NSW victorious in annual Tri State Championship

12/09/2022

After a two year hiatus due to you know what, the annual Tri State Football Championship between the NSW, Qld and Vic. Bar teams resumed on Saturday 10 September 2022 in the Domain.

A strong Victorian team proved hard to beat in the first game between a makeshift Qld team (predominantly NSW players who had some connection to that fair state) however Qld was victorious 1-0 (with Andrew Skoien for Qld slotting home a last minute penalty). The next encounter between NSW and Qld saw Sir Alex scoring for NSW. The only problem was he was playing for Qld. Simon Philips (Captain of NSW) was heard stating that the own goal was part of Sir Alex’s grand plan to ensure NSW won 5-3.

The last encounter between NSW and Vic resulted in a 4-2 win to NSW, a score line that did not reflect how competitive Victoria had been throughout the contest. The result also ensured the silverware remained in NSW for another twelve months.

A number of brilliant individual performances by Jeh Coutinho, Joel Cook and Richard di Michiel resulted in the first two receiving the Player of the Match award and Di Michiel receiving the Patchaldino award (an award given for the demonstration of the most un-Brazillian skill on the pitch – unfairly you might think given his two missed shots at goal were cancelled out by him finding the back of the net on two other occasions).

One further award was presented on the day. Anthony Lo Surdo SC received the inaugural Bar FC Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to football and more importantly, life at the Bar. He has been the driving force behind Bar FC since 2008 and manager of the team for close to a decade. He has remained connected to the team, organising the Tri State Championship and referring Bar FC games in the TSC and the Domain Soccer League. Most importantly, he had the idea to get barristers out of chambers and onto the pitch to assist their health and improve the camaraderie of the Bar. His legacy is demonstrated in Bar FC now having a squad of over 80 members.

A special thankyou also to the referees, Turnbull SC DCJ, Lo Surdo SC and David Patch who officiated with their usual good judgment and humour. Bar FC would also like to thank the President, Gabrielle Bashir SC who took the time on a Saturday afternoon to support the team and present the awards.

Finally, the squad for the Tri State Championship was as follows:

• David Stanton
• David Patch
• Adrian Canceri
• Jeh Coutinho
• John Harris
• Rohan de Meyrick (K)
• Danielle Wood
• Faraz Maghami
• Richard di Michiel
• Simon Philips (C)
• Nicholas Olson
• Sebastian Hartford Davis
• Thomas Liu
• Darcy Munce
• Jackson Rogers
• Hugh Morrison
• Ivan Griscti
• Joel Cook
• Jon Tsang
• Daniel Pace
• Andy Munro
• Stephen Spiers
• Nick Condylis

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