SOCCER ASPENDALE Stingrays’ hopes of winning promotion from State 5 South next season have been dealt a hammer blow.Captain and star attacking midfielder Matthew Bruce will head overseas next year and be unavailable for the entire season. The 23-year-old has told just a handful of teammates of his plans but he is expected to speak to the senior playing group when pre-season training gets underway next week.In the past three seasons Bruce has gone from struggling to get a senior game to one of the most potent midfielders in the competition. This year he added a league best and fairest…
Author: Craig MacKenzie
SOCCER IT’S taken six years but Langwarrin head coach Jamie Skelly hopes it’s going to be well worth the wait. Wind the clock back to 2018 and Skelly is coaching at State 1 level. “That’s when we first started talking,” Skelly said. “I was at Comets and he was returning to the UK after playing in America. “I actually had signed him then he got an offer from Concord Rangers (in England) and he decided to go back there.”The player in question is Tosan Popo, now 32 years old, and one of three new signings at Lawton Park as the…
Soccer TOMMY Wood has been involved in a tug of war between former club Mornington and current club Peninsula Strikers. And it looks like Mornington has won the battle to clinch the young forward’s signature. Wood texted Strikers’ gaffer Scott Morrison last week to let him know he was going to return to Dallas Brooks Park. “The message was along the lines of thanks for everything but I want to go try this,” Morrison said. It’s understood that the Seagulls have offered the 21-year-old an attractive match fee and goal bonus and Strikers were not given the opportunity to match…
SOCCER STATE 4 club Mentone has the youngest senior coach in local soccer circles after the recent appointment of 32-year-old Matias Cantavenera. He has been part of the Panthers’ senior squad since leaving Chelsea at the end of the 2019 season but the midfielder is unlikely to be playing coach next season. “I might play in the thirds but I can’t see myself playing in the seniors or reserves,” Cantavenera said.But that’s furthest from his mind right now as he embraces the excitement at tackling his first senior coaching post.“When Jason (Grieve) said he was leaving I felt this was…
SOCCER ADAM Jamieson (Mornington), Gus Macleod (Chelsea), Mark Larner (Somerville) and Gerry McDonagh (Mount Eliza) are among a host of local coaches expected to stay put for season 2025. As we went to press Langwarrin (Jamie Skelly), Peninsula Strikers (Scott Morrison) and Mount Martha (Charlie Platt) are the only local clubs to have officially announced their head coaching appointments.Mount Martha and Mentone are certain to line up next season with new head coaches with Platt already filling the vacancy left at Civic Reserve by Andrew Hall. Mentone is yet to announce a replacement for Jason Grieve who left at the…