Fire aim to bring finals home

ONE thing has eluded the Sunshine Coast Fire in four ultra-successful Queensland State League seasons – a home grand final.

ONE thing has eluded the Sunshine Coast Fire in four ultra-successful Queensland State League seasons – a home grand final.

The Fire has won the premiership-championship double twice and claimed its third premiership this season.

But the team has never had the chance to lift the grand final trophy in front of a Stockland Park crowd.

The Richard Hudson-coached side still has the opportunity to secure a home grand final, but will have to do it the hard way against Brisbane Strikers tomorrow in the second leg of the major semi-final series.

The Strikers won the first leg 2-1 last weekend at Perry Park, scoring in the last minute to take an advantage into tomorrow’s clash.

The Fire must win by at least two goals to ensure the decider is played at Stockland Park.

“I do feel there is enough desire and hunger (to win another title),” Hudson said.

“We want to bring the grand final to the Coast for the people to watch. It’s not been here before and that’s what our main goal is.

“Fingers crossed, we can pull it off.”

Tomorrow’s match will be another chapter in the Fire-Strikers rivalry. The Fire holds a slight advantage in the head-to-head stakes, having won seven and drawn one of 14 encounters.

Hudson said a mid-week friendly against A-League outfit Gold Coast United had helped blow some cobwebs out and his side was intent on turning things around after being below its best last weekend.

“They know they didn’t perform. You could tell at half-time the energy levels were really low,” he said.

“We’ve had flu through the camp and it showed. We weren’t ourselves. The spark came back against United and if we can raise it a bit more, we’ll be fine.”

The Fire rested Tyson Holmes, Dylan Roberts, Gareth Musson, Sam Knight, Jason Hicks, Shaun Blackman and Antony Hall during the United match.

GAME DAY

SUNSHINE COAST v BRISBANE

Tomorrow, Stockland Park, 2pm

Originally published as Fire aim to bring finals home