THE Swan Hill Soccer Club will be looking to add two more trophies to its new clubrooms, with both their men’s and under-16 boys’ teams chasing premiership glory this weekend.
The men will be out to clean sweep the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League Division 2 competition, having already claimed the league cup title and league championship after finishing the season on top of the Division 2 ladder.
They have the extra incentive of keeping their undefeated season in-tact, having not tasted defeat so far in 2022.
The under 16s will be chasing their first piece of silverware, with 2022 being the sides first season in the junior BASL competition – and will meet Golden City Eaglehawk on Saturday morning at Epsom Huntly Reserve for the right to be crowned BASL Under 16B Super Cup premiers.
The senior men will have to wait an extra 24 hours for their chance at glory, with the Swans to play Deniliquin Wanderers in the Division 2 Super Cup grand final, with the match set to start at 1.30pm on Sunday at Epsom Huntly Reserve.
For Swan Hill Men’s coach Tony Di Palma, this weekend will be the culmination of not only 12 months of hard work, but years of sweat and toil for his players, many of whom hadn’t tasted success until their league cup victory in early August.
“This weekend has been a long time coming – it’s never happened for our club, the opportunity to win all three titles in the same season, but hopefully now we’re here, the boys will make the most of it,” Di Palma said.
“The fact the under-16 boys are also playing is equally amazing for the club and shows we’re in a good position moving forward – it would be great at the end of the weekend to have some more silverware to show off in the new rooms, but there’s a fair bit of work to do before we can think about that.”
Their opponents are well known to Swan Hill. Sunday’s match will be the Swans’ sixth encounter with Deniliquin this season, including their 2-0 victory in the league cup final. While the Wanderers are yet to beat Di Palma’s men this season, they have been steadily improving. Their last match ending in a 2-2 draw in the final home-and-away match of the season. Deniliquin had Swan Hill’s measure for much of that match, with the Wanderers taking an early 2-0 lead, before being pegged back late in the game and sharing the points.
It’s with that game in mind that Di Palma is wary, knowing their opposition will be out to cause an upset and make a statement.
“We’ve played them a few times this season now, just through different circumstances which means they’ve had a good look at us and we’ve had a good look at them,” Di Palma said.
“They’ve worked out the style that we play so we’ll need to bring something different to the table on Sunday. We’ve been working on that at training this week, just to look at ways of breaking down their defence and so that we have something in place that they might not know of and throw something else into the mix.
“We need to throw something different at them that they may not be expecting and just make some small adjustments to our match strategy, while still keeping what’s worked for us all season as the base.
“This is (Deniliquin’s) first season in BASL and they’re trying to establish their name in the league too, so they’ll be out to win it and they’ll bring a significant challenge to us – especially on the back of last time.”
The last time the Swans made it through to the Super Cup decider, in 2019, the team fell agonisingly short against Shepparton United 2-1. Their captain that day, Cooper Fox, is again set to lead the players into battle, hoping to go one step further this time.
“The boys are feeling pretty good, we’ve trained really well and worked on a few things over the last fortnight since our last game and we’re all feeling pretty fit after having the week off,” Fox said.
“We’re confident that our best football is good enough, it’s just a matter of playing our best on the day.
“What’s happened before Sunday is in the past now. We start at 0-0 and it’s up to us to make sure we play at our best and get the job done.”
The under 16s will also be well acquainted with their opponents Golden City Eaglehawk, having met them three times this season for two wins and one loss. That loss came in the first game of the season, but Swan Hill defeated Golden City in their second semi- final 2-1 a fortnight ago.
With the young squad on the verge of claiming their own slice of history, under 16s coach Brett Farlie told The Guardian he was sure his players would put in a strong performance when it mattered most.
“We’re quietly confident going in … the boys have been putting in an amazing effort throughout the season and I think through all their hard work, they deserve a title at the end of it,” Farlie said.
“(Their semi-final win) gives us a bit of confidence, but we need to be wary that Golden City will come out hard and attack the game – but we’re quietly confident that whatever comes our way, we’ll be able to handle it.”
