Well the Illawarra / St.George Dragons did the area proud at the weekend while in the middle of Australia the Illawarra Stingrays did themselves proud with 2 outstanding results.

On the Saturday a very weary Stingrays (left home at 4am) took on the Adelaide United side at Para Hills ground. The ground was extremely hard & bumpy and the girls found it difficult to play good football but in true spirit fought on.

The game was played at an even pace and once the girls settled into a rhythm they displayed their grand final qualities. Attacking the Adelaide goal at regular intervals saw the Adelaide keeper the busiest player on the field but to her credit she kept the score line even to half time. Ash Connor and Ann Mayo were leading the way while Sam Spackman was at her brilliant best. Kim Bonilla was showing some very fine close skills in mid field for the Stingrays who were a little disappointed with the score at half time.

The game continued to flow in the second half and against the run of play the Adelaide side received a free kick just outside the 18 metre line. The resulting kick saw the ball fly off a couple of players and deflect into the Stingrays net. Although the girls were suffering from the heat and tiredness they then played some of the best football of the game to see Ash Connor finish off a great passing move that made scores level.

This was a big effort from the squad who were left bruised after the game.

Sunday saw another day more sleep and treatment by our Physio Carl saw the girls more relaxed when we arrived at the field to play SAIS.

Coach Brett Wallin who started with a completely different side than Saturday’s team was happy to see the younger girls step up. 5 minutes into the match Sam Muscat broke the defence only to see her dipping shot tipped over the cross bar. Many more raids took place and the new looking squad was more than holding their own. Sam Spackman come on in the 35^th minute and took full advantage of some good lead up play to shoot over the keepers head into the net from an acute angle this was a classy finish.

As the rise in injuries took its toll the team started to resemble a first grade side towards the end of the game where the girls played some good football without scoring the game finished up at 1-0.

This weekend would not have been possible without the help of the South Australian people at FFSA, Adelaide Utd & Para Hills Football Club we thank them for their hospitality and support.

We are looking into this to being an annual event for the Illawarra Stingrays which would be good for Football all round

Further to that below is feedback from the Adelaide United Coach Mike Barnett.

Hi Rob, I just wanted to thank you gain for the way your team conducted themselves, their game play was excellent.

I hope you enjoyed the experience & I will be pushing strongly that we keep the relationship strong between our states going forward. 

It was nice to finally meet you & Brett.

Regards & Thanks