GEELONG STARS SCORE SEMI-FINAL FINISH

SIX Geelong futsal stars helped guide Victoria Country to a semifinal finish at the under-15 national championships recently.

Ricky Murase, Jackson Plummer, Jack Waugh, Lukas Timms, Nick Skotnica and Zac Tucak all led the way for Victoria Country who finished on top of the table after the group stage.

NSW City West defeated Country in the semi-final and went on to win the title.

Murase said the team was impressive during the early stages of the competition, playing 10 games over four days in 40C heat.

“We nearly went through undefeated and finished on top of the group,” he said.

“We lost to NSW City West in the semi-final which was quite unfortunate. They were just the better team on the day.

“It’s an absolute honour to represent Victoria.

“It was always going to be tough (considering the heat) and it turned into a bit of an endurance test. Thankfully we had heaps of players so we could do rotations.”

Geelong was the largest contributor to the Victoria Country team, producing six of its 11 players.

The group trained in Ballarat with coach Brian Te in the lead-up to the tournament.

Waugh finished the championships as Country’s top scorer, while Murase was named in his age group’s team of the tournament.

“It was really good, a great feeling (to make the team of the tournament). But I couldn’t have done it without the team,” Murase said. “It was the team that got me the award more than anything.”