Written by Roy Hay.
National Youth League Round 18 Southern Division Friday 30 January 1998 Bulleen Inter Kings 1 Gippsland Falcons 0 (Daniel Inchincolli) Bentleigh Greens 1 South Melbourne 0 (Steve Gogos) Sunday 1 February 1998 Albury Wodonga 3 Heidelberg United 1 (Nathan Ardern, Zoran Tudor (Ersan Yasan) Adam Griffiths) Melbourne Knights 15 Altona Magic 0 (Adis Kablar 4, John Kalabric 4, Damon Collina 3, Daniel Radosevic 2, own goal) South Melbourne Rockets v Carlton (Match not played) VIS v Bye Northern Division Friday 30 January 1998 Newcastle Breakers 8 Wollongong City 1 (David Hodgson 3, (Denis Jurjevic) Leonardo Langoni 3, Liam McGuire, own goal) Saturday 31 January 1998 N S W I S 1 Marconi Fairfield 5 (Steve Dimitrievski) (Joe Bruni 3, Paul Souris, Fernando Pellegrino) AIS 2 Marconi Fairfield Colts 1 (Chris Tanchevski, Tommy Bajurin) (Mark Hagger) QAS 2 Sydney United 3 (Andrew Packer, Royce Brownlie) (Mark Rudan, Robert Angievski, Mile Sterjovski) Sunday 1 February 1998 UTS Olympic 8 UTS Olympic Colts 1 (Nick Carle 3, Kevork Guleserrian 2, (Philip Perzac) Jim Bakis 2, Walter Ardone) Sydney United Colts v Bye ACTAS v Bye League Ladders Southern Division Team P W D L F A Pts Melbourne Knights 15 13 0 2 66 15 39 Carlton 12 11 0 1 27 6 33 Gippsland Falcons 14 9 2 3 27 14 29 V I S 13 7 3 3 33 16 24 Bulleen Inter 14 7 2 5 24 19 23 Bentleigh Greens 15 5 2 8 17 30 17 Heidelberg United 14 4 2 8 16 34 14 Albury Wodonga 14 4 1 9 18 21 13 Altona Magic 14 3 2 9 18 50 11 South Melbourne 13 2 3 8 22 22 9 South Melbourne Rockets 12 1 1 10 11 52 4 Northern Division Team P W D L F A Pts A I S 15 11 2 2 61 13 35 UTS Olympic 15 9 3 3 50 22 30 Wollongong City 16 8 3 5 32 31 27 Sydney United 15 6 6 3 40 29 24 Marconi Fairfield 15 7 2 6 28 28 23 Q A S 15 6 4 5 34 21 22 Newcastle Breakers 15 5 5 5 35 31 20 Marconi Fairfield Colts 15 6 2 7 24 36 20 A C T A S 15 5 4 6 21 42 19 UTS Olympic Colts 16 3 3 10 23 56 12 Sydney United Colts 14 3 2 9 16 37 11 N S W I S 16 2 4 10 19 37 10 Leading goalscorers Southern Division Name Team Goals Adis Kablar Melbourne Knights 13 John Kalabric Melbourne Knights 12 Zoran Petrevski VIS 12 Jovanco Novacevski Carlton 9 Festim Zekiri Melbourne Knights 7 Northern Division Name Team Goals Mile Sterjovski AIS/Sydney United 23 Mark Hagger Marconi Fairfield Colts 17 Round 19 Southern Division Saturday 21 February 1998 Albury Wodonga v South Melbourne Rockets (4 pm, Diamond Park) Sunday 22 February 1998 Gippsland Falcons v Heidelberg United (3.30 pm, Falcons Park) South Melbourne v Bulleen Inter (3.30 pm, Bob Jane Stadium) Monday 23 February 1998 Carlton v VIS (5.30 pm, Optus Oval) Bye v Bentleigh Greens Altona Magic v Bye Bye v Melbourne Knights Northern Division Friday 20 February 1998 Sydney United v Sydney United Colts (5 pm, Parramatta Stadium) Saturday 21 February 1998 UTS Olympic Colts v Marconi Fairfield (4 pm, Belmore Park) AIS v ACTAS (7 pm, AIS Soccer fields) Sunday 22 February 1998 Wollongong City v UTS Olympic (4 pm, Brandon Park) Marconi Fairfield Colts v QAS (5 pm, Marconi Stadium) NSWIS v Bye Bye v Newcastle Breakers National Youth League (Southern Division), 30 January-1 February 1998 by Roy Hay Bulleen Inter Kings started round 18 with a one-nil win over Gippsland Falcons at the Veneto Club. Daniel Inchincolli's goal was all that separated the teams after a thoroughly entertaining and closely fought match. It was a similar story at Kingston Heath where Bentleigh Greens beat South Melbourne by a Steve Gogos goal. Over at Melbourne Knights there was a curious match in which the home team scored fifteen goals without reply from Altona Magic, several of whose youth league players have been called up to play in the Victorian Premier League. The procession began in the ninth minute when Adis Kablar fired home a cut back from the bye line. Then Damon Collina did likewise in 16, John Kalabric had free header from a cross by Ivan Razov, Collina bundled a short range effort into the net and Steve Vugdelja put Kablar through for number five shortly after the interval. Damon Collina sprung the offside trap for the sixth goal, Kablars short range header and John Kalabric's simple finish preceded a spectacular overhead kick by Daniel Radosevic. Kalabric added two, Radosevic gained his second when Damon Collina's shot came back of the cross bar. The Magic had one free kick in a dangerous position but Vanco Bosevski's shot flew over the bar. Michael Bosevski got in on the act for the Knights with a shot from an angle, Adis Kablar scored his fourth and Daniel Radosevic had the most spectacular long shot, but a deflection denied him his hat-trick. The match between South Melbourne Rockets and Carlton at Bob Jane Stadium was not played. It will be the subject of a referee's report. The two divisions of the National Youth League now take a break until 20 February. National Youth League (Northern Division), 30 January-1 February 1998 Newcastle Breakers overwhelmed Wollongong City by eight goals to one at Topper Stadium on Friday night. Two hat-tricks, one by David Hodgson in 5, 65 and 73 minutes and the other by Leonardo Langone in 2, 50 and 70 minutes were the highlights from the Newcastle point of view. The other goals were by Liam McGuire in 85 minutes and an own goal. Denis Jurjevic scored the consolation goal for the Wolves on the hour. It was wet, humid and difficult at Suncorp on Saturday but the Queensland Academy and Sydney United triumphed over the conditions to produce a great game which ended three-two to United. . Former AIS sharpshooter Mile Sterjovski opened the scoring for Sydney United in the ninth minute and Andrew Packer brought the QAS level after 28. Robert Angievski put United in front in 68, and Royce Brownlie scored for QAS to tie the game once again with 12 minutes left. The winner came from Mark Rudan in the 85th minute, which was a bit harsh as a draw might have been fairer. New South Wales Institute of Sport went down to Marconi Fairfield by five goals to one. Steve Dimitrievski put the Institute in front from the penalty spot after fifteen minutes, but Joe Bruni equalised on the half-hour with the first goal of his hat-trick. Fernando Pellegrino made it two five minutes later, but the game was still even until more than an hour had been played when Paul Souris scored a third for Marconi. Bruni completed his hat-trick with goals in 85 and 89 minutes as the youngsters from the Institute ran out of legs after their tough recent program. Five players are in the Joeys squad and were just back from camp, but the talent of Daniel Watkins, Robert Petrovski and Paul Wearne showed through. The AIS beat Marconi Colts by two goals to one with all the goals coming in the opening twenty minutes. Chris Tanchevski and Tommy Bajurin scored in 5 and 14 minutes as the AIS threatened to run away with the game, but the prolific Mark Hagger scored in 19 and despite plenty of chances to both sides that is the way it stayed until the final whistle. UTS Olympic beat its Colts team by eight goals to one. Nick Carle scored a hat-trick and there were doubles by Jim Bakis and Kevork Gulesserian. Walter Ardone added one and there was a good goal by Philip Perzac for the Colts. Roy Hay