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The club's first competitive action as a Premier Youth League entity began on the weekend of Friday 19th to Sunday 21st February when the Under 15s side played in the Manchester United Premier Cup.
The Grade 15 tournament for Premier Youth League and invited Super Youth League teams is conducted on a round-robin basis, involving four groups of four teams with the winners and runners up of each group advancing to knock-out Quarter Finals.
In the tournament, Rockdale City Suns were pitted against established PYL teams APIA Leichhardt and Manly United along with 2009 SYL Premiers Northern Tigers.
The opening game against APIA Leichhardt started brightly with Rockdale taking the lead then hitting the post in the first half. APIA's experience told in the second half and an equalizer, followed by two late goals, saw the Rockdale boys go down.
Saturday morning saw the team lose out by a single goal to Manly United in a tightly fought game while the team notched up their first points with a goalless draw with Northern Tigers - leaving Rockdale in third place in the group.
While not progressing to the knockout stages of the competition, the three matches offered a strong learning experience for this rapidly improving team.
The final was won by Sutherland Sharks who now travel to Melbourne to compete in an Australian finals series with the winner of that series travelling to England in July, courtesy of Nike, to compete against Under 15s teams from around the world.
Thanks are due Kevin Jones, Manager of Blacktown Leisure Centre Stanhope, for allowing the team free access to the aquatic centre for a recovery session between the Manly United and Northern Tigers games.
The team was: Luke Hanson, Jason Najdovski, Todd Dimovski, Daniel Dimovski, Jeremy Bodon, Gary Ackroyd-Mosbey, Domenic Dileo, Ali Mokachar, Dean Bereveskos, Ahmet Er, Kristian Bosilkovski, Eddie Baird-Privett, Bill Benton, Danny Kocoski and Brendon Wilson along with Nikola Todoroski from the Under 14s. Coaches: Danny Aboud and Steliy Georgiou.
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