Football Matters with Cyclops 29 january

Local

The 2026 season is fast approaching. The various teams have been in training for a few weeks and on Saturday there were a couple of practice matches at International Park. The season starts this Saturday with the 1st Round of the Australian Cup where the Premiers are away to Saints Eagles Souths in Townsville.

Premiers

The Ayr Anzac Club Premier League side played Cairns team Southside Comets on Saturday evening. In hot, sultry conditions the Premiers won 4-3 after leading 4-1 with seven minutes left! The Panthers opened the scoring after only eight minutes with a goal from Matthew Kolb, but the Comets equalised sixteen minutes later. Jeremy Dal Santo restored the Panthers lead after forty three minutes and Sean Young quickly made it 3-1. With twenty minutes left Matthew Kolb added another goal and the Panthers looked to be cruising to a good win but two late goals from the Comets made the final score 4-3.

Reserves

Burdekin Tyre Service Reserves and the Astute Financial Colts had a practice match. The Reserves won 2-0 with second half goals from Mason Matthews and Seaton Ivory.

Juniors

Registrations are now open for Juniors for the 2026 season. Please head to Facebook for registration information. If you have any questions, please email the club at burdekinfc@hotmail.com.

Our committee needs you! Due to some long serving committee members now moving on within the club, we need parents to put their hands up to take over these crucial roles in order to help run the club and continue to make it thrive. Positions available are Junior Secretary, Junior Registrar, Grants Officer and Junior Canteen Co-ordinator.

These are all vital roles within our club, and we thank and congratulate those who have helped been in these positions both last year and previous years. They have established a great platform for a smooth transition for incoming committee members.

Masters

The Masters will resume its Monday Night Magic (or Mayhem) on 23 February. All are welcome, male, and female, useful and hopeless. Be there, International Park for 6.30 Kick off.

National and International

The Matildas will be hosting the AFC Women’s Asian Cup which kicks off in March. The Matildas are in Group A with Iran, South Korea, and the Philippines and their first match is against the Philippines in Perth on 1st March. They then meet Iran on 5th March and South Korea on 8th March.

The Socceroos have a couple of games lined up in March as they get ready for the World Cup which starts in June in America, Canada and Mexico. On 27th March they play Cameroon in Sydney and on 31st March meet Curacao in Melbourne.

In the A League, after fourteen rounds Auckland are one point clear of Newcastle after only managing a 2-2 draw at home to Central Coast. Macarthur thumped Melbourne City 6-2 and move up to third place. Brisbane Roar lost at home to Adelaide and drop to sixth place. Western Sydney continue to hold up the league.

In the A League Women, after eleven rounds Melbourne City are five points clear of Wellington after winning 2-0 in Perth. Canberra is in third place after losing 3-1 to Brisbane who are now fourth. Western Sydney are bottom of the league, two points adrift of Sydney.

Europe

In the EPL, Arsenal was the only one of the top five teams to lose, 2-3 at home to ManU. The Gunners are still top of the table four points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa. ManU is fourth and Chelsea fifth. At the foot of the table West Ham and Nottingham Forest both won but Burnley and Wolverhampton are in deep trouble.

In Germany’s Bundesliga, Bayern lost for the first time this season, 1-2 at home, to fifteenth placed Augsburg! They are now only eight points clear of Dortmund with

Hoffenheim and Stuttgart another six points adrift. Heidenheim and St Pauli are holding up the table and Mainz, who won again, is still in trouble.

In Italy’s Serie A, Inter was the only one of the top four teams to win, They are now five points clear of AC Milan, and third placed Roma is another four points behind, together with Napoli who lost to Juventus who move up to fifth spot. None of the bottom seven teams won and Pisa and Verona look doomed.

In Spain’s, La Liga the top three teams all won and Barcelona leads Real Madrid by one point. Third placed Atletico is a further seven points behind and Villarreal another three points adrift. At the bottom of the League Levante was the only team to win but along with Oviedo is still in deep trouble.

Finally, in France, after nineteen rounds, PSG leads Lens by two points with Marseille a further five points away and fourth placed Lyon another two points behind. None of the bottom five teams won and Metz, Auxerre and Nantes have severe problems.

The Quote of the Week is from Alex Ferguson, on José Mourinho "He was certainly full of it, calling me boss and big man when we had our post-match drink after the first leg. But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper.

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