CASTLEMAINE gOLD SPICE – AUSTRALIAN MASTERS GAMES BOUND
Local masters football team Castlemaine gOld Spice are about to embark on their 4th Australian Masters Games campaign, having won Bronze in the over 40s in 2009 & 11, and narrowly missing out in the over 45s in 2013 the gOld Spicer’s plan to take a stronger team to the 2015 games and try to bring home Gold.
The Australian Masters Games is held every 2 years, these games will be held in Adelaide from the 4th to 11th October. During the games the Castlemaine gOld spice team expect to play 7 x 1 hour matches in 6 days of competition, coaches Terry Attwood & David Hakenberger (Shanka) stress that with such a large number of games they need a large squad with high rotations “we are hoping to take between 16-18 players, we currently have 17 registered so we are well set to be competitive and bring home a medal”.
Over the last month the Spicer’s have played 3 friendlies and have had good results winning all 3.
Over 40’s 2009 Bronze Medal Team
Many of the past and present gOld Spice players have played local football for our Castlemaine Goldfields FC and many of them are past CGFC Senior men B&F winners, these include Timmy Cooper, David Gunter (x2), Scotty Doty, John Gunter, Terry Attwood (x3) & Jim Kourkoulakos (x2). Since they formed in late 2008 there have been 34 players play for Castlemaine gOld Spice in the masters games (this includes our very own current President Ian Flavell), of these 18 have played for CGFC Senior men, this also includes 12 players that played for the successful Over 35’s championship winning team in 2012, winning the final 3-2 against Eaglehawk(BASL).
Adelaide Masters 2011 Bronze Medal Team
We will keep you updated with their progress throughout the week of 4-11th October. Good Luck …..it is never too late to play the world game.
Day 1 at the Masters Games
Castlemaine Represent – Netballers and Footballers at the 2015 Masters Games
– before we kicked a ball we lost S.Williams (one of our imports) he received a large gash needing 9 stiches in his skin from playing rugby over the weekend. but we started this game with 4 on the bench so looking good…or so we thought !! when in the warm-up another import from Sydney (Johnny Wyz) went down with a suspected torn ligament !! we started the tournament in style by dominating the first half, playing some lovely football we had many chances in the first 1/2 only to go 1-0 to a fumble from our keeper, this did not deter us and we replied within 5 mins following a nice passage of play stringing together 5 passes culminating in Rapa slotting home from 10 mtrs out, it was a game that we should have won, but a game did gives us confidence for the over 35’s team today (who won their first match yesterday)…go spicers !
Day 2
Match 2 – Ouch …
– the Spic
ers came up against the youthful over 35’s Melbourne buffers…giving away between 15-20yrs it was always going to be a hard day at the office (also not discounting they had a 37yr old who had played for Adelaide City for 10 years and was selected as a young socceroos in his day -Richie Alargich) and it was a hard day going down 6-0 a bit out of league there!! we also lost another player ‘Swervius’ to a calf injury and no Rammy (firefighting) for Day 3.
Day 3
Match 3
– the voltaren and other secret potions are starting to surface! it also meant we had a double header and an early start, at
9:00am. We were up against Adelaide this proved to be a very close match and after going down to an early goal we fought valiantly but ended up on the losing side 1-0 whilst not good losing it was a really enjoyable match, Our next match @
4:30pm is against Spurs SA who were beaten by Adelaide 5-2 yesterday and lost to the melb Buffers 5-0 today. We need to kick em while they are down… We have to win this one because it could all go down to goal difference, lose and we will be finishing early !!
Match 4
The Castlemaine gOld spicers team played a faultless match and put it all on the park last night, resulting in a 1-0 win vs SpursSA, The Spicer’s played a very tight game stifling the opposition and pressing hard, we defended as a unit and pushed the opposition further and further back, In turn they became very physical and narky, resulting in a couple of bookings. the goal came with 15 mins to go (goal scorer Rapa) and the opposition never looked like scoring.
Day 4
2015 Masters gOld team
Today its back out there for match 5 vs Melbourne Buffers over 35’s, we are not looking forward to it!!…so its going to be a very hard day, we are going to try and lock them down and pinch a draw,
Its was great to see S.Williams our flying Welshman make his debut for us yesterday with more body protection than Gladiator, He played with 9 fresh stiches in the side of his shin. our other outs Swervius (calf) and Johnny wiz are frantically trying to get on the park…Johnny has been madly (some might say) sticking a syringe in his knee and taking the fluid out (20ml so far!). Rammy’s back today from fire duty, and leigh played his first 2 matches yesterday.
Day 5
Match 6
– a match we didn’t need to play – yesterdays game was really not necessary because we had made the final today and to make matters worse we were playing the same team Adelaide, the Spicers went out there as flat as a tack and played lifeless football, coughing up the ball at every opportunity, I think most of us would have preferred a rest day! For a lot of the players their legs we not working and their brains were in neutral. but on a positive note we know how not to play and what we need to do today….today we are going back to our hustling 4-2-3-1 formation, we will be tight on our opposition and lock them down and we will hit our passes.its been a long week and our muscles are aching the ball has to be to feet. we will tackle hard and leave nothing in the tank today. We came here for Gold and we now have destiny in our hands – 1pm KO see ya there…
Final Result – Silver
Castlemaine go one better than their previous efforts in the Australian Masters Games by winning the Silver medal.
Castlemainiac Medalists
Castlemaine approached the final as underdogs having falling 4-0 to our opponents the previous day in a dead rubber.
The Spicer’s set up a very defensive 4-2-3-1 formation this was partly dictated by the very strong opposition and the fact that both our gun strikers were out injured and had been since match two. Going into 1/2 time it was 0-0 and Adelaide were getting quite rattled with each other, we held on and played a terrific defensive game, our shape was superb and teamwork excellent but 10mins into the 2nd half we finally conceded a goal.This spurred us on and we pushed more forward but could not penetrate the very strong Adelaide defence. the game was spoit in the last 5 mins with two controversial decisions, The 2nd one was a penalty where there was no contact with the player (confirmed after the game !). going down 2-0 was a great performance and secured the silver medal.
Its been a hell of a week with 7 matches in 6 days, truly a week of endurance, but great fun with a great bunch of lads, great commitment, totally exhausted, lots of laughing together, bring on 2017 in Tasmania and perhaps we could take 2 teams – an over 50’s and an over 40’s. Go Castlemaine.
