FUTSAL WA

MSLA Grand-Final

The men’s Grand-Final saw League Champions the Northern Hawks face off against the third placed Futsal Factory. The Hawks have won the league in the previous three seasons without ever tasting victory in the final, and most definitely had a point to prove to their doubters and the decryers of them as “chokers”.

Futsal Factory on the other hand have won the Supa-Liga A final on two occasions and have been an almost constant fixture in the finals series since 2015. In a similar vain to the women’s final, the Hawks have Yethiha Aung in goals and Futsal Factory have Jim Tarver, both of whom can be damn near impossible to beat on their day. Somewhat surprisingly, Factory jumped out to a two goal lead after some defensive mistakes from the Hawks, and despite the Hawks attacking prowess, Factory nearly kept the Hawks scoreless in the first half, except for a large deflection that lead to the Hawks first goal.

With goals drying up, the Hawks played fly keeper, pulling Aung and replacing him often with Dan Formato to try to attain the numerical 5v4 advantage. With the Van Der Heiden and Tshongo brothers having excellent games for Factory, the Hawks big guns stood up late in the game with Chez Houston, Tom Ellis, Devon Rindel and Riquan Azri coming up big with goals, assists and pressure that lead to the Hawks overturning the 2-1 deficit to get away with a 3-2 victory and their maiden Grand-Final victory.