Written by Roy Hay.
Round 23 Southern Division Wednesday 18 March 1998 Altona Magic 0 Bulleen Inter 1 (Zoran Kostadinovski) VIS 4 Albury-Wodonga 0 (Joshua Kennedy, Mustafa Mustafa, Serhat Hulusi, Boris Ovcin) Heidelberg United 0 Carlton 10 (Marco Maisano 4, Pece Siveski 3, Cameron Pino 2, Robert Trajkovski) (Match brought forward from Round 24) Sunday 22 March 1998 South Melbourne 1 Gippsland Falcons 2 (James Kasikakis) (Luke Cheney, Alex Halikias) South Melbourne Rockets v Melbourne Knights (already played) Bye v Bentleigh Greens Tuesday 24 March 1998 Bulleen Inter Kings v Melbourne Knights () () (Match brought forward from Round 26) Northern Division Saturday 21 March 1998 UTS Olympic Colts 2 NSWIS 3 (Matt Seale 2) (Liam Austin, Daniel Watkins, Michael Cavallaro) AIS 4 Sydney United Colts 0 (Michael Ferrante, Ljubo Milicevic, Ivan Ergic, David Onoforo) QAS 2 ACTAS 0 (Francis Cosson, Russell Miner) Sunday 22 March 1998 Sydney United 1 UTS Olympic 2 (Azur Mujanovic) (Peter Zorbas 2) Marconi Fairfield Colts 2 Newcastle Breakers 2 (Chad Gibson, Terry Palapanis) (Greg Owens, Chad Mansley) Wollongong City v Bye Bye v Marconi Fairfield League ladders Southern Divsion Team P W D L F A Pts Melbourne Knights 18 16 0 2 77 20 48 Carlton 18 16 0 2 47 10 48 Gippsland Falcons 18 13 2 3 44 18 41 V I S 17 9 3 5 41 19 30 Bulleen Inter 17 9 2 6 27 21 29 Bentleigh Greens 18 7 2 9 26 33 23 Heidelberg United 18 6 2 10 25 50 20 Albury Wodonga 19 5 1 13 26 36 16 South Melbourne 18 4 3 11 33 32 15 Altona Magic 18 3 2 13 19 67 11 South Melbourne Rockets 17 1 1 15 13 72 4 Northern Divsion A I S 20 14 2 4 71 19 44 UTS Olympic 19 11 4 4 57 28 37 Wollongong City 20 11 4 5 43 36 37 Q A S 20 10 4 6 42 24 34 Sydney United 19 8 6 5 51 35 30 Marconi Fairfield 19 9 2 8 38 36 29 Newcastle Breakers 19 7 6 6 41 36 27 Marconi Fairfield Colts 20 7 4 9 32 45 25 A C T A S 20 5 6 9 23 51 21 Sydney United Colts 19 4 3 12 23 54 15 N S W I S 19 3 5 11 24 45 14 UTS Olympic Colts 20 3 4 13 29 65 13 Leading goalscorers Southern Division Name Team Goals Adis Kablar Melbourne Knights 14 John Kalabric Melbourne Knights 13 Zoran Petrevski VIS 12 Jovanco Novacevski Carlton 10 Luke Cheney Gippsland Falcons 10 Northern Division Name Team Goals Mile Sterjovski AIS/Sydney United 25 Mark Hagger Marconi Fairfield Colts 20 Joe Bruni Marconi Fairfield 13 Chris Tanchevski Newcastle Breakers/AIS 11 Azur Mujanovic Sydney United 11 Jim Bakis UTS Olympic 10 Nick Carle UTS Olympic 10 National Youth League (Southern Division), 18-22 March 1998 by Roy Hay Round 23 kicked-off with Altona Magic at home to Bulleen Inter on Wednesday last and the game turned on the only goal scored by Zoran Kostadinovski for Bulleen in 17 minutes. Both sides had numerous chances to alter the score but the defences held out till the end. The Victorian Institute of Sport beat Albury Wodonga by four goals to nil at Kim Reserve. Joshua Kennedy scored the opener after only six minutes on his first starting game since joining the Institute. =20 Mustafa Mustafa made it two four minutes later. Serhat Hulusi added the third in 48 and Boris Ovcin completed the scoring in 66. Albury Wodonga keeper Joel Davey was outstanding, keeping out a number of VIS attempts as the Institute took control of the match. Adrian Cuzzupe, Kennedy and Mustafa were the pick of the VIS players. Ovcin, Kennedy, Steve Laurie, Joey di Iorio and Fab Lettieri are off to the Joeys training camp next week. South Melbourne led Gippsland Falcons by a James Kasikakis goal just before the interval, but the lads from the Valley hit back with two second half goals to win two-one. Luke Cheney took his goal tally for the season to double figures in 73 minutes and substitute Alex Halikias made the points secure in 84. In a match brought forward from Round 24 Carlton hammered Heidelberg United by ten goals to nil. Marco Maisano was chief destroyer with four, while Pece Siveski grabbed a hat-trick and Cameron Pino two goals. The other came from Robert Trajkovski, his second in successive games for the Youth team. National Youth League (Northern Division), 21-22 March 1998 The Australian Institute of Sport had another good win over Sydney United Colts by four goals to nil. Michael Ferrante opened the scoring and sweeper Ljubo Milicevic added a second just before the break. Ivan Ergic in 66 and David Onoforo after 76 got the second half goals. In a tough and thoroughly entertaining match UTS Olympic just came out on top against Sydney United by two goals to one. Peter Zorbas was on target twice for Olympic while Azur Mujanovic's eleventh goal of the season was all that United could manage. Olympic and Wollongong City, which had a bye this week, remain seven points behind the AIS, but Olympic has a game in hand. Queensland Academy of Sport had a two-nil win over the ACT Academy at Suncorp, with goals by Francis Cosson and Russell Miner. This keeps the Queenslanders in fourth place four points ahead of Sydney United. NSW Institute of Sport just managed to beat UTS Olympic Colts by three goals to two. Matt Seale scored both goals for Olympic Colts, but Liam Austin, Daniel Watkins and Michael Cavallaro were the marksmen for the Institute. Finally Marconi Fairfield Colts and Newcastle Breakers drew two-all at Marconi Stadium. Chad Gibson and Terry Palapanis scored for the Colts and Greg Owens and Chad Mansley for the Breakers. The draw maintains the relative position of the two teams which are seven and eight on the table, with Newcastle ahead by two points.