Avoca v Ourimbah
At the bottom of the table, Avoca will be out for crucial points in this weekend’s Match of the Round. Meanwhile, Ourimbah looks to secure back-to-back victories and a clean sweep over the Sharks in 2025 with another win this weekend.
Last week’s 2-1 loss to the Falcons saw Avoca end the weekend in the guaranteed relegation spot on the MPL Ladder.
For the second straight season, it appears this Avoca outfit will be battling until the final day of the year to stay in the top-flight men’s competition on the Central Coast next season.
After last year’s subpar season, Avoca introduced Mitch Harrison to take the reins of their senior men’s squad, hoping for a transformation in their search to remain a premier league outfit.
Harrison, a decorated former Shark’s player himself, spoke on what has been the most rewarding and difficult challenges he has faced so far.
“Having such a young squad, the most rewarding part of coaching has definitely been seeing the improvement in players, particularly players playing in a higher grade than they have in the past.”
“The most difficult is easily the losses. As a coach, I take them harder than I used to as a player. Particularly this season as we’ve been good in plenty of games but still lost. It can be hard to work through that as a coach.”
Although this side isn’t where they would like to be on the ladder, Avoca have been an extremely competitive side this season and despite currently occupying last place, Harrison is adamant his side are sticking together.
“The morale of the group is still great. Our squad are incredibly close, they’re all each other’s mates and just love being around each other. Of course we’d love more wins, but the spirit the lads have shown so far has been fantastic.”
It’s not often in any sport that you face the same opposition in consecutive weeks. However, thanks to rain at the start of the season, it just so happens the remainder of round 3 was rescheduled to take place this weekend.
Last week’s encounter between these two sides saw an evenly matched contest at Ourimbah Oval. Ourimbah started the quicker team to open the scoring, but Avoca pulled one back before the break.
Ourimbah eventually find the winner in the second half as Harrison is hopeful for a different story at their home ground.
“I expect another tight game. We’ve got a few changes to our 11 this week which might change how the game flows, but we’ve taken some key learnings from last week that should help us out this week.”
“This week it will be all about players stepping up. If we want to play in the Premier League next season we need to turn good performances into results.”
Spirits are flying high in the Ourimbah camp after last week’s crucial victory over Avoca. However, Ourimbah’s skipper Phil Holmes who scored the winning goal was shown a straight red card and will now miss this weekend’s rematch which will be a significant loss for Ian McAndrew’s men.
McAndrew also gave an insight into the positives and negatives of coaching this squad in 2025. “Being given the job so late on in the year meant we were behind in a lot of ways compared to the other teams.”
“The most rewarding thing is always getting around the lads and building something together and when you see it in action out on the field, it’s very rewarding but now it’s finding consistency to do it week in week out.”
McAndrew has been a staple amongst the Central Coast for quite some time, winning multiple trophies as a player and coach as he spoke more on the league and his club.
“It’s great to see competitive matches. It can only make the league stronger. On a personal note for our club has been our U23’s that have filled in week in week out and not been out of depth in this league, there is a big future there for the club.”
Unfortunately for McAndrew, he will be forced to make more changes to his lineup this week, which has been the story of their year so far.
“The fitness of our players has been a big issue, we have had way too many injuries which has limited cohesion on the field. The morale overall is great, these boys have their own culture over here and it works for them. So, you don’t fix what is broken.”
As for Sunday’s clash, McAndrew is anticipating another close encounter with Avoca. “It will be another tough contest, Mitch has them set up well and we will expect a quick counter, which is what they did well last weekend.”
“We need to stick to our principles of play and stick strong defensively. We have a few injury concerns again which we carried this weekend, so we will assess them later this week. It should be another hard-fought battle on their home deck this time.”
All Round 3 Fixtures –
