Semis success for Maccabi-Hakoah

LAST weekend, Maccabi-Hakoah Junior Football Club’s U13 Wolves, U14 Lions, U15 Lions, and U18 Lions all qualified for 2025 Eastern Suburbs Football Association junior grand finals, while the U16 Lions had already qualified a week earlier when defeating the South East Eagles 2-0.  All of those teams will play in their deciders this weekend, except for the U18 Lions, who have a 3-week finals series, and won their major semi 3-2 last weekend against Maroubra, earning this weekend off before their grand final.

“What’s been especially impressive is the way our teams have stepped up to the challenge of playing their finals fixtures, while missing a number of players across the last few weeks as a result of injuries, school camps, the city2surf ,and other activities,” one of the coaches, Hugo
Jacoby, said. “Especially our U15 Lions, who were down a few key players in their semi final victory over Easts last Sunday.”

“Playing in finals games is certainly not guaranteed at the start of the season, and they are always a privilege to play in. “All of our players and teams have embraced the challenge, and plenty of positive results over the last two weeks have followed.” The biggest semi-final winning
margin last weekend for Maccabi-Hakoah teams was a 2-0 triumph by the U14 Lions versus Glebe. Jacoby added, “Our U13 Lions also deserve a shout out, despite bowing out in the semi-finals [with a 2-3 loss to Maroubra], because they won the league convincingly during the regular
season, and performed extremely well throughout.”

Meanwhile, in the NSW state youth league 2, Hakoah teams had a near perfect round 20 interms of results. None of their teams lost, their
U13, U15, U16 and U18 sides all had wins, and their U14 team had a 1-1 draw. And in U20s NSW State League One action, Hakoah had a massive 6-1 victory over Bankstown at Hensley Field, with five different goal-scorers contributing to that score line.

Credit: Australian Jewish News.