New England “did an America’s Cup” at the State Under 18 Boys Indoor Championships at Goulburn on the weekend, prising the Division 1 silverware from Illawarra South Coast’s grasp.
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“Illawarra have won it for the last 14 years straight,” coach Paul Eichorn said.
“New England did an America’s Cup on them.”
After thumping Sydney South 8-1 in their morning semi-final they sealed the title with a 4-3 win over the reigning champions.
“It was a really strong display from the boys,” Eichorn said.
The Lions had staged a stunning fight-back to pull off a 3-all draw when the two met during the pool stages.
“Half-way through that game we were down 3-nil. We made a few slight tweaks in our positional play and came over the top of them,” Eichorn said.
It was their closest result for the weekend, accounting for Sydney East 4-nil, Metro South West 4-3, Goulburn 14-nil and Newcastle 9-3 to finish top of their pool.
“They’re a group of kids that really knew how to play together as a team,” he said.
“There was no real weakness in the side. Everyone trusted each other and some of the stronger teams we ran them into the ground.”
Eichorn’s expectations heading into the championships were fairly high with the side that he had.
“We thought we had a pretty strong side and we thought they’d do pretty well,” he said.
“They lived up to expectations.”
Playing in goals for them, Eichorn said Tamworth’s Sterling George had an “absolute blinder”.
Eichorn also made mention of Darby Chalmers, captain Cody McCann and young guns Jake McCann and Nathan Czinner, who were stepping up from the Lions under 15s.
The Lions’ success however – disappointingly and somewhat bewilderingly for Eichorn – didn’t translate to the selection table with Luca Brown the only player to make the state side to play at the nationals in Goulburn.
Aiden Wicks was though recognised for his efforts over the tournament receiving the development umpire award.
Tamworth’s two sides both missed out on the semi-finals but weren’t far off the pace.
Opening day losses to Sydney South (6-5) and Central Coast (5-3) cruelled the 1’s chances.
The Andrew Farmil-coached side were unbeaten after that notching wins over North West Sydney 1 (6-1), Illawarra South Coast 2 (9-nil) and Manning Valley (9-1) but it wasn’t enough to sneak into the four.
They ended up sixth after falling to Metro South West 1 7-3 in their play-off game.
The 2s were the opposite.
After winning their first two games against Southern Highlands (3-2) and Nepean (7-5) they lost their next two before drawing their final pool game against Wagga Wagga 2-all, and then their play-off game against Central Coast 3-all.