Sydney Uni - 2008 NSW League Champions

Posted on Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 by Admin

Zlatan Ivankovic tries to break the Uni defence

For the first time since 2003, Sydney Uni Handball Club has taken the NSW League title, defeating Canberra in today’s grand-final 37:31 (17:15 at the break) at Olympic park.

Canberra’s chances of repeating their 2007 grand-final win took a blow from the start after their highest goal-scorer, Maciej Krawczyk was forced to pull out of the game following an ankle injury he sustained in last week’s semi-final. 

Sydney Uni was first to score and quickly raced off to a five goal lead. Canberra fought back gradually to narrow the margin and ten minutes into the second half, a series of saves from rookie goalkeeper Jamie Richardson, gave Canberra a chance to equalise. And they did.  Another successful defensive effort by Canberra set right-wing Dragan Radicoski on a fast-break level the game at 23 goals each.

Though, that’s where it ended for Canberra.  Sydney Uni immediately replied with four consecutive goals putting the game out of Canberra’s reach early.  Just as he had been in previous games against Canberra, the league’s best player Kenneth Toerlen was unstoppable, top-scoring with 11 goals. And just as they had proved in previous games, Sydney Uni was too strong for Canberra this year.

At the end, Canberra and Uni players put their year-long rivalry behind them as they celebrated together at the presentation lunch hosted by the NSW Handball Association.

NSW HA President, Scott Fearnside, took the opportunity to thank all the clubs involved in this year’s championship, all the volunteers and especially league manager Bronwyn Thompson and the Ridley family for their effort in putting together another successful championship for NSW.

In the women’s final, the UTS club upset favourites Sydney Uni with a one goal victory.

Sydney Uni and Canberra players after the final

Sydney Uni and Canberra players celebrate the end of the 2008 NSW League

Sydney Uni HC defeated Canberra HC 37:31 – Olympic Park Sydney

Sydney Uni (37):  Abel Salhioui (1) GK, Alex Tighzer (1), Christoph Niebel (7), Håvard Tønnessen (8), Kai Engelhardt, Kenneth Tørlen (11), Martin Wilitzki (1), Sebastian Traverso (1), Zoran Jelicic, Charlie Spasov (1) and Christopher Köszegi (6).

Canberra (31): Jaimie Richardson (GK), Jonas Solberg (GK), Thomas Milon (4), Daniel Döring (7), Dragan Radicoski (2), Zlatan Ivankovic (3), Guilherme Nehme (1), Sasha Petrovski (2), Xavier Orsatti (3) and Taip Ramadani (9).

2 minute suspensions

Sydney Uni HC (3): Kai Engelhardt, Sebastian Traverso and Keneth Toerlen.
Canberra HC (6): Xavier Orsatti 3 times (Red Card) Thomas Milon, Zlatan Ivankovic and Guilherme Nehme.