34 Indian Voice - May 2018 Ph: 041 44 99 44 2 - Email: editor@indianvoice.com.au - Web: www.indianvoice.com.

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SPORTS
By Srini Vasan

Bharat Football Club cruise to a big Anzac Day win

On a cool ANZAC Day morning at the
Fotheringham Reserve, Dandenong
the sounds of bugle followed by
the National Anthem reverberated
across the air – the speciality was
the crowd honouring the veterans
were from the Indian and Sri Lankan
communities!
The match was an AFL
inaugural ANZAC Day game for
Bharat Football Club against arch-
rivals Sri Lanka. An even greater
occasion for the game of AFL Football
that was played for the first time
between the two nations!
The Bharat Football Club
(BFC) has put on a football master
class, thrashing Australian Football
Sri Lanka by 100 points in front of
a good crowd at Fotheringham
Reserve. The Bharat Football Club has
had an outstanding two months of
football. With tournament wins at the
Sikh Games, Unity Cup and now the
first inaugural Anzac Day match Vs Sri
Lanka.
The BFC jumped out of
the blocks with early goals to Yasser
Hussain and Chaitan Sarikonda and
took a six goal to nothing lead into the
first break. Vasish Vasan and Francisco
Darius Fernandes dominated in the
middle of the ground, making the
most of the tap work from Alex and
Sahil Grewal in the ruck and winning
countless centre clearances. to get back into the contest in the
Abhi Kalia was dangerous second half with the BFC continuing
as a small forward, as was Krishnal their dominance. Key forwards Yasser
Prasad who provided the missing half Hussain, Aashish Sharma and Chaitan
forward link that the BFC has been Sarikonda worked together to keep
looking for. "It's so good to get a win, each other in the game, sharing
My first win with the team, It feels so the goals around and worked even
good," Abhi said. harder to get the ball to ground for
The BFC picked up where their small forwards and midfielders.
they left off in the second quarter Prasan Singh and Gurnaz
and continued to pile on the goals, Khatra presented well through the
taking a 70 point lead into half time. midfield and both had plenty of the
Girish Rao and Mat Max dominated ball however, it was Gurnaz' tackling
in key defensive posts, getting the and pressure which caught the eye
ball to ground where attacking of many at the ground. "He's a special
runners Karan Singh, Sana Singh player with a mountain of talent.
and Navi Singh set up play from the We're lucky to have him at the club,"
back half. Midfielder Francisco Darius Coach Sana Singh said.
Fernandes joined in on the second The game was all but over
quarter goal fest with two of his own in the last quarter however, that did
and finished with three goals for the not stop the BFC from inflicting more
game. pain on the Sri Lankans. David 'Tin'
AF Sri Lanka struggled Luong was in and under packs all day,

feeding the ball to his outside runners Final Scores:

and put in a solid performance for his
team.
Late inclusion Manvir Singh
Sarai took his chance with both
hands, showing off his marking and
foot skills. Young gun Navi Singh was
awarded the Anzac Day medal as
voted by the coaches for his all round
performance across half back, which
also included a goal when he dashed
forward. "Navi's tackling pressure
and run of the back half is a real
weapon for us," Coach Sana Singh
said.
A massive win for the club
after a busy two month schedule.
Players will take a few weeks off
before returning to training in
preparation for a special multicultural
match to be played under lights at
the Whitten Oval in Mid June. More
details to come.
Bharat Football Club 22.12.144
defeated AF Sri Lanka 5.4.34
Votes: 5 Navi Singh, 3 Chaitan
Sarikonda 2 Vasish Vasan, 1 Gurnaz
Khatra, 1 Girish Rao
Goals: 5 Yasser Hussain, 4 Aashish
Sharma, 4 Chaitan Sarikonda, 3
Francisco Darius Fernandes, 1 Abhi
Kalia, Vasish Vasan, David 'Tin' Luong,
Navi Singh, Gurnaz Khatra, Alex
The Bharat Football Club
now turns their focus to community
events and activation's as they look
to recruit more talent of Indian origin.
The club will also commence training
for a match in June at the Whitten
Oval. The club has been great
putting some stellar efforts to recruit
players from the Indian community
spearheaded by the BFC President
Sanjeet (Sana) Singh.