Weston Bears FC v Cooks Hill United FC
Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility, Saturday 3pm
Weston Bears and Cooks Hill United will be playing for both silverware and league points this Saturday when Northern NSW Football’s two Australia Cup representatives go head-to-head in the State Cup final at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility.
These two teams won their way through to this match after qualifying for the Australia Cup Round of 32, which they both played in on Wednesday night, both for the first time.
Cooks Hill became the third NNSWF club to advance to the Round of 16 when they defeated Adelaide Croatia Raiders 3-2 in Adelaide, while Weston also produced a respectable performance as they went down 2-0 against Heidelberg United FC in Melbourne.
Both sides returned home on Thursday and turned their attention to the State Cup final, which also doubles as their rescheduled round 14 league game due to them both having a jam-packed schedule on the run home and being unable to fit the game in elsewhere before the finals series begins.
The decision to play the final and a league match in the one fixture was an obvious choice for Weston's assistant coach, Nathan Morris, who said his side are determined to add the silverware to their trophy cabinet.
“It was a no-brainer to do it this way. It wasn’t adding up, the amount of games with the amount of weeks left,” Morris said.
“If it was a few weeks ago and not as many games in hand, we probably wouldn’t have wanted it that way, and I’m sure Cooks Hill wouldn’t have wanted it that way either.
“But with us playing two games every week leading into the semis, it has to be done.
“We’ll be throwing everything at this. Our recovery started on (Thursday) morning. We want that trophy.
“The minor premiership is pretty much gone for us, so this is the first trophy on offer for us, and we want it bad.
“We’ll recover as a team (on Thursday night), train on Friday and play on Saturday. That’s how seriously we’re taking it.
“The game will be like-for-like, I imagine. Cooks Hill’s coach (Chris Zoricich) is very similar to ours (Kew Jaliens) with his mentality and his professionalism.
“They’re coming off a historic win in the cup, and we’re expecting a great game on Saturday.”
Weston should be close to full strength after getting through their cup game relatively unscathed. But Cooks Hill have question marks over several players following their trip to Adelaide, including Daniel Clements (sickness) and Liam Wilson, Liam Spurway, Xavier Williams and Matt Berrigan (injuries).
“We had a few injuries and a few sore and tired bodies out of the Australia Cup win. We also have a reserve grade game on Saturday, so it’s going to be difficult to call on reserve grade players if we need them, because they will have played a game,” Zoricich said.
“But there’s three points at stake and a trophy, which both teams want to win desperately. We’ll be going there to win the game, but I just don’t think we’ll be able to put out our best 11, to be honest.
“It will be a tough game. Weston are a good team and they’re doing really well, and I heard they played well (on Wednesday) despite the result.
“There’s been a theme for us this year around not giving away cheap possession. If that’s something we can get right on Saturday, I think we can compete.”
