Hello to all the Minotaur family,
As the dust is settling and teams are winning or still competing to win their respective championships. I would like to inform you of last weekend's results and happenings.
Firstly, the trophy presentation day/night was a great success. It was very rewarding to see the smiling faces of all the little Minotavrakia receiving their trophies, medals and polo shirts at our club Kingsgrove RSL. The day BBQ was a great success and God (who is Cretan) stop the rain for long enough for all of us to enjoy the day. It was great to see all the little kids promise to return next year, remembering that the beginning of the new season 2011 and registration day is ALWAYS the first Tuesday in February at 6pm at Beverly Hills Park. See you then!!
In the evening, we had the sit down dinner for the representative youth teams (U13s to U18s), the senior squad (1st grade and reserve grade) and the old codgers (Over 35s). This was also a great evening with all the youth players receiving their trophies and the U14s youth being voted as the representative team for 2010 - Congratulations to Rob Seib and the boys. This being the award night for the senior squad, the prestigious award winners were announced as follows:
The Player of the Year award for first grade went to the popular player Michael Di Meglio who as we all know finished as the top scorer in our first grade and also in the whole State League Division 2. He will win the Golden Boot award at the Football NSW Awards evening as well as being a short favourite to win the Football NSW Division 2 Player of the Year.
Following Michael, the Player of the Year in reserve grade was Steve Takopoulos who also had a good season and is knocking on the door for inclusion into the first grade squad.
The Most Improved Player for season 2010 was awarded to Alex Obeid who came from association level football but through hard work and the perfect attitude this player progressed through the reserve grade and finished up being an important player for first grade leading up and into the championship series.
The most prestigious award of the season for our club is the Clubperson of the Year award and this could not be split therefore it was awarded jointly to Foti and Maria Tzavellas for all the time and effort they have given to our club and we thank them very much for that.
We also took this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our sponsors for the season, namely Kingsgrove RSL, Harrington's Pharmacy Penshurst, Paramount Real Estate Penshurst, Econo-Heat, McDonald's Australia and Toyota-Lexus. We would also like thank the Mayor and the Board of Hurstville City Council and the President and the Board of Football NSW (as well as the Head of Competitions our friend Bill Kostandas).
As far as the results of our teams in finals go, the 9As grand final between Hurstville City Minotaurs and Arncliffe Scots was a great game to watch and the large number of supporters saw some champions of the future. Both teams played very well and it was a shame that there had to be a loser. The game finished 0-0 at fullt time and went into extra time which saw the Arncliffe Scots win the cup. Congratulations to our coach George Dimakos, all the boys and the parents.
On the same day our all age mens team won their grand final against Rockdale Raiders 3-0 with Keiran Chippo scoring 2 goals and Andrew Majcher the other. And as far as I know, they are still celebrating (drinking) their win.
On Sunday afternoon, we all went to see our senior squad (first grade and reserve grade) play in their respective semi finals at a windy Knight Park in Yennora. At 12.30 our reserve grade did battle with Belmore Hercules who were strengthened by the addition by 5 or 6 first graders. It was an even game which finished 2-2 after 90 minutes with all goals scored in the first half. Goals for the Minotaurs were scored by Alex Obeid and Haisan Morhi. the game went into extra time with no further goals added so they needed penalties to determine the winner with Hurstville City Minotaurs winning 4-2.
At 3pm, the first grade team strengthened by some heroes who had already played 120 minutes in the reserve grade game faced the minor premiers Fairfield Bulls. This was also a very good and tense game with two evenly matched teams. Minotaurs controlled the match and had the better chances, but due to a refereeing mistake (God punished him later by giving him an injury and being replaced) Fairfield scored against the run of play midway through the first half. Sadly before half time Michael Di Meglio strained his hamstring and at half time had to be replaced. This did not stop the Minotaur machine to operate successfully and before the end of the game Nick Goumis even the score to send the game into extra time and sent happiness to all the black and white supporters who by now had multiplied by the addition of our brother club Belmore Hercules (and we thank them for that). In extra time our defence fell asleep for a split second enough to allow the enemy to sneak in a goal. But in true Minotaur spirit we fought to the end achieving the equaliser again with Nick Goumis which sent the match into a penalty shootout. This time we were no so lucky and lost 4-2. We must now play next Sunday at Belmore Sports Ground at 3pm against Luddenham for the right to claim the second spot in the Grand Final. The reserve grade team will also play on the same day for the right to play in their grand final at 12.30pm at the same ground against Fairfield Wanderers.
Til the next update, love you all.
The General
