A small but eager group gathered for the first event of the FISTF season in Australia as part of Melbourne International Games Week #migw23.
Peter Thomas (AUS/Melbourne TFC) deservedly added the Melbourne IO to his win in the Australian Grand Prix earlier in 2023.
Peter Thomas (AUS/Melbourne TFC) deservedly added the Melbourne IO to his win in the Australian Grand Prix earlier in 2023.
Unfortunately for Giuseppe Tardiota (AUS/Brisbane SC) it was the case of another loss in a sporting final for Brisbane! (Eds note: For our non-Australian friends, Brisbane teams lost recent finals in four different sports!!)
Group 1
In Group 1 Peter Thomas and Giuseppe Tardiota stamped their authority with convincing wins in their first group games. Peter then narrowly beat Giuseppe in the deciding game to top the group. All thought the final games had no value until Nathan Urbaniak (AUS/Melbourne TFC) had the lead 1-0 vs Giuseppe and Adrian Connolly (AUS/Western FLickers) was only 0-1 to Peter. However, normal service was resumed in the second half with both players scoring 3 goals.
Group 2
The group of death! In what turned out to be a decisive result, Luke Radziminski (AUS/Melbourne TFC) defeated clubmate Benji Batten (AUS/Melbourne TFC) 6-2 in the opening game. Eliot Kennedy (AUS/Northern Falcons TFC) then defeated Luke 3-1, before succumbing to Benji 2-3. This meant a three-way tie at the top of the group, with Luke and Eliot, respectively, taking out the top two spots in the head to head. Tony Madiona (AUS/Western Flickers) defeated Beth Eveleigh (AUS/Northern Phoenix) to take out 4th place in the group.
Knockout stages
Both semis were tight games. Peter defeated Eliot 2-0, whilst Giuseppe defeated Luke thanks in no small part to an error by Luke with his spare keeper.
In the final, Peter again proved his class winning 4-0 to take home the title.
