Defender honoured: Thornton win's Weston Bear's top award
By Josh Callinan
There was a sense of déjà vu around the room at Weston Workers Club on Saturday night as defender Carl Thornton made his way to the stage.
It was the third time in as many seasons that the central defender was announced as the Weston Bears player of the year.
It didn't come as a major shock for the packed auditorium with Thornton always among the best performers for Weston in the Northern NSW State League competition.....
Read the full article online at the Maitland Mercury
On Saturday night the Bears held their annual presentation night acknowledging the 2012 season. The evening was superbly hosted by Tony Camps with a number of special guests presenting awards to the winners. The Club would like to thank all of the players for their efforts throughout the year and congratulate those who took home an award.
PLAYERS PLAYER 2012
U/14’s - THOMAS OLIVER
U/15’s - ALEC MATHIAS
U/16’s - CONNOR HEYDON
U/17’s - LACHLAN NICHOL
U/19’s - LACHLAN ROWEN
U/23’s - NICK THOMPSON
1st Grade - CARL THORNTON
COACHES AWARD 2012
U/14’s - ALEX WOODS
U/15’s - JAMES TASSELL
U/16’s - JORDAN SMALLHORNE
U/17’s - JAI McALLISTER
U/19’s - JAKE MILLSTEED
U/23’s - BRYCE SANDERS
1st Grade - JASON COWBURN
Ken Sander Memorial – Club leading goal scorer
Jack Turnbull Memorial – Encouragement Award
Alan Cooper Achievement Award
Weston Workers Club George Robinson Memorial Most Improved
Neville Ridley Club Person of the Year
Advertiser Player of the Year
Supporters Club Most Consistent First Grade Player (John Wolinski Memorial)
TIM PRATT
PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2012
U/14’s - LUCAS LAMBERT
U/15’s - ALEC MATHIAS
U/16’s - LACHLAN DOYLE
U/17’s - CALLAN BAXTER
U/19’s - SHANE FARMER
U/23’s - NICK THOMPSON
First Grade - CARL THORNTON
The Weston Workers Bears Football Club have been named 'State League Club of the Year' at the Northern NSW Football annual awards night.
The award is recognition of both on and off field activities and is a fantastic reward for 'Everyone' involved at the Club.
Club Secretary, Peter Tully, accepted the award on behalf of the Bears and spoke glowingly of all those who have contributed through the year, dedicating the award to them.
The Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank Northern NSW Football for this award and especially everyone involved at this great Club - officials, volunteers, parents, family, sponsors & supporters.
We are all in this together as we look to season 2013 and adding more chapters to the story that is the Weston Workers Bears Football Club.
C'MON YOU BEARS!!!
Victory isn’t defined by wins and losses. It’s defined by effort. If you can truly say “I did the best I could, I gave everything I had’’, than you are a winner.
The Weston Bears Under 19’s had a squad of winners on Sunday despite the 2-1 loss to NSWIS in the grand final at Wanderers Oval. All the boys can hold their heads high because every player gave everything they had.
We embraced the challenge of taking on a side who had been beaten only once during the season. A squad of players hand-picked as the best teenage talent in Northern NSW. A squad that trains together four or five times a week. These kids’ sole focus is on becoming the Jets of the future. But we took the fight to them and gave them one hell of a scare.
It would have been nice to get on the board first, just to see how the NSWIS boys would have handled being behind. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. As is the case with all the really good sides, they applied the blow-torch early and kept us under the pump and when a mistake came, they had someone there to make us pay from close range to go 1-0 up.
Just like he was in our preliminary final win over Hamilton, goal keeper Jack Maddison was fantastic for us in the first half, producing three or four top-class saves to frustrate the opposition. It took a corner and a wonderful header from Luke Campbell to put us back on level terms going into the halftime break.
If NSWIS had the best of the first half, we managed to completely turn that around in the second as we came at them with confidence. We worked the ball into the box plenty of times but unfortunately, just couldn’t put the finishing touch on a host of chances we created. The danger for us in going forward in numbers was always going to be getting caught on the counter. On the few occasions they threatened in the second half and it wasn’t many, we scrambled well to neutralise the danger but with seven minutes left, we gave them too much time on the ball just outside the box and a classy finish into the top left corner of the net gave Jack no chance.
We had a couple of late opportunities but it just wasn’t to be for us in the end. It was a brave effort, that with some luck, could have produced a different result but I can’t help but be very proud of all the boys and their efforts not just on grandfinal day but right throughout the season.
On behalf of myself, manager Clive Barner and all the boys, I’d like to thank Duncan, Shane, Peter, Fish and all the Bears committee for their assistance throughout the season and also a big thankyou to all the Bears supporters.
Hopefully, the loss will leave us hungrier to go one better in 2013.
Coach Gary Wand
