Written by Roy Hay.
Southern Division Saturday 21 February 1998 Albury Wodonga 0 South Melbourne Rockets 0 Sunday 22 February 1998 Gippsland Falcons 5 Heidelberg United 0 (John McEvoy 2, Alex Halikias, Anthony Pardo, Luke Cheney) South Melbourne 1 Bulleen Inter 2 (Nick Marinos) (Mathew Gulino, own goal) Carlton 1 VIS 0 (Pece Siveski), played 7 February 1998. Bye v Bentleigh Greens Altona Magic v Bye Bye v Melbourne Knights Northern Division Saturday 21 February 1998 UTS Olympic Colts 3 Marconi Fairfield 4 (Bruce Ghamraoui 2, Ali Jomaa) (Mike Smith 2, Greg Collins, Vic Tomasevic) AIS 2 ACTAS 0 (Luke Wilkshire, Chris Tanchevski) Sunday 22 February 1998 Sydney United 8 Sydney United Colts 0 (Azur Mujanovic 3, Mile Sterjovski 2, Joel Griffiths, Michael Santalab, Jason Culina) Wollongong City 2 UTS Olympic 2 (Chad Bishop, Vic Costabile) (Angelo Petratos, Jim Bakis) Marconi Fairfield Colts 1 Q A S 2 (Ryan Manente) (Russell Miner, Angelo Cootes) League ladders Southern Divsion Team P W D L F A Pts Melbourne Knights 15 13 0 2 66 15 39 Carlton 14 13 0 1 31 6 39 Gippsland Falcons 15 10 2 3 32 14 32 Bulleen Inter 15 8 2 5 26 20 26 V I S 14 7 3 4 33 17 24 Bentleigh Greens 15 5 2 8 17 30 17 Albury Wodonga 15 4 2 9 18 21 14 Heidelberg United 15 4 2 9 16 39 14 South Melbourne 15 3 3 9 29 26 12 Altona Magic 14 3 2 9 18 50 11 South Melbourne Rockets 15 1 2 12 13 61 5 Northern Divsion A I S 16 12 2 2 63 13 38 UTS Olympic 16 9 4 3 52 24 31 Wollongong City 17 8 4 5 34 33 28 Sydney United 16 7 6 3 48 29 27 Marconi Fairfield 16 8 2 6 32 31 26 Q A S 16 7 4 5 36 22 25 Newcastle Breakers 15 5 5 5 35 31 20 Marconi Fairfield Colts 16 6 2 8 25 38 20 A C T A S 16 5 4 7 21 44 19 UTS Olympic Colts 17 3 3 11 26 60 12 Sydney United Colts 15 3 2 10 16 45 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 25 Mark Hagger Marconi Fairfield Colts 17 Joe Bruni Marconi Fairfield 10 Nick Carle UTS Olympic 10 Chris Tanchevski Newcastle Breakers/AIS 10 Marc Bresciano AIS 9 National Youth League (Southern Division), 21-2 February 1998 by Roy Hay Albury Wodonga and South Melbourne Rockets played a scoreless draw to open Round 19 after the resumption. The Rockets were playing for pride and Albury had four or five regulars out and though both sides got close to a goal on numerous occasions the defences held out. =20 Albury sweeper Nathan Ardern was the pick of the home team, while Brett Gilmour caught the eye in attack for the Rockets. Bulleen beat South Melbourne by two goals to one at Bob Jane Stadium. =20 The visitor took a two-nil lead in the first half with one goal to Mathew Gulino after 15 minutes and an own goal right at the start of the game. In the second half the Blues came back through Nick Marinos, but despite considerable pressure could not find an equaliser. Gippsland Falcons hammered Heidelberg United by five goals to nil in the Latrobe Valley. Anthony Pardo scored the opening goal after nine minutes and John McEvoy scored two more, one midway through the first half and the second just after the restart. Luke Cheney made it four and substitute Alex Halikias completed the tally with five minutes left to play. Pece Siveski scored the only goal of the Carlton versus VIS match which was played as curtain raiser to the Socceroos match with Chile earlier this month. National Youth League (Northern Division), 21-2 February 1998 Christ Conti from ACTAS sends this report of the match against the AIS. In a very even game, the result was made sure by the AIS taking advantage of two opportunities to score while the ACTAS did not take advantage of their opportunities. In a hectic opening to the game, both sides played very attractive, fast football and a number of chances fell to both sides; in fact the Academy's Stephen Lee had the ball in the back of the net but was adjudged offside. In the 21st minute a reckless challenge by Brent Chick in the Academy's penalty area gave Luke Wilkshire the chance to convert Wilkshire gave Barney Smith, playing his final game in Canberra before leaving for Brisbane, no chance with the penalty. Minutes later at the other end Shane Lyons, who was giving the AIS defenders a tough time, was tackled in a similar manner in the AIS box but Lyons kept his feet and then lost the ball. In the final minute of the second half, following an Academy corner Jimmy Baxter set up Oscar Zamora with a chance six yards out. Zamora blasted the ball at Michael Turnbull in the AIS goal who miraculously deflected the ball for another corner. The second half was similar to the first with both teams delighting the crowd, who were enjoying the balmy evening in Canberra, with constructive, flowing football; however, the local derby nature of the game became apparent and a number of fierce tackles went in and the referee, Ben Williams, was forced to dish out seven yellow cards - five to the AIS and two to the Academy. In the 77th minute, Chris Tanchevski was on the end of an AIS move to slot the ball home and make the score 2-0 and the game safe for the AIS. Best players were Lubo Milicevic, Ivan Ergic, Michael Turnbull for the AIS and Jose Exposito, Brent Chick, Matt Valeri for ACTAS. Sydney United beat its Colts side by eight goals to nil. Jason Culina was on target after two minutes, then Azur Mujanovic scored the first of his hat-trick in nine minutes. Mile Sterjovski weighed in with two goals, taking his tally for the season to 25 and Michael Santalab and Joel Griffiths added singles. Wollongong City gained a creditable two-all home draw with UTS Olympic. Chad Bishop and Vic Costabile scored for the Wolves and Angelo Petratos and Jim Bakis for Olympic. The Queensland Academy of Sport came back from a goal down to beat Marconi Fairfield Colts two-one at Marconi Stadium. Ryan Manente scored the only goal of the first half played in very hot conditions at an understandably slow pace. In the second half both teams perked up as the weather cooled and Russell Miner with a penalty and Angelo Cootes scored for QAS. This was Miner's first game in attack and he led the line well, while Aaron Thiesfield, just back from a spell at the AIS, had an excellent game for the Queenslanders. Marconi Youth beat UTS Olympic Colts by four goals to three. Mike Smith scored in 20 and 37 minutes for Marconi and Greg Collins and Vic Tomasevic added goals in the second half. The Olympic Colts scorers were Bruce Ghamraoui with two and Ali Jomaa.