Sunshine George Cross had the stuffing knocked out of it for the
second year running at the semi-final stage of the Football Federation
Victoria state knockout cup.
The second-tier Georgies were battered 5-0 by premier league side
Dandenong Thunder at the Veneto Club in Bulleen on Wednesday night, a
harsher lesson than last year’s 5-1 hammering from Port Melbourne
Sharks.
Green Gully Cavaliers will face the Thunder in the grand final on Sunday.
Georgies coach Tony Ciantar told the Weekly a loss of key personnel rendered his side uncompetitive for large parts of the game.
“It’s been a sad end to the season for us with so many players
missing,” he said. “It’s a bit of a shame we have too many injuries,
suspensions and players missing.”
The whole of the Georgies front line was missing … Bobby
Lojanica is overseas, Ryan Davidson is injured and Zoran Petrevski is
serving a seven-match suspension.
Ciantar pleaded for some funds to strengthen the squad during the transfer window, but none were forthcoming.
“I wanted to strengthen the squad but with the new National
Premier League coming in, the club didn’t want to spend the money to
chase promotion, so we gave it a crack with what we had,” he said.
The Georgies had an even share of the ball in the first 20 minutes
but the Thunder scored twice in two minutes to momentarily take the
wind out of their sails.
With a 2-0 half-time deficit, the Georgies again started the
second 45 well, with Joseph Franjic and Ross Thompson controlling the
tempo of play in the midfield and Barry Devlin providing a target in
attack.
But again it was the Thunder who scored, a huge psychological blow to the Georgies.
“We fell apart from then on,” Ciantar said.
What will not be forgotten is the Georgies were the last of the
state league clubs left standing, no mean feat in the sudden-death
competition.
Ciantar described his team as “fighters” punching out of their weight division.
“This is my second year at the club and to be semi-finalists in
the state knockout cup two years running and also to be challenging for
the league is a great achievement,” he said.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of the boys.”
Meanwhile, the Georgies juniors will hold their family day at
Brookside Recreation Reserve on October 6. The day’s highlight will be
the Golden Oldies Cup for parents of the young players.
