Navy corners market on soccer titles

Our photos from ABPH Yuri Ramsey capture the action of the men’s game against Air Force (Navy wearing white) and the women’s against Army (Navy with dark blue shirts). Navy won both games.

The Royal Australian Navy Soccer Federation (RANSF), rewrote the history books at the recent National Interservice carnival, winning both the men’s and women’s titles.

The last recorded wins for the respective teams in a full interservice carnival were in 2000 for the men and in 1996 for the women.

From a week-long training camp in Newcastle at TS Tobruk which saw an average of three training sessions per day, a well-prepared Navy team came out to dominate the carnival.

The women’s team began the competition with a resounding 10-0 win over the defending title holders the NSW Police Force.

This success was a strong springboard for the side, who then went on to defeat Army 1-0 and in the final, RAAF 2-0.

After the final, coach of the women’s Navy side LS Jamie Dowd said it was great day for Navy.

“The girls have played a class well above the other services, scoring 13 goals in the competition, and had zero goals against,” he said.

“In the first-half we came out and absorbed the pressure from the Air Force, and then we applied our own pressure to score a goal, which made the difference at half time.”

In the second-half, the Navy women dominated from start to finish, scoring a second goal to seal the game.

LS Dowd said the training camp heading into the carnival paid off, with a good squad for both teams. “We knew what we were up against heading into the camp.

Air Force, Army and the Police Force generally put up a good squads,” he said.

“We’ve had to work very hard to come up with this result.”

Meanwhile, the men’s side started their campaign with a hard-fought win over a confident and skilled Army side.

Scores were locked at 1-all with 10 minutes to go, with the winner scored by substitute Matthew Harper to give Navy the game, 2-1.

And it was almost déjà vu in the match against RAAF with another 2-1 win.

The match was hard-fought with both sides having ample opportunities to clinch the result.

The winner again came in the last 10 minutes of the match.

In the last game of the tournament, the men’s side defeated a combined ADF/NSW Police force team, 5-2.

Coach of the men’s Navy side LEUT Luke Andrews said it was the first time they’d won the title since 2002.

Of the game against Air Force, LEUT Andrews said, “It was a really hard fought game, the same as the match against Army, but the boys really wanted it.”

Navy players later dominated the male and female selected Australian Combined Services Soccer teams.

• The successful players were:
  
  PO Tammy Sprott, AB Felicity Luttrell, AB Holly Johnson, AB Toya Nichols, AB Lisa Palmer, AB Amber Hall, MIDN Adrian Eddy, AB Danny Gordon, AB John Guidinot, LS Nathan Little, LS Robert Mason, LS Jason Lockhardt and LS Graham Rickhardt.

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