South Melbourne earns draw with Avondale to secure NPL Victoria premiership
Stage two complete. South Melbourne has claimed the NPL Victoria premiership, capping a stunning week that included a Dockerty Cup win and beating Wellington Phoenix.
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Step two, the NPL Victoria premiership secured.
South Melbourne capped a gigantic week on Saturday with a 1-1 draw at Avondale to seal the premiers plate and the second leg of a potential treble.
In the space of seven days Hellas has won the Dockerty Cup in a heart-stopping penalty shootout over Oakleigh Cannons, knocked A-League club Wellington Phoenix out of the Australia Cup and now wrapped up top spot with a game remaining.
Needing only a point at Avengers Park, Nahuel Bonada’s 12th goal of the campaign gave South a first half lead.
The Avengers equalised through Kristian Trajceski in the second half but couldn’t find a winner to keep their premiership defence alive.
Hellas captain Harrison Sawyer said it had been a whirlwind week.
“It was obviously a massive week … everyone is pretty tired but really happy,” Sawyer said.
“When you sit down before the season and look at what you want to achieve, the premiership is probably the number one thing you want to win – to be the most consistent and best team.
“Once we started going deeper in the Dockerty Cup and got a smell of we can win this, then you focus on that, and we’ve done well switching back.”
South Melbourne has dropped points in just seven matches this season, winning 18 of 25 matches.
Sawyer himself as led from the front and tops the NPL goalscoring charts with 16 goals to have one hand on his second golden boot.
Bonada is next best with 12 as South own the second best attacking record in the competition.
Javi Lopez will be chasing a third straight Goalkeeper of the Year, while Gold Medallist Jake Marshall and Marco Jankovic have been instrumental in Hellas conceding just 19 goals – fewest in the league.
While South has a strong core of experienced players, the heavy workload has seen a number of youngsters step in and play key roles.
“We’ve had strong experienced players, a core group for a couple of seasons, but there’s still been a big turnover,” Sawyer said.
“The good thing for the club is all the new young players, juniors, that have been exposed to senior football and the mentality of winning that Esteban (Quintas) brings to the table.”
“We had two weeks in a row where we had to play mid-week games for the Dockerty Cup, we came from behind to beat Heidelberg away and then had to play Hume.
“Quite quickly, the young players have got a lot of game time and it’s awesome to see them stepping up.”
South Melbourne finishes the home-and-away season at Lakeside Stadium against St Albans.
Focus will turn to an Australia Cup Round of 16 clash against Queenslanders Brisbane Olympic before a home semi-final.
Hellas is chasing redemption this finals series after back-to-back grand final defeats.
Sawyer said his first season as captain had been an eye-opener.
“It’s been really good, my first season as captain,” he said.
“You come up with new challenges that you don’t face when you’re not captain, so it’s new and I’m learning but it’s been successful at the same time.
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“We’ve got one more league game but in two weeks we’ve got the Australia Cup against Brisbane Olympic.
“Our focus will be on that to progress to the next round and then the week after that we’ll have a home semi-final and start looking towards the championship.”
With South Melbourne secure on top of the ladder, Avondale, Oakleigh Cannons, Hume City and Heidelberg United are all still fighting for a week-one finals bye in the last round.
Meanwhile, Dandenong City is in the box seat to secure sixth, now four points ahead of Port Melbourne and five clear of Melbourne Knights who play a catch-up game against Dandenong Thunder on Monday night.
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