Written by Roy Hay.
National Youth League 11 January 1998 Round 15 Southern Division Saturday 10 January 1998 Gippsland Falcons 1 Melbourne Knights 3 (Adrian Savage) (John Kalabric 2, Damon Collina) Altona Magic 1 Carlton 4 (Steve Markovski) (Daniel Allsopp 2, Branko Bacak, Jovanco Novacevski) Sunday 11 January 1998 South Melbourne 1 VIS 1 (Louie Rozanitis) (Pat Arcuri) Monday 12 January 1998 Bulleen Inter Bentleigh Greens () () Wednesday 14 January 1998 Altona Magic South Melbourne Rockets () () Heidelberg United v Bye Albury Wodonga v Bye Northern Division Saturday 10 January 1998 Marconi Fairfield 2 UTS Olympic 1 (Devrim Huseyin, Chad Gibson) (Nick Carle) NSWIS 1 Sydney United Colts 5 (Simon Catanzaro) (Nonos Bobo 2, Jason Kencevski, Stiven Dimovski, Michael Clare) UTS Olympic Colts 3 QAS 2 (Ali Jomaa 2, ???) (Jade North, Alan Cameron) Sunday 11 January 1998 Sydney United 7 ACTAS 0 (Nick Bosevski 3, Daniel Kukucka 2, Azur Mujanovic, Steven Bozinovski) Wollongong City 0 AIS 1 (Chris Tancevski) Newcastle Breakers v Bye Marconi Fairfield Colts v Bye League Ladders Southern Division Team P W D L F A Pts Melbourne Knights 13 11 0 2 49 14 33 Carlton 11 10 0 1 25 5 30 Gippsland Falcons 12 8 2 2 23 11 26 V I S 12 6 3 3 30 15 21 Bulleen Inter 10 4 1 5 13 17 13 Bentleigh Greens 11 4 1 6 11 19 13 Heidelberg United 11 4 1 6 12 24 13 South Melbourne 11 2 3 6 21 19 9 Albury Wodonga 11 3 0 8 14 18 9 Altona Magic 10 1 2 7 12 30 5 South Melbourne Rockets 10 1 1 8 9 47 4 Northern Division Team P W D L F A Pts A I S 13 10 2 1 58 10 32 UTS Olympic 13 7 3 3 36 21 24 Q A S 13 6 4 3 32 17 22 Wollongong City 13 6 3 4 28 22 21 Marconi Fairfield 13 6 2 5 22 25 20 Marconi Fairfield Colts 12 5 2 5 18 26 17 A C T A S 13 4 4 5 16 37 16 Sydney United 12 3 6 3 30 25 15 Newcastle Breakers 12 4 3 5 24 27 15 Sydney United Colts 12 3 1 8 13 33 10 UTS Olympic Colts 13 3 1 9 18 44 10 N S W I S 13 2 3 8 17 25 9 Leading goalscorers Southern Division Name Team Goals Zoran Petrevski VIS 12 Adis Kablar Melbourne Knights 9 Jovanco Novacevski Carlton 8 John Kalabric Melbourne Knights 8 Festim Zekiri Melbourne Knights 7 Northern Division Name Team Goals Mile Sterjovski AIS 22 Mark Hagger Marconi Fairfield Colts 13 Marc Bresciano AIS 9 Tony Krslovic Sydney United/Colts 8 Round 16 Southern Division Friday 16 January 1998 Bentleigh Greens v Heidelberg United (6.30 pm, Kingston Heath) Sunday 18 January 1998 South Melbourne Rockets v Altona Magic (5 pm, Bob Jane Stadium) Melbourne Knights v South Melbourne (3.30 pm, Knights Stadium) Albury Wodonga v Bullen Inter ( 6 pm, Diamond Park) Calrton v Bye VIS v Bye Gippsland Falcons v Bye Northern Division Friday 16 January 1998 Newcastle Breakers v NSWIS (5.15 pm, Topper Stadium) Saturday 17 January 1998 QAS v Wollongong City (4.30 pm, Suncorp Stadium) ACTAS v Marconi Fairfield (3.30 pm, Seiffert Oval) Sunday 18 January 1998 UTS Olympic Colts v Sydney United Colts (4 pm, Belmore Sports Ground) Marconi Fairfield Colts v Sydney United (5 pm, Marconi Stadium) UTS Olympic v Bye AIS v Bye National Youth League (Southern Division), 10-12 January 1998 by Roy Hay League leader Melbourne Knights confirmed its top spot with a three-one away win over Gippsland Falcons, which played for almost an hour with ten men after Lumanovski was sent off. Adrian Savage put the Falcons ahead in 50 minutes, but Damon Collina equalised nine minutes later. Two late goals by John Kalabric secured the win for the Knights. Carlton had a four-one away win over Altona Magic a Paisley Park on Saturday. Jovanco Novacevski opened for Carlton in 27 minutes and Steve Markovski replied for the Magic seven minutes after that. Branko Bacak was next to score, putting the Blues in front in 56 and Daniel Allsopp banged in two quick goals in 68 and 72 minutes as Carlton established its supremacy on the day. South Melbourne and the Victorian Institute of Sport drew one-all at Bob Jane Stadium. Pat Arcuri scored for the VIS after 20 minutes and the VIS might well have capitalised on the lead but when it failed to do so, Souths came back and Louie Rozanitis was credited with the equalising goal, though there was a ruck of bodies around the ball as it went into the net. Bulleen played Bentleigh Greens on Monday night and the match between Altona Magic and South Melbourne Rockets which was abandoned owing to floodlight failure will be played on Wednesday night. National Youth League (Northern Division), 10-12 January 1998 UTS Olympic Colts surprised QAS with a three-two win at home on Saturday. The Queenslanders took the lead through Jade North and dominated the rest of the first half without adding to that goal. Ali Jomaa equalised for the Colts just before the break then scored again in the second half, only for Alan Cameron to equalise. The Colts kept plugging away and deserved the winning goal late in the game. Marconi Fairfield had a hard fought two-on win over UTS Olympic at Marconi Stadium. Nick Carle gave Olympic its goal in nineteen minutes and Olympic was still ahead till late in the first half when Devrim Huseyin equalised in 42 minutes. Michael Gibson scored the winner in the 54th minute. NSW Institute of Sport went down heavily at home to Sydney United Colts by five goals to one. Nonos Bobo opened for the Colts in 36 minutes and Jason Kencevski added a second in 43. Steven Dimovski's penalty made it three-nil for the Colts but Simon Catanzaro pulled a goal back in 68, then two late goals by Bobo again and Michael Clare saw the Colts home. The AIS scraped to a one-nil win away to Wollongong City thanks to a single strike by Chris Tancevski. Sydney United overwhelmed the ACT Academy by seven goals to nil. It was four-nil at the break and Nick Bosevski completed a hat-trick, while Daniel Kukucka scored twice. The other goals were singles from Azur Mujnaovic and Stiven Bozinovski.