Season Kicks Off On Saturday

Nanango FFA Cup — The Panthers’ strong performance in the FFA competition has issued a warning to the other teams in the South Burnett competition

March 18, 2014

by Martin Stern
Football South Burnett

The Evolution Solar Football League competition will start this weekend. The local derby between Wests and Gunners will be held in Kingaroy on Saturday while Nanango will host Barambah on Sunday.

Three rounds will be played before a fortnight recess during the school holiday break.

The President’s Cup will be played on Saturday. May 17, between the top two teams of each division after each team has played each other twice.

Download the 2014 Season Draw (206kb)

* * *

Preview Of The Teams:

Nanango

Nanango will be the benchmark of the competition in both Men and Women’s teams.

The Nanango men’s team is Football South Burnett’s representative in the FFA Cup, which is played along the same lines as the English FA Cup and lower division teams have the chance to be giant killers if they are good enough.

Nanango beat Toowoomba Premier League team Gatton 2-0 but went down 2-1 to Willowburn, Toowoomba’s top side. They were never out of the match and could have won if things went their way.

“All the players are enthusiastic about the upcoming season and they have enjoyed the challenge of the FFA Cup,” Team manager Damien Walters said.

Nanango have a few new players including Kyron Tunstall and Kieran Askin who are familiar faces in the South Burnett competition.

Asked about how his team stay motivated Damien said: “There is a lot of pressure and competition for positions within the team. Each week players will be fighting for their spot in the team”.

Nanango should do the business again this year in the First Division, but will face some challenges along the way.

Nanango Women will also start favourites, but will face strong challenges from the other three sides. Their side is a good mixture of youth and experience who never throw in the towel.

Gunners

2014 will be a major rebuilding year for the Gunners.

Last year Gunners pushed Nanango all the way in the Grand Final and beat them in the President’s Cup Final.

However the club has lost 13 players and many good ones at that. Gone are the likes of Ryan Mooney, Zac Strauss, Bailey Raines, Brody Hatchman and others.

“With so many new players we may have a slow start to the season, but we will gather strength towards the mid to latter part of the season and our results should improve,” Gunners Coach Debbie Ovens said.

Gunners will have a young squad and it will be a tough year for them, however under the guidance of Debbie they will be at their very best.

Another team that will be rebuilding is Gunnettes.

New coach Tracey Clegg has probably the toughest task of all the coaches with a very inexperienced team. This will be a year of rebuilding that will hopefully bear fruit in a year or two.

Wests

Last year Wests were a better team than results showed. This year, like Gunners, Wests will have a lot of new players, some from out of town and some that have come through cadets, and it will be a young side.

“This year we will turn up with our two squads, enjoy our football and see what happens,” coach Mauro Buzzo said.

Wests lose their play maker Harry Sterling who is now with South West Qld Thunder in the NPL, but has succumbed to an injury and will be out for the season.

Wests welcome back veteran Marty Perrett. If their more experienced players remain fit and injury free they could give the competition a good shake with their possession based game.

Wests women were disappointing in last year’s Grand Final but the team has been bolstered by the acquisition of some new players including Chrissy McBride and Anna Logan.

Barambah

Barambah surprised many last season, winning the Second Division Premiership. The nucleus of the team has stayed together and now knows each other’s game.

In addition, there are a few new faces and quite a few cadets have come through the ranks.

Barambah is yet to appoint a permanent coach but currently they are being trained by Daniel Jensen.

Like last season, they may have to rely upon a group of the more experienced players to lead the way. Hopefully their player numbers will be up from last season to save players from doubling up.

This team could easily fly under the radar and be there on Grand Final Day.

The Barambah women’s team failed to fulfil their potential last season, so expect bigger things from them this year.

They have a very enthusiastic team of youngsters together with a handful of more experienced players. Sarah Vanderkolk will have them ready to play.

* * *

This week’s games: