Experience aplenty in Gisborne knockout football final

Max Logan in action for Team Gisborne against Port Hill United in 2012. Fast-forward 13 years and Logan is wearing the Marist Shockers uniform and will turn out for the side in the Chris Moore Cup final at Childers Road Reserve at 12.30pm on Saturday.

It’s experience versus experience in the final of football’s Chris Moore Cup at Childers Road Reserve at 12.30pm on Saturday.

Marist Shockers won the Tairāwhiti Division 2 title as their reward for an unbeaten campaign, and on Saturday they face league runners-up Thistle Vintage-Masters, who finished four points behind.

In matches between the sides, Marist Shockers beat Vintage-Masters 5-0 at the end of May and drew with them 2-2 in mid-July.

Vintage-Masters lost further ground to Marist Shockers by losing a match against Neighbourhood Pizzeria Wainui Salty Dogs, 2-0, in May and drawing the return, 4-4, last month.

Marist Shockers coach Scott Logan has gathered a team rich in experience of football at higher levels.

Logan himself was one of the best defenders in the Central League when he was in the Gisborne City first team in the 1990s.

From the early part of the same City era, Nic Somerton was part of a promising group of attacking players who also included Chris Spurr, Brett Johanson, Tim Cook and Jimmy Cudd.

Brothers Liam and Kieran Ryan also became Gisborne City regulars during the club’s time in outside competition, while Max Logan rose to prominence with Thistle, Team Gisborne and, latterly, Wainui.

Clint Ward, Ryan O’Neill, George Mita, Kaleb Jacobs, Mike Rogers and Destounis brothers Zane and Zach have all plied their trade at higher levels.

Against them on Saturday will be Thistle Vintage-Masters veterans such as Roger Faber, Hayden Beale, Toby Pickering, Geoff Griffin, Neil Hansen, Hayden Donnelly, Tim Hofman, Matt Feisst, Daniel Murphy, Shannon Dowsing and Hendrik Geyer, and perhaps some young blood in comparatively youthful Aaron Barnby and Stefan Faber.

Roger Faber can boast an extended run in Gisborne City’s national league team.

On form, Marist Shockers should have the edge. But they’ll need to keep tabs on Beale and Hansen, and Geyer has been known to score some unlikely goals.