Thistle and Shockers to do battle in Gisborne football’s Bailey Cup final

Childers Rd Reserve will be the venue for the Tairāwhiti Bailey Cup men's knockout football final between Shockers Gold and Thistle Athletic, which kicks off at 2.45pm on Saturday. Photo / Ben Cowper

The first of Gisborne football’s knockout cup finals features the top two teams in the highest local league.

Thistle Athletic Bobcats won the Tairāwhiti Men’s Championship – the old Eastern League first division – by three points from runners-up Smash Palace Shockers Gold.

On Saturday, they face off in the Bailey Cup final on the Childers Rd Reserve No 1 ground at 2.45pm.

The last time they met, on June 28, George Ure scored twice and Josh Charles once as Athletic beat Shockers 3-1. Max Harris scored for Shockers.

On that occasion, Athletic had Thistle first-team squad members goalkeeper Mark Baple, centre back Junior Jimmy and utility player Alex Shanks in their line-up, and that’s how reserve teams work – reservoirs of talent to be drawn from or to provide game time for first-team squad members unable to travel or coming back from injury.

Davie Ure (George’s father) and Charlie Harvey have also moved between the squads, with the latter having established himself in the first team defence towards the end of the season.

Brad Hill, Cory Land, Leo Starck, Tommy Peterson and Mohammed Ali have also featured in the side during a campaign that comprised 11 wins, three draws and one loss (to Sunshine Brewing Wainui Sharks on May 31).

Coach Matt Harvey is likely to have a youthful side with an old head or two for the final.

Shockers, meanwhile, have some well-performed footballers in their line-up.

Former Thistle midfielders Ash McMillan and Cullen Spawforth, along with Jackson Donovan-Monteith, give the Shockers engine-room equal parts grit, skill and work rate.

Up front, Max Harris is the sort of chase-anything goal-hound players love to have on their side, and at the back Brad Clark plays with calm assurance.

Connor Putnam, Jack Fenn, goalkeeper Laykin Beuth, Zac Borrie, Blake McMillan, Isaac Bush and Oscar Daube are among the others who have contributed to a standout season for a club in only their second season in local football’s top flight.

The knockout competition for second division sides, the Chris Moore Cup, has its semifinals on Saturday.

Division 2 champions Marist Shockers play Coates Associates Wainui Demons at Wainui at 12.30pm, and runners-up Thistle-Vintage Masters play QRS Wairoa Athletic on Harry Barker Reserve No 1 at 2.45pm.

Marist Shockers player-coach Scott Logan has returned from Australia on a mission to resurrect the Marist football tradition of old. His quest has yielded a team list that reads like a who’s who of Gisborne football over the past 30-plus years ... Logan himself, brothers Kieran and Liam Ryan, Ryan O’Neill, Nic Somerton, Mike Rogers, Max Logan, Clint Ward, George Mita and Kaleb Jacobs, for instance.

Demons could have their hands full. But their team list lately has included Andre Baple, Mark Harris, Mike Morrissey, Daniel Willock, Richard Harris and Rylan Crosby-Wright.

They won’t go down without a fight.