Surfers turn to lethal veteran for finals charge
THE return of one of the Gold Coast Premier League’s most prolific goalscorers has added an extra dimension to the Surfers Paradise attack as they devise plans for a finals ambush.
Five games into his comeback with Apollo, former Gold Coast Knights and Burleigh striker Chris Broadfoot has found form ahead of Saturday’s final-round battle with Broadbeach.
After scoring his first goal of the season to steer Surfers to a crucial 1-0 win over Murwillumbah in Round 16, Broadfoot was at it again on Sunday, bagging a hat-trick in his side’s 7-0 thumping of Mudgeeraba.
A member of the Knights squad that won last year’s championship, the 37-year-old has been lured back to the Premier League by Apollo coach Alex Morrison and now looms as a wildcard in the finals beginning on September 1.
“I’m lucky I’m best mates with Chris to convince him to keep coming out of retirement because he scores goals, that’s what he does,” said Morrison, who coached the Knights last year with Broadfoot as assistant.
“Chris is a proven goalscorer. If you look at the three teams above us (Knights, Broadbeach and Burleigh), they’ve all got goalscorers and double-digit goalscorers and I don’t have any.
“Chris has got four now so you have to score goals to win in any league and Chris gives us that element where I feel we can get a goal.
“He got us another winner (against Murwillumbah) and him and (Burleigh’s) Matt Hilton are probably the top two all-time goalscorers in Gold Coast Premier League history.
“They do the business and that’s why Chris, even at his age … knows where the net is.”
Surfers cannot move from fourth place, meaning they will face Broadbeach or Burleigh in week one of the finals.
They travel to Broadbeach at 5pm on Saturday.