Wollongong Olympic have blown away Tarrawanna Blueys with four goals in the opening half hour to claim the Under 18 Division One Grand Final 4-1 at WIN Stadium on Sunday morning.

A brace to Man of the Match Jackson Dent, as well as goals by Christian Kyriakou and Ali Sawan was just too much for the Minor Premiers Tarrawanna, who had held the best defence all season leaking just 19 goals in 22 regular season games.

A proud Wollongong Olympic coach Peter Passaliokis was full of praise for his squad post game.

“Absolutely the boys deserved this. We worked hard for the regular competition and we were a little bit unlucky, but we then focused on the finals series. We thought if we won the first game we would go well and here we are,” he said.

“We went out with a plan, to close down the ball very quickly and we did and we got them on the counter early. We are very very happy.”

Wollongong Olympic were on the offensive from the opening whistle, competing hard on every single contest for the ball.

On the 3rd minute, a ball into the penalty area from Olympic’s Louis Parsons-O’Malley saw the Tarrawanna goalkeeper Logan Clements fumble the ball due to pressure from Christian Kyriakou.

Only two minutes late a dangerous dart to towards the left post by Michael Kyriakoudes was so nearly rewarded, with the finish unfortunately drifting across the face of goals.

The Olympic attack broke down the Tarrawanna defence with the opening goal on the 10th minute, with a charging run from Christian Kyriakou forcing the ball to spill outside the top right of the penalty area for a one touch strike to Jackson Dent floating the ball over the goalkeeper for a delightful opening goal.

Only five minutes later the lead was doubled, with a gorgeous assist from Adam Galanti unleashing Christian Kryiakou who had time to rush to the goals and nail a class left boot finish across the face of goals on the 15th minute.

Two goals was not enough with the Olympians hungry for more, and in the 22nd minute a class ball from Matthew Galanti was chipped to Jackson Dent who had no issues with the volley finish again over the goalkeepers head for a his own brace and a 3-0 lead.

It took only another five minutes for the onslaught to continue, with a clearance lob from captain Peter Kyriakoudes finding Ali Sawan who hit a feeble strike that was inch perfect colliding with the right woodwork before falling into the net to give Wollongong Olympic an unassailable 4-0 lead 27 minutes into the game.

Tarrawanna was shellshocked and struggling to find there feet, as Olympic continued to haunt them in attack.

On the 35th minute, Olympic’s Christian Kryiakou beat two would-be defenders before the ball fell at the feet of Jackson Dent who sent a strike perilously close a metre above the goals.

Slowly Tarrawanna began to build territory, with the Bluey’s Aydin Yagmur sending a low powerful strike straight at the goalkeeper on the 37th minute for no result.

A 40th minute Olympic corner saw Jackson Dent’s boot direct the ball to an isolated and unmarked Peter Kyriakoudes who misdirected the low header just wide of the far post.

The half time score read an emphatic 4-0 lead to Wollongong Olympic, with Tarrawanna searching for answers on how to re-enter the game.

The second half recommenced with the dream start for Tarrawanna, a free kick from Ben Learmonth seizing a deflection that fell for Wesley Van Kempen who crushed the perfect left foot volley into the goals in the 41st minute for the score to read 4-1.

The Grand Final began to equal out, with either side unable to make severe inroads into the opposition defence.

In the 58th minute, an attack ignited from Tarrawanna’s Hayden Sweeney defence, endsing with a right foot effort from Aydin Yagmur that was directed straight at Olympic goalkeeper Felix Aloegninou who kicked the ball away.

Tarrawanna continued to press, with a lovely ball from Wesley Van Kempen for Aydin Yagmur on the 64th minute seeing the forward take it all the way to the by line before desperate Olympic defence swarmed him, allowing the goalkeeper able to come and pick it up.

In the 72nd minute, Olympic’s Matthew Galanti rose high to meet a corner opportunity but was unable to direct it into the netting for Olympic’s fifth goal of the morning.

Tarrawanna’s Ryan May tried to nab a late goal with a dangerous run to the left post, but a charging Olympic goalkeeper put too much pressure and forced the strike wide on the 74th minute.

The game rolled out to a dominant and well-deserved Grand Final victory to Wollongong Olympic with the final score reading 4-1.

Tarrawanna coach Beau Cropper was disappointed with the result but proud of the season his youthful team had produced.

“We are pretty gutted. We knew how they were going to come out, we knew they were going to test us with the long ball and we didn't deal with it,” he said.

“We are very proud of the boys for their season, for a bunch of 16 year old’s they had an absolutely brilliant season and they were lucky enough to play on WIN Stadium so I can't say much more than that.”

 

Sunday 25th of September, 2016

WIN Stadium

 

Referee: Mitchell Thorpe

Assistant Referees:Matilda Davis-Raiss & Emajen Crawley

Fourth Official:Jay Walpole

 

Wollongong Olympic 4 (Dent 10', 22', Kyriakou 15', Sawan 27’)

Tarrawanna Blueys1 (Van Kemp 41’)

Man of the Match:Jackson Dent

 

Wollongong Olympic: Felix Aloegninou, Thomas Chadrawy, Jackson Dent, Eren Esen, Danilo Jagnjic, Christian Kyriakou, Michael Kyriakoudes, Peter Kyriakoudes, Peter Kyriakoudes, Iman Naroui, Ali Sawan

Reserves: George Spyridakos, Brent Tekkol, Adam Galanti, Matthew Galanti, Louis Parsons-O’Malley

Yellow Cards: Nil

Red Cards:Nil

 

Tarrawanna Blueys: Logan Clements, Joshua Yeaman, Dylan Nikolovski, Hayden Sweeney, Lachlan Donnelly, Josh Brown, Sam Miranda, Ben Learmonth, Wesley Van Kempen, Cooper Smith, Julio Mushaba

Reserves: Jaidyn Lloyd, Matthew Digman, Pheonix Jarvis, Aydin Yagmur, Ryan May

Yellow Cards: Ryan May, Ben Learmonth

Red Cards: Nil

 

Report by Daniel McGookin

Twitter: @Daniel_McGookin

Photo by Pedro Garcia