CHAMPIONS!

Last Saturday at 4.40pm the Kiama Quarriers Soccer Club became the undefeated Illawarra Soccer Association First Division Champions for 2001. The Quarriers played Warilla Wanderers in the last game of the season and ran out 1 – 0 winners to take the Premiership for the first time in their history. 

 

The win finalised a season that saw the Quarriers go through undefeated, win the most games (13) score the second highest amount of goals (51), concede the least goals (10) and win the competition by three points from its nearest rivals Tarrawanna S.C.. The game itself was a bit of an anti climax after constant build up in recent weeks, mainly through the drama caused by the on-going off-field battle over a washed out fixture.  Warilla claimed a forfeit for the game while Kiama claimed they had not been notified and asked for the match to be re-scheduled.  Sanity prevailed in the end and Saturday’s game was the result.

 

Gale force winds sweeping across the park ruined the spectacle for many of the supporters who turned up for the game but there was still plenty to shout about as the Quarriers cruised to a 1 – 0 win. Taking aside the emotions and feelings between the two clubs, the game was fairly one sided and although there was only one goal, Kiama held the whip for most of the game and were good value for another couple.

 

Kiama’s lead-up to the game was disrupted from the start after the Club’s leading goal scorer, Luke Bedford, was ruled out with the flu.  Evergreen Brian Brown was drafted in as a replacement and his inclusion proved to be very important. The first ten minutes was similar to a boxing match with both sides sparring with the other and trying to get a feel for the game.  The wind was absolutely atrocious but, under the circumstances, both sides handled it quite well.

 

It was the Quarriers who settled first and they took the upper hand and kept the pressure on for the remainder of the game.  Jimmy Berry had the first chance of the match when he put a fairly easy header around the post on the 26th minute mark.  Brian Brown went even closer with a header three minutes later.

 

For the most part it was Kiama doing all the attacking and when Warilla got the ball, they seemed content to keep possession in their own half without troubling the Kiama defence.  The only drama they caused Kiama was direct from a corner and Tidswell in goals quickly smothered a difficult bouncing ball on the near post.

 

Late in the first half Kiama went very close to opening the scoring when a shot from Jovanov hit the crossbar.  Warilla were scrambling in defence and were doing a good job of keeping the Quarriers out but you could not help but think it was going to be too big a job for them. Kiama went to the break in a good position because mathematically, they had to lose this game by three goals to lose the Championship.  It was obvious that unless the Quarriers totally collapsed, this was never going to happen and they grew stronger as the match wore on.

 

The second half continued in the same manner as the first and the Quarriers were playing all the football while Warilla scrambled at the back.  Kiama’s midfield of Price, Jovanov, Boardman and Triffitt were just too young, too good and too fast for Warilla and totally outplayed their opponents. Brown went close with another close range header before Jim Berry opened the scoring.  The move was like a surgical procedure as the Warilla defence was opened up and penetrated by the Kiama attack. 

 

Price started the move on the left side of midfield and hit a tremendous searching ball across the park to Triffitt who in turn played a short pass up the sideline to Brown.  He beat a defender with sheer pace before looking up and finding Berry inside the six-yard box.  Berry had the easy job of side footing the ball into an empty net for the goal.

 

Boardman hit the cross bar with a long range shot and Brown had a low drive slide past the left hand post with the goalkeeper beaten in the last ten minutes before the ref brought proceedings to a close and signalled the start of wild celebrations for the Quarriers. The full time whistle saw a flood of emotions both on and off the park.  While players hugged and cheered, supporters and officials did the same on the sideline.  It was a fitting gesture when the Championship Trophy was brought to the sideline and presented to the players before they left the park.  It is every players dream to hold a trophy aloft on a park in front of your peers and supporters and the kids of Kiama really enjoyed themselves at Warilla.

 

Although the match was not a great spectacle it was an important watershed for the Kiama Quarriers as a club and marks the day when the Club has come of age.  There were a number of ex-players, ex-coaches and ex-officials on hand to witness the day and they were every bit as proud and deserving as the current crop. When the players were finally herded into the dressing sheds the atmosphere was like a thick fog as the players celebrated with a few renditions of the club song and a few golden oldies amid a shower of champagne and beer.  Success has been a long time in coming and the boys were determined to make the most of it while they had a slice.  There were also a few sly tears shed by some of the older hands in the club as they realised how far the Quarriers have progressed to this point.

 

On a day where the Quarriers tasted their biggest success to date it is probably fitting to list the entire team as all of the players did their bit and helped to carry the club to the title. The team that started this game was:

Josh Tidswell

Brad Tuohy , Mike Merriman , Jody Beringer , Brad Boardman ,

Mick Gillespie , Marc Price , Dave Jovanov , Dean Triffitt ,

Jim Berry , Brian Brown .

 

Substitutes used off the bench were :

 

Nathan Broad , Jason Lockhart , Alex Cross and Mick Broad . 

 

The side was coached by:

Brod Creighton . 

 

A number of other players were left out of the squad for this game but they know who they are and so do the supporters and they should be every bit as proud as the players who got on the park. The win has catapulted the Quarriers into the Premier League where it will be rubbing shoulders with the big boys of Illawarra Soccer in 2002.  For a small club like Kiama this will be a large step up.

 

The Quarriers season now progresses into the Finals Series and the team is ironically matched up with Warilla Wanders in the Major Semi-final next Saturday at 3.00pm at Keith Bond Oval, Oak Flats.   It is a case of first –v- third and the game will be a test for the Quarriers to see if they can repeat the dose.  The team has won the big prize of the season and now the Finals Series would be a nice addition.

 

Kiama’s Youth Grade are scheduled to play Berkeley Soccer Club in an Elimination Semi-final at Berkeley Oval on Saturday at 11.00am .  The team finished a respectable sixth and are confident of having a good run in the big games over the next few weeks.

 

The Kiama S.C. would like to thank all of its sponsors and supporters for their back-up so far this year and invite all of Kiama to join us in barracking for the team on Saturday at Oak Flats in the Semi-final.