Three consecutive titles for PFC

THE Pakenham Floorball Club sent five teams to this year’s Australian Floorball Open (AFO) at the Bruce Owen Sports Centre in Perth recently.
Three senior men’s teams, one junior side and a women’s team – for a total of 90 players, parents and supporters – made the trek across. It was the largest representation of any club to an Australian team-based championship and Pakenham’s presence was felt both on and off the court.
The tournament was held over four days from 9-12 July with two games played per day, and it was a spectacularly successful outing for Pakenham, with the junior, women’s and men’s firsts all making it through to their respective grand finals.
For the junior team it was their fourth consecutive grand-final appearance, after winning the previous three against the Perth Redbacks. But this year they were beaten by their arch rivals, with the Redbacks, a strong and much more experienced team, winning 15-3.
Pakenham’s women’s team made it through to their first grand final after reaching the semis in the previous two years.
After playing strong floorball for the week, they went down 5-2 to the combination Perth teams of the Dingoes and Redbacks (The Rampant Meerkats).
Although the Under-19s did not win a game for the tournament, it was an opportunity for the Pakenham Floorball Club (PFC) to display its young colts in their first senior tournament. They played disciplined floorball against more experienced teams and showed that the PFC will be a continued force to be reckoned with well into the future. Their last ‘placement game’ saw them face off against the PFC A team (the club’s seconds) and they went down by only one goal in a hard-fought clash.
The A Team also showed a major improvement from last year, and their worth to the club through training and games was invaluable in keeping the men’s firsts a strong and committed unit.
The men’s firsts won their third consecutive Australian title by defeating the highly-experienced European players from the team, Gypsy.
After drawing 4-4 with Gypsy in the qualification rounds, the firsts also faced off against them in the grand final, where they were at their very best, defeating the very strong Gypsy team 9-4.
The Pakenham firsts are the only team in the history of the Australian Open to win three consecutive titles, and the team has continued on a winning streak of 24 games without a loss at that level.
Awards for the tournament went to: Brad King (men’s leading scorer – with team mate Jeremy Monckton in second place); Kayleigh Tribe (women’s leading scorer); Micael Lindblom, Gavin Staindl and Tim Boteler (men’s all-star team); Kayleigh Tribe, Ashley Bourke and Cara Hodges (women’s all-star team); and Max Hendrikx (junior all-star team).