1:00 pm – 20 Years Grand Final
Newcastle Jets – 18 Years vs. Hamilton Olympic FC
The Under 20s Grand Final sees the Newcastle Jets feature in the club’s second match of the day, and while they’ll enter this one as heavy favourites, Hamilton will be confident they can nail out another upset win and take the championship crown for the second year in a row.
The Jets dominated Lake Macquarie City in the Semi-Finals, pouring out an 11-1 aggregate win and lead the competition in both offensive and defensive stats totalling 65 goals whilst conceding just 19.
Olympic toppled the Premiers of the competition in the Semi-Finals though, keeping Broadmeadow scoreless over the two legs to win 1-0 on aggregate. They have managed to do fairly well in the big games as well having attained seven points when competing against the other top four sides.
When the two sides met in the regular season, the Jets won out in rather comfortable fashion with 3-0 and 3-1 victories but with stars such as Kane Treble, Jakob Cresner and goalkeeper Jez Murray, who have all had a heap of First Grade experience, along with their go-to scorer Jared Muller who has scored 10 this year, it would be silly to write them off.
Two of the main goal-scorers of the competition come from the Jets squad though – Nick Martinelli who has scored 16 from 17 games and Blake Archbold who has notched up 11 from 14 – as well as one of the stronger and more resilient defenders in the league in Patrick Bond.
Much of the team who will feature against Olympic were the same side that pulled out a tremendous 7-1 Grand Final win in the 18 Years game last year, while seven of the same Hamilton side which won the 20 Years Championship in 2018 will play in this year’s edition.
The underdog tag is clearly something Olympic have embraced in this year’s finals and while they have their work cut out for them against a top-quality and highly structured Jets team, a shock could be on the cards if they can continue their clean sheet streak.
Source: Tom Tsamouras
George Tsamouras Football Journey 