It always felt like it was going to come to this. South Melbourne and the Oakleigh Cannons, facing off with the 2022 NPL Men’s Victoria Championship on the line. Two prizefighters, two rivals, two heavyweights staring each other down on the final day of the season.
The pair had engaged in a slugfest for the premiership throughout most of the 2022 campaign, with South ultimately landing the telling blow in a round 22 meeting that saw Marcus Schroen’s lone goal lift coach Esteban Quintas’ side to a 1-0 win and secure a five-point gap over the Cannons on the table.
South would go on to secure the premier’s plate with a win over Dandenong City in the penultimate round of the season, while that defeat kickstarted a late-season swoon for the Cannons, who lost four of their last five regular season games to fall to third on the table behind Port Melbourne and into an Elimination Final meeting with Heidelberg United.
Juggling their commitments with an Australia Cup campaign that remains ongoing and had them taken to extra time by Brisbane City in the Round of 16, one could have been forgiven for thinking the Cannons were running out of gas. The travails of a long season taking its toll on semiprofessional bodies at the final hurdle.
Chris Taylor’s side, however, has found a way. Call it guts, call it stubbornness, call it whatever you will, but the Cannons have made a mockery of petty concerns such as rest or fatigue in setting up a rematch of the 2016 NPLM Grand Final – a dramatic 3-2 South win at a raucous Lakeside Stadium.
Twice against Heidelberg, last-second goals from George Katsakis’ side forced the game to continue, first into extra time and then into penalties, only for the Cannons to prevail. Somehow, this was followed by a famous 2-1 Cupset over Sydney FC in a mid-week Australia Cup fixture; arguably the biggest ‘Cupset’ in the competition’s history setting up a semifinal date with Macarthur FC on Wednesday.
Going up against arguable the fittest team in the league in Port Melbourne just days later in the semifinal, common sense dictated that something had to give, especially when that game again went into extra time. But newly crowned co-Gold Medalist Joe Knowles’ 109th-minute strike, his second of the game, kept the Cannons firing.
Complementing Knowles is a high-powered squad full of tried and tested performers including Joe Guest, Wade Dekker, Matt Foschini, and Tyson Holmes. Now, under the guidance of former South gaffer Chris Taylor, the Cannons have a chance to secure their first-ever Victorian trophy.
Conversely, at this stage, South’s trophy cabinet might need a bit of reorganisation if they’re going to find a way to fit a possible 2022 title in it. Their already secured 2022 premier’s plate has already joined the 2014 and 2015 premierships at Lakeside, alongside national premierships, won in 1993, 1998, and 2001, as well as a host of titles, won at a state, national, and continental level.
Possessing both the league’s best attack and defence, South led from post to post in 2022; riding an effective and pragmatic gameplan centered around the exploits of difference makers such as Max Mikkola, Alun Webb, Andy Brennan, and Harrison Sawyer – who won the league’s Golden Boot with 17 goals despite departing before the end of the campaign to join Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League.
Inevitably, the departure of Sawyer left a 6′ 4 hole that was impossible to adequately fill, but South is undefeated since his departure to the sub-continent, winning 1-0 in their final two regular-season games and in last week’s semifinal against Green Gully; Webb’s 57th-minute strike enough to book a place in the decider.
This defensive fortitude, with newly crowned NPLM Victoria Goalkeeper of the Year Javier Diaz Lopez and central defenders Jake Marshall and Marco Jankovic at its heart, will undoubtedly be key if South is to add more history to their already bursting annals on Sunday.
MATCH DETAILS
Date: Sunday, 11 September
Location: Olympic Village, Heidelberg West
Kick-Off: 6:30PM
Tickets: Available online or at the gate (until sold out). Due to demand, we strongly recommend purchasing an online ticket before Sunday via the link below.
Purchase Your Tickets Here