Sydney Rangers FC

AA14C 2021 Season Review

Recently Marvel released their ‘What If?’ TV Series, delving into the scenarios in the Marvel Universe had things panned out a bit differently.

It made me think: ‘What if that limo driver was double vaccinated?’. The answer is, the C’s would be Grand Final winners in 2021. You can’t tell me otherwise.

The season started for us in what would become a familiar pattern, picking up wins but not exactly doing it convincingly… but at the end of the day, getting the points is what matters.

It kicked off with a goal from a spot-kick from player-coach and writer of this summary piece, David Manuca. And no, it was not a dive… Sam Townsend made it 2-0, and we held on for a 2-1 win.

A loss the following week followed, but it proved to be the only loss of our season. Against a team that has not lost a game since at least 2019.

Things picked up with a win and a clean sheet against Burwood, with one of our newest Rangers Jeffy Bravo scoring his first goal for the club.

In the next game we secured our second-biggest win of the season with a 6-0 win over Leichhardt Saints. And even more impressively, there were six different goalscorers!

Our next outing was the long-awaited Sydney Derby! It was everything you’d expect and more, with the C’s coming out on top 5-2 in an absolute thriller.

Due to a postponement, we then played two games within the space of 3 days, picking up four points against Enfield A and Enfield B. We were chugging along nicely.

A 93^rd minute penalty salvaged a 1-1 draw against Cooks River, before our biggest win of the season came, with a 7-0 drubbing of Strathfield B. Things were looking up!

The side showed great strength and resilience to battle from behind to secure a 3-3 draw against second-placed Ashfield, and as we moved into the final stages of the season, we were nicely played to secure a Semi Final.

But, that damn limo driver….

I want to thank all my players for what was an incredibly enjoyable 2021. It could have ended with something special, but that just makes me even hungrier for next year. Hope you’re as hungry as well…

David Manuca

AA14D 2021 Season Review

Well hello everyone and thanks for stopping by to my review of the Div14 Ds season. Obviously the season was ended prematurely by COVID, but we played every team once before that happened so I’ve got plenty to get stuck into, much like a Jonah Musitano tackle. 

I entered the season full of positivity after a busy transfer window. While we’d lost a few of our stars from 2020, we’d added some promising newbies, retained our core, and somehow managed to keep and add a bunch of Rangers of very high ability. With James Cardall as manager beside me and Carl Austin as captain (even though he was actually serving a suspension due to a red card at the end of the 2020 season), we were the real life Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee and Kevin Nolan. 

Dave Cherrie returned between the sticks, with a defence of Matthew, Jonah, Shaun, Steve and James. In the midfield, we welcomed back Luke alongside stalwart Tom D, Sean, Ed, the Lane Cove Iniesta – David Bertran and, for some reason, me. And in our attacking places we were blessed with talent, with Josh, Enrico, Nathan and Dutch Dave. What could possibly go wrong? 

Cut to two minutes into our first game against new team Leichhardt Saints at Blick Oval. Their winger has the ball and there’s no danger at all. He lumps a cross into the box which looks like it’s going to end up in Punchbowl. It drops into the top corner. Oh dear. 

Three minutes later, Dutch Dave sprints down the wing, attempts a Cruyff turn, and ruptures his ACL. Season over. Oh dear. (Dave we love you!)

All I’ll say is thank goodness I was there. For the third season in a row I scored the first goal of the team’s season, starting the fightback and eventually we secured a well deserved 4-1 win to get us off to a cracking start. What. A. Hero. Special shout out to Ed for trying really really hard to miss the final goal despite two open goals before finally slotting it away. 

A couple of routine 2-0 wins against eventual strugglers Cooks River Titans and Strathfield B followed, but there were harder tests to come. Next up, Burwood – a team that had easily beaten us in pre-season. It was a game of two halves. 1-0 up at half time thanks to a poacher’s finish from Nathan, we were pegged back by a second half onslaught. A tactical masterclass saw Josh deployed into central midfield and it was that move that paid off, with an exceptional through ball for Enrico in the final seconds. Rico finished with the confidence he showed all season. A 2-1 win and four wins from four! 

Couple of mentions here. Firstly for Luke. The opposition seemed to confuse his head with the football, landing Luke in hospital. Matthew cracked a rib in the same game and couldn’t sneeze for three months. The injuries were piling up!

Up next, Strathfield C where we ground out a 0-0 draw thanks to an immense backline effort from Shaun, Jonah, Steve and Cardall and a truly spectacular flying save from Cherrie. After that it was back to winning ways against Enfield with another of our customary 2-0 wins. Rico and Nathan on the scoresheet again and they were turning into the modern day Yorke and Cole and a highlight with their right back asking ‘who’s that new Rangers team who are top of the league and flying?’ Spoiler alert, it was us. 

But not for long…

Derby day was up next. Rangers Cs vs Rangers Ds. The one we’d all been waiting for. Blick Grandstand was packed. There were at least 15 spectators. You could cut the tension with a knife and we were all set up for an epic. Unfortunately that’s not how it worked out. We were 4-1 down and a man down after half an hour, with a screamer each from Josh and Enrico being bright spots in an eventual 2-5 loss. 

From there, the floodgates opened with four more losses in a row which we don’t need to go into too much detail about, other than to say that we’ve now lost to Strathfield A by an aggregate of 30-2 in the last two seasons. They probably shouldn’t be in our league, but hey, who’s counting?! 

There were bright sparks in our losses against Ashfield and particularly Enfield A, who we really should have beaten, although Nathan did score an absolute worldie. I still fancied our chances of making finals after finishing fifth as the season split, but thanks to COVID and that damn limo driver, we’ll never know. 

I’d like to end with a couple of thanks. Firstly to the team, for bearing with me in a first season of coaching and putting up with some very average training sessions. Secondly to Josh and Sean for supporting me in those training sessions and running some – they take a lot of planning and it’s much appreciated. To Luke, Matthew and Dutch Dave who showed up every week despite being injured to cheer us on. That’s what it’s all about. Finally to James and Carl for your support throughout as manager and captain respectively. You both did more than you give yourself credit for. 

So all in all, a season that showed a lot of promise that was probably hamstrung a little by injuries. On to the next one! 

Top scorer – Enrico Biviano, Nathan McDonald (5 each)

Chris Hicks

O35 Silvers 2021 Season Review

The 2021 season for the Silvers started with some tough grading decisions but they certainly paid off. Whilst our trial matches left many of us worried that it was going to look like a repeat of 2020’s frequent drubbing it was not to be, instead it was arguably the Silvers best season on record.

In every match, the team pulled together, played hard and often ground out come from behind wins which saw us make it in to the top 6 by the time the draw was split.

Unfortunately COVID-19 intervened in our march to finals football and cruelly cut short our season and grand final glory was not on the cards this year.

What was the reason for the Silvers success in 2021? Pundits have said it was the new coach/manager/captain combination but others it was the overwhelming positive attitude within the team and the desire to have fun and play fair each match. Either way, it leaves a solid foundation for the team as we prepare for 2022 success.

Dean Maybury

O35 Goldens 2021 Season Review

No sooner had last season’s slow extrusion through covid ended that there was talk that it was time for pre-season. The very fine physical specimens that make up the Goldens collectively moaned “You’ve got to be bloody joking…” in at least seven different accents before reaching for their magnesium salts and strapping on their still warm and dusty boots to follow the sun around another footballing season. Bodies of this age require a bit of time to get moving, a bit like the muscle cars of the 70s. Gorgeous to look at, loud as a foghorn through desolate late night streets, often requiring the gentle touch of a heavy mallet to get moving, all the while consuming copious amounts of gas. Not as zippy as the muscle cars of today, but once they get going can still chase them around the track with all the elegance and grace of a bulldozer. And so it was for the Goldens.

While the oddly comforting smell of beer, Dencorub, sweat and three types of freshly cut grass embraced Blick in a warm hug, and just after a diplomatic masterclass by Rob and Richie in ‘how to sort of maybe throw a game but we promise we didn’t CDSFA’ (which required an oscar worthy performance from DD), covid cruelly curtailed us. Dav was so outraged he buggered off to Perth, whose borders will surely mean he can “make the impossible possible” by playing all the football he bloomin’ well wants to. We’ll leave the debate about whether we would have lifted the silverwear of victory or the aluminium cans of defeat to the pundits.

The real shame is that we couldn’t spend more time kicking balls around together. We were bolstered this year by the addition of a few team members that brought the average age down to something easily closer to 45. There was some real optimism about the Ash-Niko-Mark engine room of goals. Seb and Riki were finally accompanied by people who shared their foot speed on the flanks in Loris and Clay and the triumphant return of Akio. At least 10% of us are in the top 1% of Fantasy Football pundits internationally. Ale was back to destroy the opposition with his mix of crafty footwork. Connor’s moustache was as impressively imposing as Niko’s Tiktok profile is prolific. Even Murphy was chomping at the bit and, on the football side, continued to find good reason to shout at Paulie.

Despite the brevity of a disappointing lover, the season still provided some highlights, including…

* Ash winning the ‘best head’ competition with the two he scored against Burwood. He said it was the first time he scored two heads in 15 years (the poor guy…)

* DV demonstrated to the team the most innocuous way to completely destroy your shoulder

* Koji continued to show that age is just a number by playing in as many different positions, including on the field, as he has appeared in Niko’s socials

* Andy turned back the clock with some stunning new pearly whites to accompany his stunning peachey passes

*Based on statistical projections, DD was most likely to lose the Golden’s Golden Boot for the first time since at least the mid 80s to Mark

Richie and Rob have done a tremendous job once again in cajoling a bunch of vagabonds, drunkards and social media influencers into a cracking amateur Saturday league outfit, and we thank them for their tireless cattle prodding.

See you all again next year.

Paul Kougious