Kemblawarra Fury today booked a return date with Albion Park at WIN Stadium with a win over a resilient Wollongong Olympic side who did little to shake one's head at. In a pulsating match with momentum swinging on a pendulum, the chances on goal were raining in as fast as the inclement weather. Having ousted Bulli last round, Olympic were a side looking in good knick and were really troubling the Minor Premiers early on.

Brendan Fordham hit a free kick into the wall after only minutes, and a barnstorming run through the central channel from Harrison Brown was unlucky not to hit the mark with the killer pass off to Yusuke Ueda. Sam Gordon followed up a minute later with a nice volley from the top of the box deflected out for a corner, and Kyle Hazebroek slipped in his shooting stride in the testing conditions. All that within 11 frantic opening minutes.

From there, Kemblawarra began to edge their way into the game. Initially, Robbie Shields had stationed himself up front alongside his offsider Matthew McNab, however they shifted tact seeing Shields drop deeper into midfield to receive the ball and in turn Shane Murray dropping between the centre halves to begin each attack.

With this shift in play, the Fury begun to open up the field and were enjoying much more time and space than their previous fixture against the high pressing White Eagles. The Fury were able to switch play from wing to wing and venture infield from advanced positions, constantly harassing the Olympic defence. A stellar shift at the back from Jake Duczynski saw numerous key step-ins and blocks at pivotal moments.

It was further up the pitch the issue for Olympic, with their outlets going forward too often wasteful in possession and turning the ball over cheaply. Target man Ueda was often alone up top and did his best to occasionally draw a foul and advance play, however the defensive effort from the rest of the side saw little offered in return. Central combinations between Brown, Fordham, Graeme Smith and Duczynski were controlling the central channel in their own half, but outside this it was all Fury.

Ueda nearly opened the scoring on 27 minutes with the best chance of the half, letting fly a half volley from 25 yards after a knocked-down header from Andrej Gacesa. The shot fizzed just over the top left corner to the groans from the large Olympic contingent in the crowd.

The second quarter belonged to the Minor Premiers though, as their glorious one-touch passing in the final third begun to hit feet and movements were played perfectly. Shane Murray was unlucky to not net the opener from 20 yards after a side-footed shot pierced the traffic and caught Olympic keeper Hayden Durose unsighted until the last moment, with a reflex save down to his left required to push it away for a corner. The resulting corner was pulled back to Robbie Shields at the edge of the area, shooting first time, and the deflection off Sam Munro saw Durose spill the catch but it was smothered in time.

Similarly just before the break, a key block from Duczynski off the boot of McNab from 6 yards out prevented a shot from point-blank range.

The conditions grew dire late as the game wore on, with the rain becoming torrential. Resulting slippery conditions saw many slips, such as Cameron Morgan clattering into Shields who required attention afterwards.

The second period took off similarly to the first, with Olympic coming out of the blocks quickly and with great purpose. Within three minutes of resumption, Olympic had two chances cleared off the line by desperate defence. First, a towering header from Hazebroek at a corner, and secondly an acrobatic shot by Duczynski from a dinked free kick into the box.

Olympic were certainly making their share of chances, but the killer strike was just not presenting itself. Hazebroek had a header at the far post go off target from close range and Gacesa found Poeira's gloves from a 30 yard volley.

The game was turning out quite peculiarly - Kemblawarra were looking significantly more dangerous however they weren't getting shots off, whilst Olympic were producing more chances of slightly less threat to goal. Fury were comfortable holding the ball, happily passing from side to side outside the Olympic box, but getting through the notoriously tough defence was proving difficult.

Perhaps the most telling moment of the match for Olympic was both given and taken away by the conditions. A defensive slip set Ueda through on goal from halfway with a 3-on-1, but with two teammates alongside him, the striker's touch skidded on the slippy surface and into the arms of advancing Poeira.

Poeira was busy throughout the second period, also claiming a cross from in-front of Hazebroek's slide onto a deep cross and getting a hand to a second acrobatic shot of the afternoon from Duczynski. He was again called into action to parry a powerful drive from Ueda down the right wing, before seeing Fordham slipping trying to claim the rebound.

Out of nowhere in a cluster of Olympic chances, Kemblawarra broke down the other end and grabbed a corner. Headed clear, it fell to Fabian Iacovelli 25 yards out on the right foot, and cutting past two, he placed a shot into the right side netting from the left boot 20 yards out to open the scoring with 5 minutes left to play as everyone was readying for extra time.

Kemblawarra keeper Poeira nearly threw it all away in stoppage time though, trying to keep a back-pass in play, he slipped in avoiding conceding a corner. Ueda arrived on the scene at the by-line about 10 yards out, with Poeira scrambling to regain possession without giving away a penalty. It was only once David Hartas back-tracked to desperately clear that the threat was over, with full time being blown as soon as the corner was cleared.

 

Sunday 18th September - Crehan Park

Referee - T. Bosevski

Assistants - B. Herbert, N. Wotton, S. Bozic

 

Kemblawarra Fury 1 - Iacovelli 85'

Wollongong Olympic 0

 

Kemblawarra Fury - Poeira, O'Connor, Senior, Murray, Morgan, Hartas, Iacovelli, Ceccoli, McNab (Jagelman 70'), Shields (Mears 90'), Munro

Subs - Zufic, Mears, Kirkland, Jagelman, Waller

Wollongong Olympic - Durose, Lloyd, Keating, Duckzynck, Gordon (Wakeling 89'), Fordham, Brown, Ueda, Gacesa, Hazebroak

Subs - Mavrikis, Jackson, Wakeling, Mangos, Nikolovski

 

Report by David Atherton (@daveatho5)

Photo courtesy of Kiah Hufton