Cup finals to be decided

FOOTBALL

SENIOR football in Gisborne will end for the season this weekend . . . weather permitting.

The finals of the Chris Moore Cup for Eastern League second division teams and the Poverty Bay Cup for third division teams are scheduled for Childers Road Reserve tomorrow.

Poverty Bay Cup finalists Gizzy Bobcat Services Thistle and Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United Thirds will play at 12 midday.

At 3pm, 1st Class Decorators Wainui Salty Dogs will play Thistle Vintage for the Chris Moore Cup.

United Thirds and Wainui Salty Dogs are both going for league-and-cup doubles.

On Sunday at 10.30am, the final of the Braybrook Cup for women’s Eastern League teams will be contested by Gisborne Laundry Services Wainui Riverina and Bohemians.

The intention is for all three games to be held on Childers Road Reserve No.1, but Central Football Poverty Bay operations manager Fletcher Stewart-Hill says wet weather could cause a rethink, particularly in view of what two games tomorrow might do to the pitch.

Any alternative ground allocations would be relayed to club representatives to be passed on to the players.

The pitch was expected to be able to handle two games on the Saturday, even in wet weather, Stewart-Hill said.

But if a third game in two days was considered too much, “Plan B” was to use Harry Barker Reserve. That would depend on whether the ground could be marked in the rain . . . the presence of the temporary vaccination centre meant marking could not be done before now.

If ground-marking there was not possible, “Plan C” was to use Nelson Park, which had a ground marked for junior representative games.

Outlining measures to comply with Alert Level 2 requirements for gatherings, Stewart-Hill said the grandstand would be open for use but would be regarded as separate from the rest of the ground.

The number of spectators using the stand at one time would be limited to 100, and they would be asked to stay in the stand for the duration of the game they were watching.

The number of those watching from ground level at any one time would also be limited to 100, and they would be asked to stay off the stand.

Stewart-Hill said scanning for contact tracing would be in operation at the gate and hand sanitiser would be available. He would be at the gate to ensure the number of people in each sector did not exceed the limits.

The feature game tomorrow will be the 3pm clash between Division 2 champions Wainui Salty Dogs and runners-up Thistle Vintage.

Wainui will be without skipper and on-field organiser Rick Kitto, who — thinking the season would be over by now — booked a holiday for this weekend.

And club stalwart Greg Judd will be giving team manager and sometime player Mike Vita moral support on the sideline. Judd was going to be unavailable on the date set aside for the Chris Moore Cup final, so allowed himself to be cup-tied to bolster the bench strength of the club’s first division side, the Sharks, on their way to the Bailey Cup final.

They went on to win the final, thereby securing the league-and-cup double, but Judd wasn’t there. He had known when he signed on for bench duty that he would be unavailable for that final, too.

But Vita still has a strong squad to call on . . . they won the Division 2 title, after all.

Their main goalscorers, Ricky Boyd and Benjamin Gonzalez, are available, and the rest of the team have a strong, well-balanced look about them.

Youngsters such as midfielders Jonathan Andrew and Connor Findlay, and centreback Andre Campbell have benefited by playing alongside more experienced campaigners such as utility player Korbi Schallinger, midfielder Jimmy Lawrence and leftback Barry McCarthy.

Asked who he’d watch out for in the Thistle Vintage team, Vita said, “All of them . . . they’ve all got targets on their backs.”

Vintage player-coach Dave Raggett’s first problem is who to leave out. He has 21 names on his team list and only one player unavailable. He is allowed a squad of 16 (five subs) for the game.

Lower-grade teams relying on older players need big squads to paper over the cracks caused by injuries, but the lockdown-enforced break has given everyone time to heal.

Raggett has some tough decisions and difficult conversations ahead.

Vintage have several players in goalscoring form — Shaun Leeper, Dave Watson, Neil Hansen and Jared Faber have all scored a few this year.

Raggett expects a close game and says the Wainui player to watch out for could be Schallinger . . . “We are always interested to see where he turns up.”

United Thirds player-coach Laurence Fleming says Thistle coaches John Stirton and Steve McCarthy are sure to have something up their sleeve for the Poverty Bay Cup final.

“They have a lot of young guys and they will run all day,” Fleming said.

But United have young players of their own — striker Jarred Knight, midfielders Luk Stoltz and Tama Wirepa, and rightback Jaedyn Taylor.

And with strikers Jason Brooks and Willy McClune and midfielder Mike Gill causing problems for defences; Liam Wire, Hone Pewhairangi and Chris Adams scheming in the midfield; and defenders Mark Turnbull and Dylan Babbington, and goalkeeper Chris Gill keeping things tight at the back, Fleming is quietly confident.

“We will be giving them all the respect due to them,” he said. “But we will concentrate on our game.”

Stirton said his side didn’t have an out-and-out goalscorer, although left-winger Ethan Gill (nephew of United’s Mike and Chris) was the team’s leading scorer and was available for tomorrow’s game.

In his days as Thistle Massive coach, Stirton called the Jason Scott/Phill Gill/Dave Watson midfield trio The Three Amigos.

Now he’s using the term to describe Bailey Curtis, Hamish Moore and Andrew Brown. They’re following a pretty handy act.

Central defensive colossus Pat Frain will be away with a schoolboy rep team, but Brown, Dan Stewart and Grant Brown will put up stubborn resistance, and Rongo Bofyam-Paea can be relied on to help out from midfield.

Stirton said his side would have to keep an eye on Mike Gill . . . “He’s the playmaker in that team. And they have a couple of guys who aren’t scared to get stuck in.”

Thistle finished bottom of the third division, but Stirton said he had — just as Fleming predicted — a few things up his sleeve.

In the Braybrook Cup final for women’s teams, league runners-up Wainui Riverina take on Bohemians, who finished six points behind them in third place.

Coach Blake Mulrooney said Wainui Riverina would be close to full strength.

Influential players for them were likely to include midfielders Torepe Taumaunu-Kingi, Manaia Mill and Emily Graham, and defenders Larisa Mahn, Lily Auckram, Samara Wharehinga-Walters and Dara Mulrooney.

One of the Bohemians players to watch would be Hollie Murrell, playing up front or seeking space out wide.

Mulrooney said coach Graham Maclean had got Bohemians playing good football.

They had recruited well, and were probably the most improved women’s team over the past three or four years.