Football Matters with Cyclops

Local

The Final games of the 2024 North Queensland season were played last weekend in the Crad Evans Shield. At the end of every season the Champion teams from North Queensland play their counterparts in Far North Queensland. This year the eight senior games were played in Townsville. No Burdekin teams were minor Premiers and so were not involved.

In the Main Men’s games, in the Premier Division MA Olympic lost 3-5 to Marlin Coast Rangers and in the Under 23s (Reserves) Estates were beaten 2-3 by Innisfail Utd. In Division 1, Ingham were beaten 2- 3 by Marlin Coast Rangers but, in Division 2, Townsville Warriors defeated Stratford Dolphins 2-1.

In the Women’s matches, MA Olympic lost 0-4 to Edge Hill Tigers in the premier Division and in the Under 23s MA Olympic were defeated 1-3 by Redlynch Strikers Utd.

The Burdekin Panthers Presentation Night will be held on Saturday 12 October at Populin’s Hall. Tickets are now available and can be bought online or from the Mad House at Night Soccer.

Night Soccer

Delta Cleaners Night Soccer’s Week 4 had mostly close games and the twenty matches, there were two forfeits, produced seventy goals. Top scorers for the Men were Mottin Earthmoving with six goals and Hallerwealth Old Grumpies and FJV with four each. In the Women’s competition Shin Kickers scored five. Individual top scorer was Josh Searle with four goals. Teams are reminded that their Nomination Fees are now due!

Juniors

The Junior season has finished but the Junior social soccer season will start next Tuesday 8th October

National and International

With new coach, Tony Popovic in charge the Socceroos have two very important matches coming up. They play China, in the Asian World Cup Qualifying Group C, in Adelaide on 10 October and are then away to Japan, five days later. The China match is a ‘must win’ and a draw in Japan would be a good result.

The Matildas will open their October FIFA International window with a match against Switzerland on 25 October. They are then booked for a friendly against Germany on Monday 28th October in Duisburg. Their next games are not until December when they play Chinese Taipei twice, in Melbourne and then Geelong.  

Only three weeks now before the A League kicks off its 2024-25 season. The first round will be played over the weekend of 18 - 20 October. The A League Women will kick off on 1st November.

In the Australia Cup Final Macarthur beat Melbourne Victory 1-0. Burdekin Panthers were one of the seven hundred and fifty eight teams who entered the competition, starting way back in February.

In the EPL, with Manchester City only drawing again, Liverpool have moved to the top of the League, one point ahead of City and Arsenal. Chelsea and Aston Villa are a further point away and Fulham has leapt into sixth place! At the foot of the table Wolves and Southampton each has one point after six games.

In Germany’s Bundesliga, Bayern and Leverkusen drew but Bayern still leads with thirteen points from five games. Eintracht is a point away in second place with Leipzig third. Leverkusen has dropped to fourth spot together with Dortmund. Holding up the league, Kiel and Bochum both have a solitary point form five rounds.

In Italy, the top four teams all won, and after six rounds Napoli leads Juventus by one point and AC Milan. Inter and Torino by two points. At the bottom of the table all five teams lost and Cagliari is last with two points.

In Spain, Barcelona somehow managed to lose 4-2 at Osasuna but still top the table three points ahead of Real Madrid. Third placed Atletico is another two points away with Bilbao in fourth place on goal difference. At the bottom of the league only Las Palmas is yet to win a game.

And in France, after six rounds PSG and Monaco are equal on sixteen points three points clear of third placed Marseille with Reims two points further adrift in fourth place. Only one of the seven bottom teams won and Angers continues to prop up the table.

The Quote of the Week is from Australia’s very own Ange Postecoglou “I was alright as a player. I played for the Socceroos three or four times, but I was a battler - hard at it as we say in Aussie terms.”

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Award recipients, Ryan Scodellaro, Josh Valle, Jay Leckenby, Jarrod Camer, with their proud Coach, Leighton Gallagher.
The Panthers came away second best in the Grand Final on 14 September.
The Burdekin Football Club was awarded the Football Queensland Protect our Game Service Award. 
After a nail-biting Grand Final game, the boys celebrated the conclusion of an awesome season.

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