Bayside Pirates Term 1 Training Schedule

The 2012 Term 1 Training Schedule has now been completed and has been emailed to all club members. It can also be viewed on the website under Game Info. If you would like to play for the Pirates this year, then please contact Mark.

Nine Victorian teams make national futsal semi-finals

13.01.2012

In a hugely successful tournament for Victorian Futsal, nine out of the fourteen competing teams made it to the semi-final stage or further in the 2012 FFA National Futsal Championships with an additional team making it to the quarter-finals.

Competing against the best futsal players in the country, to achieve such a huge success rate of semi-finals is a great achievement, even more so with the U14 Girls taking out the National Title by defeating NSW Lightning 4-2.

The U13 Girls also made the Grand Final against NSW Thunder, playing an immaculate game of futsal – but as can sometimes happen went down 1-0 in an epic contest, leaving the court with their heads held high.

Victorians also scooped a number of individual awards, with U12 player Jacynta Galabadaarchchi claiming the tournament MVP while Jacob Richardson claimed the U15 Golden Boot and Elizabeth Sarcevic won the finals MVP in U14 Girls.

A big part of this success has been the establishment of the Melbourne Futsal League and Club Futsal Championships as the selection process in the talented player pathway for the first time. This allowed players from 11 years old and up to play high level Futsal consistently, and to do away with the ‘traditional’ representative trials.

Partnership Manager for Talented Player Development, Anthony Grima, was more than happy with Victoria’s performance.

“The results have been very impressive, to get nine out of fourteen teams into the semi-finals is a great achievement and testament to the success of the Melbourne Futsal League and Futsal Club Championship,” he said.

“We have had these competitions running in the past, but this is the first time it has been used as a part of our talented player pathway – and with many of our top performers first-year players, it is working.”

Although a great performance in terms of results, Grima insists that results are not the main focus of Football Federation Victoria’s futsal program.

“Results like these are very positive, but it is not the only thing we are trying to build.

“Our program is based on personal development, not on winning trophies; the aim is to have senior Victorians selected to play for the Futsalroos and for our junior players to have outstanding technical ability.

“With our program only one year old, it is outstanding to see results like these against the older and more established programs of NSW and ACT, if we can build on our success and not rest on our laurels then perhaps in 2013 we can challenge even further and take Victorian Futsal to the next level.”

Full Results;

National Champions:
14 Girls 4-2 NSW Lightning

National Runners-up:
13 Girls 0-1 NSW Thunder

National Semi-Finalists:
Open Men 1-2 NSW Thunder
Youth Men 4-5 NSW Lightning
Youth Women Magic 2-5 ACT Cobras
13 Boys 1-3 NSW Thunder
12 Girls 0-11 NSW Thunder
12 Boys 3-5 Queensland
11 Boys 2-3 NSW Thunder

National Quarter-Finalists:
14 Boys 4-6 NSW Thunder

Group Stages
Youth Women Ranges
16 Boys
15 Boys
Athletes with Disability