match – New South Wales 1 - 0 Queensland

The final was a familiar repeat of the last 11 National Championships where New South Wales were taking on their Queensland for the 12th time.  New South Wales had won 10 of the 11 National Championships and Queensland had won one.  Therefore New South Wales were going in as deserved favourites.

Queensland had decided that they would not go out and attack the New South Wales team but wait for their opportunity to get them on the counter attack.  This tactic did work in a way as it prevented the New South Wales team from scoring but gave them very little opportunity to attack. 

New South Wales showed their experience and dominated the match because of these tactics.  They were getting a little frustrated in not being able to break down the Queensland defence.  The half time score was NSW 0 and QLD 0.

Queensland continued to use the same tactics in the second half but it was only a matter of time before the New South Wales team would break down the defence and this occurred in the 44th minute when some quick passing by the NSW players caught them out and Jack Starkey scored what eventually would be the match winner.

Final Standings

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