2008 Casey Cup

At 5.00 on the afternoon of March 14, 2008, a group of dedicated senior players along with some even more dedicated club officials boarded a bus to travel to Townsville to compete in the Casey Cup, a preseason Tournament held annually at the Heatley Warriors grounds. At the time of boarding the bus it was an unknown as to whether we would even make it though the raging torrent that the Tully River had become due to the record rainfalls that we were having. Luck was on our side and as long as you don’t believe everything you read in the news papers, the bus got through and we were on our way.

As defending Champions for the second year in a row, we were put into the harder draw and our first game on Saturday told us it was not going to be all clear sailing this year, coming away loss against a Young JCU side following a 1-1 draw in normal time and losing in the subsequent penalty shootout 4-3. Game two that evening started out as a close tussle but our players gradually began to wear down the team from Brothers, going on to win 4.0, with George Slefendorfas netting a hat trick.

 

With us sitting in second spot in our pool, our first game on Sunday game was a must win affair. Our major foe, the team from JCU faltered in there game against a revived Brothers outfit, losing in the penalty shootout following a draw in normal time. Our game kicked off at 12.45 against Wulguru, and after a tightly contested opening to the game, we went on to win 3-0 and progress to the final against a young side from the Southern Eagles. They threw everything at us and our boys held on in the heat of the day, eventually running out victors, 2-0, and retaining the Casey Cup for a third year.

The boys were all on their best behaviour and a special mention must go to Tom Beverley and Paul Eigl, two of our youth players from the 2007 season, who both stood up to be counted in the tournament.

 

Congratulations to Fab, Gary and all the players, as well as Heinz for his outstanding efforts as a referees assistant.