AA A’s 2020 Season Review by Frank Karalis

After winning the 2019 premiership 2020 was always going to be a difficult season trying to go back to back.

But little did we know how 2020 was going to play out. Our season started in mid-January with preseason kicking off in the middle of summer and by mid-February we had already started playing our first preseason games.

The team was prepped and ready to start the season when Covid-19 hit and stopped our season in its tracks.

After nearly 4 months of no football we finally got back on the park with round 1 kicking off on Saturday 11th July.

We had a really good start to the season in which we lost our first game to Peakhurst in the last game of round 1 which left us in 2nd spot 7 point behind Peakhurst who increased their lead in 1st.

This seemed to lift the side which then went on a 5 game winning streak putting us into first stop.

The team then hit our first and only road block in which we dropped 2 games by large margins to Connells and Hurstville which dropped us to 3rd position going into our last round against first placed Peakhurst.

After a good soul searching session at Oatley Pub (with plenty of beers) on Wednesday night we came out and beat Peakhurst 3-0 and finished the season in equal 2nd spot 2 points of minor premiers.

We then faced Peakhurst again the following week in the Semi-final where the team showed all the quality we knew they had winning comfortably 4-2 and making another grand final.

Grand Final we came up against Hurstville Minotaurs which must have been one of the best grand finals for all neutral fans. After being up 4-2 Hurstville fought back levelling the game 4-4 in the 92nd minute of the game and the game seemed to be heading into extra time only for joint captain Lachlan Armstrong scoring the winning goal in the 97th minute with the last kick of the game.

Oatley FC AAA’s Win the 2020 Grand Final

After everything we went through as a squad this year this will probably go down as the best winning season of all.

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AAW A’s 2020 Season Review by Matt Jones

We started the season with the recruitment of 5 new players to our team, we had a strong pre-season and there were great signs in the pre season trial games, momentum was building only to be shut down like the rest of the world.

On our return we regrouped well and set about regaining our fitness and team work we had built earlier in the year. The girls set a high standard of play from the re-start and only dropped 3 games all season.

We lost 2 players to season ending injuries and true testament to our girls they dug deep and played on the rest of the season putting in extra effort for them each week. We finished the minor premiership equal second (third on GD). By the end of the regular season the girls were all carrying niggling injuries, we were fortunate enough to have Hubert our club Physio on hand at training and game day to have the girls ready to go.

The semi final was played against Lugarno, a team we had mixed fortunes against during the regular season. It was an extremely hot day and the game was split into quarters. The girls managed the heat well and scored 2 first half goals which we defended well and finished with the 2 nil win.

The Grand final was against our Oatley rivals All Saints who were minor Premiers.
If the semi was played in bad conditions then the GF was atrocious, Windy, Wet and Cold.
The match was still scoreless at half time and we had to turn and run into the strong wind.

We were under the pump for about 20 mins when things started to change, we managed some good ball possession and struck our first goal from a left foot shot outside the penalty box to hit the top left corner of the goal. We struck again not long after from a cross put in low and hard from the right flank, skidding across the wet surface and unable to be taken by the keeper and neatly knocked in by our striker. The girls held strong and celebrated hard when that final whistle blew.

AAW A’s win the 2020 Grand Final

A great way to finish a very different season.

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