After a very even contest, penalties were required to separate the combatants after Bulli and Wollongong Olympic played out a one all draw in last night’s IPL Frat Cup Final at Memorial Park.

There was a surprisingly good crowd (approx. 300) on hand to witness the Pre-season finale which started in heavy rain.

With the slippery conditions there was not a great deal between the two sides throughout the 90 minutes with both sides giving their all to try and find the cutting edge.

It was Bulli who started the brighter and they opened the scoring after 15 minutes when Cameron Littler got on the end of an attacking raid which left him with a side foot volley from eight yards to find the back of the net.

The lead didn’t last that long as Olympic provided an equaliser eight minutes later with Gavin O’Brien scoring a rare goal with a header from a corner kick.

Whilst goals were at a premium for the remainder of the game, play did swing from end to end although the match did develop into somewhat of an arm wrestle as the game wore on.

With both sides tiring due to the heavy going as the dreaded penalty shootout crew closer, there were a number of opportunities for both sides to pinch a result in the closing stages.
In the last seven or eight minutes, Bulli looked certain to score on at least three occasions but were denied by either good goalkeeping or the bounce of the ball going against them.

Firstly, after a sweeping Bulli movement from their own end of the field, Littler was through on goal from wide on the right but his well struck angled shot from just inside the penalty area brought a super save from Olympic G/K, Hayden Durose.

Then, in the space of two minutes, Ben McDonald looked like he would grab the winner on two occasions when well positioned but appeared to ‘fluff his lines’ as the Olympic defence scrambled well to clear the danger.

With virtually the last kick of the game, Olympic almost stole the win when Javier Ovando was presented with a golden chance after a bad clearance form replacement Bulli Keeper, Ben McGinnes scuffed a clearance kick which went straight to Ovando 15 metres from goal but the midfielder was unable to control his shot which went wide of the mark.

In a high quality penalty shoot-out, 16 penalties were required before there was a miss with Olympic’s Gavin O’Brien, the victim of the law of averages. McGinnes who had come close to stopping a couple of the earlier penalties, guessed right on this occasion with a comfortable save to his left to leave his side 8-7 winners on the penalty count.

Collecting a piece of silverware, especially early in the season is always a good tonic and after finishing runners up in four IPL Grand Finals in recent times to win this tournament, should set the club up for another good season.

The win by Bulli gave them a sweep of the pre-season competitions with the club’s Youth Grade side taking out the Peoplecare Fernhill Youth Cup a couple of weeks ago.