The Weekly Wash-Up
We’re counting down to the final third of the season and didn’t we see some big results from the weekend - results that will have a bearing on premierships and finals hopes. Here’s the five things that captured our attention from the weekend.
#1:: Grant Road Fortress Breached Caboolture’s home form has been impressive with them scoring freely and making Grant Road Sportsground an formidable fortress for visiting teams. Maybe it was a premonition last week when Bardon Latrobe earned a point off the Snakes, the first points Caboolture had dropped at home in two seasons since entering Football Brisbane competitions. In the latest round however, all eyes were on Tarragindi Tigers who, despite languishing at the wrong end of the table, stunned everyone by inflicting Caboolture’s first home defeat since 8th August 2015 when the Snakes lost to Maroochydore in the Sunshine Coast Premier League. Furthermore, defeat at the weekend allowed league leaders St George Willawong to extend their lead at the top of the table to five points. In addition to this result in Capital League 3, bottom side Jimboomba United ended a 10 game losing streak when they managed to earn a point against Slacks Creek following a 4-4 draw. Ironically United's last point earned was away to the same opponents. Josh Baskett’s late equaliser giving his side a point and ending a dismal run of results; although they still remain rooted to the foot of the table. Still in Capital League 3 was Narangba’s fine 6-1 win over Redcliffe PCYC that saw the Eagles finally put together the sort of form they’re capable of showing. Their six goals from this game went close to doubling their tally for the entire season. #2:: Knights With Season Double Over Lions Ipswich Knights are certainly an improved side in recent weeks but perhaps no-one except the Knights faithful expected them to pull off a win over title chasing Lions FC at Lions Stadium on Saturday night, let alone with ten men. Lucas Wilson turned from hero to villain after first putting Knights ahead in the 20th minute before being shown a straight red 13 minutes later to leave his side down to ten men for close to an hour. When Henry Hore levelled on the hour it appeared Lions would go on with the job but they were unable to find a way through and when Dale Robinson converted from the penalty spot on 82 minutes, it became one of those nights for Lions as Knights went on to complete a league double over their local rivals, for just their fourth win of the season. Defeat for Warren Moon’s side denting hopes of them retaining their premiership crown although the Flight Centre Premier League is still way too close to call. A five point buffer at the top for Rochedale Rovers does however give the Underwood Park side a small grip on the premiership title. #3:: Wolves In Seven Goal Thriller Wolves FC seem to be a side the likes to make hard work of games and their recent league encounter at home to Acacia Ridge was no different. Ridge strolled out to a 3-0 lead in the first 17 minutes of the game before the home side finally realised why they were there, battling back to level things at the break with three goals in the final 17 minutes of the half. The second half not quite living up to the excitement of the first until Oliver Foran’s 74th minute goal completed a remarkable comeback for Wolves to earn them all three points and keep alive their finals hopes. There was almost an even greater comeback in the Flight Centre Premier League when Grange Thistle gave Rochedale Rovers a huge scare on Saturday evening, coming back from 4-0 down to 4-3 just after the hour mark.
Were it not for a superb save from Rovers keeper Mario Aparicio to deny Thistle an equaliser it could well have become the comeback of the season. Unfortunately for Grange, the visitors went on to score twice more to put the result beyond doubt. #4:: Moggill Relegated Sadly we’ve seen the first team relegated in the 2017 season with Capital League 1’s Moggill confirmed to finish bottom the table. Moggill’s 17th straight defeat of the season on Friday evening followed by Mt Gravatt’s point away to Southside Eagles a day later meant Moggill could no longer catch the teams above them, with just five games remaining and 15 points on offer. It’s never a nice feeling for any side to go through such a tough season but we’d like to give the players from Moggill full credit for battling it out week in and week out. Their focus must now be on avoiding going through the entire season without a single point to their name. They have gone close in a handful of games this season, in particular away at Acacia Ridge and The Gap where they suffered narrow defeats.
#5:: Mitchelton Maintain 100% Record We finish off in stark contrast to Moggill’s season with Mitchelton’s Mt Franklin Women’s Premier League side who continue to aim at going through the 2017 season with winning all 18 league games. They’re a third of the way there after their recent 4-0 success over Annerley on Saturday afternoon and seemingly unstoppable. It’s virtually a full gone conclusion that they’ll retain their premiership crown from last season, but to go through the entire season winning every game will be a major achievement. Question is, who can stop them?
