Young versus Old

This afternoon two very different teams face up against one another. Melbourne Heart, an aging team made up of 7 players 30 years or over, have an average playing age of 26. Compare that with North Queensland Fury, who take the park at an average of 23.2 years.

This difference is expected to be noticeable on the pitch, as the Fury attempt to run rings around their elder rivals. The Football Sack have also crunched the numbers and figured that Gerald Sibon, 36, could actually be the father of NAB Young Footballer of the Year nominee Chris Payne, 20. Assuming Sibon was at some point teenage male of course. Do you see any similarities?

Fury coach Franz Straka has been quite pleased with his young team to date, and spoke earlier this week on Payne's nomination:

“Chris has had a great start to the season and this type of acknowledgement is fantastic reward for both he and the club. We do have a young squad when compare to other A-League teams, but they are no less talented, and have all played an important role in our early season form.

"As a Club we are ambitious about what we would like to achieve this season, but as coach, I also want to transform young players into future Australian representatives and I would hope that Chris is not the only Fury player to receive accolades this season.”

Melbourne Heart, who are yet to win a match (along with Gold Coast, Newcastle and Sydney), will be hoping experience will win out. Captain Simon Colosimo gave the Fury some loving this week:


“It's a pure belief. Working hard and working as a team. If you watch North Queensland they are so organised. Everybody works for each other and they've just got a really good group of boys.”

What is enjoyable about this sentence, apart from the rapturous applause Colosimo seems to give his opponents, is his use of the word 'boys'. Yes Simon, they are. With any luck your team of men will teach the Fury a lesson on the park, and you get the result you sorely need.