Ollie Fleeton pushes forward for Esperance U13s. Photos: Esperance Soccer Association
GRANT SHIPP, AIDAN SINNOTT AND LOUISE PEARN
Football West’s Country Week is in its 49th year with all regional towns encouraged to enter teams and participate at the weeklong carnival held during the September school holidays.
Some Associations have in excess of 2000 players to choose from and the ages range from 9 to 17 years old competing in age specific A or B divisions.
This year ESA took four complete Esperance teams, totalling 57 players; the largest representation by the Association so far.
Country Week is always a wonderful opportunity for team, player and personal development over a demanding week of competitive football.
All four teams represented the Association and themselves really well.
U12 Girls
Our U12 girls team grew in confidence and competitiveness over the week.
Annabel Fleetons’ super cool penalty strike stands out for her composure.
Georgia Toop was awarded players player award for her amazing saves in goal and nonstop running when in the outfield.
Thank you so much to Sereen Fraser for coaching and Kath Fleeton for her role as manager.
12-13 Mixed
Our 12-13 mixed team had some really great matches with some high score line wins, but unfortunately not enough wins to get them though to finals day.
Oliver Fleeton was awarded the players choice award by his team.
Steve McIlroy and Daffyd Jones were the teams coaches and Leanne Cassam was manager.
Thank you for all your time, enthusiasm and commitment to the team.
9-11 Boys
Coached by Aidan Sinnott with assistance from Brett Whiting the 9-11 Boys team won the Circati Division competition.
Esperance started the tournament well with two wins on Monday, which settled the nerves and bonded the team.
They won 3-0 against Newman.
Esperance showed real determination to come back from two goals down to grind out the win against Karratha ending 5-2 to Esperance.
Tuesday started with a frustrating game against Geraldton, who defended resolutely, ending in a nil all draw.
Carnarvon suffered a 5-0 loss to Esperance, as the momentum of the team was increasing.
The league table was quite tight at this stage, with Leeuwin Naturaliste JSA, Broome, Esperance and Karratha all vying for top spot on the ladder.
Wednesday started with a bang, with a morale boosting 7-0 victory over Peel, giving the team a much needed goal difference to help keep them in the top two.
The crucial game of the week was next with LNJSA in the afternoon, and with after an early goal, Esperance cruised home with a 3-0 win.
The final day of the league was played against Port Hedland and Albany. Esperance were confident and brought home 8-0 and 5-0 wins respectively
The weather all week was sunny and warm, but on Thursday night, a cold front came through and a cloudy and rainy final was in store for both teams, which tipped the final in Esperance’s favour, Karratha players are certainly not used to cold and wet pitches!
The game was played at a frantic pace, both teams washing off the previous four days of games to look surprisingly fresh.
Esperance scored first, with Levi Carmichael striking his most important goal for the week. The game was tense.
Not long after, Esperance captain Cian Whiting stepped up, at the edge of the box, made a yard of space for himself and cracked a curling shot from about 15m out into the top corner to make it 2-0. Early in the second half, a defensive tackle that cleared the ball, was dubiously awarded as a penalty for Karratha, which was dispatched to make the score 2-1.
An Esperance corner that was floated in by Finley Jones, hit a player in the box and went into the Karratha net to make it 3-1 to Esperance.
The Karratha players were getting increasingly frantic, but time was running out.
Stout defending from Logan Forrest and Judd Major kept the Karratha forwards out, with Callum Molloy’s energy helping the team hold off the Karratha attacks.
The final whistle sounded, and Esperance celebrated a well-earned victory as the 2024 champions of the Circati division.
14-16 Mixed
Grant Shipp and Gareth Palmer coached the 14-16 mixed team and they finished second in their B division competition.
The majority of this team have played together since the age of six or seven, entering the tournament having moved up an age group and after winning last years under 13s B division.
It became obvious this was going to be a challenging week with three injured players in the squad.
Monday mornings first game was a stylish win 2-1 against LNJSA.
The second game, against Hedland, proved to be much more difficult with a 3-2 loss, despite having the majority of play attacking into Hedland’s half.
Tuesday allowed the team to grow in confidence with two convincing wins against Carnarvon and Geraldton.
The players were super focussed for Wednesday morning against Peel, a team who were playing well and consistently perform well at country week.
It was a long wait for the first goal, but then Esperance capitalised and went for the immediate follow up goal and their dominance continued from there.
All Esperance players brought their A game and delivered a spectacular team performance to beat Peel 5-1 as they left the field exhausted and elated.
Credit should be given to Peel who were gracious and became part of Esperance’s supporters later in the week.
With only a short break it was hard for the team to recover adequately and their second game ended in a nil-all draw against Karratha.
On Thursday, the team needed to win both games and create a large goal difference to secure themselves a place in the final on Friday.
This was made all the more difficult with injuries; reducing the sub bench to one player.
Esperance played a tough game against Goldfields.
The game was shortened due to a head injury to one of Goldfields players after colliding with an Esperance defender’s front teeth in the air (both were fortunately OK).
In the last moments of time Esperance were able to slot the ball in the back of the net for a 2-1 win. Esperance Striker Nathan Woodward also came off the field with an ankle sprain.
The second game of the day saw the Esperance team play some beautiful passing football.
A notable goal came from Anaya Ramalepa who was crossed to from the left wing; he controlled the ball off his head whilst navigating between two players, and as the ball dropped he struck a clean hard volley into the goal.
The team dominated every aspect of the game and they walked away with a 9-0 win against Albany. Will Jarzabek (midfield), Callum McIlroy (centre back), Sunny Petrie (forward), Jordan Fleeton (CDM), Zander Shipp (striker) and Felix Pearn (left wing) all making it onto the score sheet.
Friday morning brought rain. With only two substitutes and key players out due to injury, it was always going to be a difficult game for Esperance.
Hedland scored within seconds of their kick off, attacking super aggressively and effectively as Esperance countered with an equalizer not long after.
With the game in the balance, the pace of Hedland proved difficult to check.
Despite this, Esperance had dominant possession, several balls hitting the crossbar or sailing just wide of the post as the Hedland keeper made some great reactionary saves.
The final score was 3-1 to Hedland, crowning them the division winners, with Esperance in second place.
Every player represented the Esperance Soccer Association and Esperance itself incredibly well and should be immensely proud of themselves.
