Mr MATT KEAN (Hornsby-Parliamentary Secretary) [6.15 p.m.]: I share with the House a recent sporting achievement in Hornsby where the local representative football club the Northern Tigers reached the Waratah Cup quarter finals.
The Northern Tigers represent the northern district in the newly established National Premier League Men's two competition. This inspirational team plays without fear and often defeats much bigger named opponents in preseason or cup competitions. This year the Northern Tigers has joined 600 clubs from around Australia embarking on a new competition called the Football Federation [FFA] Cup. The FFA Cup is modelled on the English FA Cup and gives semi-professional and amateur clubs the opportunity to face Australia's nine A-League sides in a new national knockout competition. I commend Football Federation Australia on its major investment in grassroots football, which has the potential to further unite the game and build on the code's many recent successes.
This new competition will create a unique football pathway for rising stars to showcase their skills on a national stage. If implemented correctly, the new competition will provide plenty of magic and charm to captivate audiences and build a new and exciting chapter in Australia's diverse sporting calendar. Late last month the Tigers narrowly missed out on an opportunity to join the FFA Cup's remaining 32 teams when they were defeated in a penalty shootout loss to top-tier side Manly United. It was a heartbreaking loss for our region's team, which once again proved it can mix it with the big teams and deserved a place in the prestigious round of 32. However, the Tigers have two more chances to qualify for the FFA Cup via a series of play-off matches starting with a semifinal clash against Hakoah Sydney City FC.
Tiger's coach Jason Eagar and assistant Steve Hurd are more than capable of delivering the club an inaugural FFA Cup finals berth after successfully guiding the team through the competition's preliminary rounds with victories over the Western New South Wales Mariners, Blacktown Spartans and San Souci. The quarterfinal defeat to Manly showed the Tigers certainly have the talent to qualify for major tournaments after showing plenty of spirit to come back from a goal down to force the quarterfinal into extra time. An early goal to Jimmy Oates had Manly ahead 1-0 at half time, but the Tigers came out firing in the second half. Aram Tayebi hit the equaliser home in the fifty-first minute and a nervous period followed. The Tigers were spurred on by the silky skills of Shervin Adeli as well as Aram Tayebi and Max Glanville, while the much experienced trio of keeper Stuart Page, midfielder Steve Baveas and defender Daniel Cunningham provided much needed stability in the middle of the park.
Both sides had chances as full-time approached, but regulation time and then extra time ticked out with scores locked, sending the game to a shootout. Manly keeper, Tonu Liiband, stole the limelight for the home side to give Manly player Graeme Forbes the match-winning kick to score 5-3 on penalties. Local derbies always bring the best out in players and this contest certainly did not disappoint. Despite just missing out on qualifying, the Northern Tigers have done our region proud. With any luck we could have our region's first representative in national knockout football competition.
This would be a huge accomplishment for the Tigers, our region and the Northern Suburbs Football Association, which has one of the biggest junior membership bases across metropolitan Sydney. I congratulate the chief executive officer of the Northern Suburbs Football Association, Duncan Tweed, on his outstanding work behind the scenes. Duncan and his team do so much for youth development and grassroots football in the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai region and they deserve plenty of praise.
I put on record my support for the fledgling FFA Cup tournament, which kicks off with the final round of 32 on 29 July. With any luck we will be seeing our Tigers drawn against one of the A-League's glamour clubs, such as, the Central Coast Mariners, Sydney FC or the Western Sydney Wanderers. A visit from any one of these A-League clubs to Mills Park, Asquith, would be a huge boost for football and the thousands of junior players in the Northern Suburbs Football Association. The Tigers may find themselves playing in a televised match for the first time, setting the scene for a David and Goliath battle in which a semi-professional suburban team gets its shot at glory against a professional high-profile team brimming with Socceroos representatives and overseas players.
I look forward to seeing the inaugural draw on 26 June and hopefully getting down to Mills Park, Asquith, to cheer on the mighty Tigers. If the FFA Cup is anything like the English FA Cup we could be in for a fairytale run with a small club like the Tigers battling it out for a spot in the cup final on 16 December. As I said, success on the field requires a lot of hard work off the field. I particularly acknowledge the board of the Northern Suburbs Football Association, including the outstanding and hardworking Chris Rayner and Roy Ashpole—a great friend. Roy and his wife, Claire, do so much in our community and I thank them for it. I also thank Howard Mann, Duncan Tweed, Caroline Morris, Alan Barwick, Paul Templeton, James Sneddon and Dave Watson. They do outstanding work providing direction for the football association and they make it the great association that it is.
Read the full speech in Hansard here.
