PORT Macquarie Makos under-14 girls coach Cath Eichmann must wonder what her team has to do to make a Junior State Cup final.
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The Makos under-14 girls side suffered a heartbreaking 8-7 loss in a thrilling quarter-final match with Parramatta.
The hosts took the lead with less than a minute remaining, only to watch on helplessly as the Eels scored in the corner to snatch victory.
To borrow a line from Shirley Bassey, it was a case of history repeating after Port Macquarie were eliminated in similar circumstances by Nelson Bay 12 months ago.
“The same thing happened to us last year in the semi-final where they scored with about thirty seconds to go,” Eichmann said.
The coach said it was an even more disappointing outcome for her side after they had been perfect in the lead-up to the finals.
“It makes it a bit tough when you only lose one game and it puts you out of the comp, definitely,” she said.
“But we had a great tournament and had won eight from eight going into that.”
Eichmann was confident the team, who will progress in to the under-16 girls division next year, were knocking on the door of success.
“We’re certainly in there and amongst the top teams, we’ve just got to finish it off a little bit earlier in the game,” she said.
“The hardest part is being so close, yet so far. Last year’s group will re-group again as the under-16s and that’ll be a really strong side and hopefully we’ll go one step further in 12 months.”
The performances of Emily Wright and Petria Spencer pleased the coach throughout the tournament.
“Emily had an outstanding tournament and Petria has only taught herself to dive in the last six months,” Eichmann said.
“Hopefully we’ll make the semis next year or even crack a final one of these years.”
Port Macquarie’s other two quarter final teams – the 16 girls and 18 boys all suffered a similar fate at that end of the tournament.
“For us to have three teams in the quarters, it’s definitely Port Macquarie Junior Touch’s best-ever state cup. We had seven teams overall go through to finals which is great for the town.”
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IT is that time of year again when more than 17,000 visitors converge on the Hastings for the annual NSW Junior State Cup.
With 1237 games to be played, the NSW Touch Association once again brings the biggest representative touch football event in the world to the area between February 17-19.