The first match of 2016’s FSC All-Star Football Night, at Crehan Park, saw the Illawarra Stingrays dominate the FSC All-Stars four goals to nil, in a commanding display of speed and precision.

The Illawarra Stingrays took the exhibition match as an opportunity to trial a number of younger players from their reserve-grade and under-17s, and to debut Ashleigh Koteski at No. 10.

From the opening minutes of the match, Illawarra showed confidence and ability in all aspects of their game, with the forwards putting their teammates into space with pinpoint accuracy, and the backs using rush-defence to head off any All-Star counter-attack.

The All-Stars used their defensive patterns admirably to absorb the pressure that the Stingrays were heaping on them from the get-go, and after spending the first ten minutes almost entirely within their own half, the All-Stars looked to be finding their rhythm with some attacking forays into the Illawarra half.

But the aggression in defence shown by Illawarra kept the All-Stars fairly disjointed in their attacking plays, with Katelyn Leadbeater and Courtney Riordan creating problems for them in mid-field, and as a result the All-Stars found that too much of their forward passing was missing the mark and being pounced on by the Illawarra defence.

Due to the doggedness in the All-Stars defence, particularly from Melanie Ireland, the Stingrays were kept scoreless for most of the first half, with Kristy Kunovski and Sophie Hancock creating scoring chances virtually every time they touched the ball.

The first breakthrough for Illawarra came toward the end of the first half, with Riordanscoring decisively from a penalty kick.

The beginning of the second half saw the All-Stars try to find their way back into the game, but were thwarted once again by the speed of the Illawarra forwards when Danika Matos found the net off the back of some lightning quick passes from the mid-field.

With the home side down two goals, competition for the ball became much more aggressive, with players from both teams seeing yellow cards for tackling infringements.

Midway through the second half, the leadership and skill of Leadbeater saw Illawarra assert their dominance over their opposition, as she moved from the mid-field into a forward position to link up with Kunovski on the wing to make some scintillating runs at the All-Star’s goal.

Sophie Hancock capped off her fantastic performance for Illawarra as she put them three-nil up with fifteen minutes left, and with an unsurmountable lead the Stingrays nonetheless maintained their speed and aggression right into the final minutes of the match.

Despite their commitment to gaining some respectability in the score-line, the All-Stars were unable to contain the blistering pace of the Stingray’s attack, which had Danika Matos strike the back of the net for her second goal of the match, in the dying seconds before the final whistle, leaving the score at a commanding four goals to nil for Illawarra.

Illawarra coach Earl Canvin, was understandably pleased with his team’s performance, adding that, “it was a chance to have a look at some of our younger players, there’s some really great talent coming through at the club.”

 

Illawarra Stingrays – 4 (Riordan, Matos (2), Hancock)

FSC All-Stars – 0

 

Wednesday 2^nd March 2016

John Crehan Park

 

Referee: Angela Gray

Assistants: Emma Hayes, Sian Magavock

 

Illawarra Stingrays: Finlayson, Riordan, Matos, Jordan, Leadbeater, Woods, Hancock, Austin, Rolhill, Kotzki, Kunovski (Wise, Colburn, Constable, Nguyen, Kendis)

FSC All-Stars: Vaughan, De Freits, Allnutt, Skopal, Tolson, Hodgkins, Janeska, Giraldi, Battin, Davis, Kable (Ireland, Ring, Atkins, Lawson, Ioranni)

 

Story by Oliver Chaseling

Photo by Pedro Garcia