Eastern win 2018 NAKFA premiership

Eastern have won the NAKFA premiership title with two games to spare after the penultimate week of the annual social 7-a-side football competition was completed on the Kaitaia College top fields in ideal, moderate early summer conditions last Wednesday evening.

Also favourites to do the double by taking out the upcoming knockout cup part of the tournament, the new champions were however forced to concede their second goal of the campaign in an otherwise comfortable win over the Kaitaia Women.

Elsewhere, Social division frontrunners Black Rarawa are still in the running to take out the title despite going down 3-2 in a top-of-the-table clash with the TriHards. The latter team still hold a slight mathematical chance of overhauling the pacesetters.

The social division games actually provided the closest contests of the round, and Cuzzy Boy Jerome pulled of the best save of the evening with an instinct reaction parry on the line in the Destroyers vs UP&GO’s friendly.

Results from last week, updated standings, and the draw for tomorrow evening are as follows.

RESULTS. From week 6/7 (games 11/12), Premiership, R1: Transformers 0 Eastern 4, Crushers 5 Ballers 2, Roading 3 Mavericks 0, R2: Kta Women 1 Eastern 4, Transformers 2 FNR 0, Ballers 0 ROTW, R3: Women 0 ROTW 4, Mavericks 2 Crushers 2; Social, R1: Red Rarawa 2 Dream Team 0, JNL TriHards 1 Kaitaia Hooners 1, UP&GOs 0 Black Rarawa 5, R2: Invisible Women 0* vs Dream Team 3, Red Rarawa 3 UP&GOs 2, Hooners 5 Destroyers 1, R3: Invisible Women 0* vs Destroyers 3, Black Rarawa 2 Tri Hards 3. * indicates a default win

STANDINGS. Prems: Eastern (goals for/ against 42/2) 34 points, Transformers (31/9) 27, ROTW (25/6) 25, Crushers (16/17) 16, Ballers (11/30) 10, Women (12/34) 7, Mavericks (7/28) 5, Roading (6/29) 5; Social: Black Rarawa (51/8) 30, Destroyers (27/20) 25, TriHards (29/15) 23, Red Rarawa (19/19) 22, Hooners (17/24) 17, Dream Team (17/24) 10, UP&GO’s (14/39) 6, Invisible Men (0/36) 0.

DRAW tomorrow night, week 7/7, Premiership, R1 at 6.15pm: ROTW vs Transformers, FNRoading vs Crushers, Eastern vs Mavericks, R2 at 6.45pm: Kta Women vs Transformers, ROTW vs Mavericks, FNRoadings vs Hooners; R3 at 7.15pm: Women vs Crushers, Eastern vs Ballers; Social, 6.15pm: Destroyers vs Red Rarawa, UP&GOs vs TriHards, Dream Team vs Black Rarawa, 6.45pm: Invisible Men* vs Red Rarawa, Destroyers vs Black Rarawa, UP&GOs vs Kta Hooners; 7.15pm: Invisible Men* vs Tri Hards, Dream Team vs Hooners; * indicates the team will default so a 3-nil win will be awarded to opposition and a friendly game organised. As always, teams are reminded to audit their own results and standings as organisers cannot be relied on to be accurate.

■ Tomorrow night’s games represent the final round of the league competitions. The NAKFA Cup and Plate are scheduled as this point to be run on Wednesday, December 19, with the finals set to be held on the morning of Saturday, December 22.

(1) Eight o’clock (2) Kuri (3) Grow up (4) 1000 (5) Scotland (6) Jim Davis (7) Germany (8) Tuesday (9) Pinocchio (10) NSW and Queensland.

7-10 Excellent! 5-6 Very good. 1-4 Room for improvement.