Men's State League Night Series final: Fremantle City v Mandurah City

Fremantle City and Mandurah City will look to make an early statement on Saturday when the pair face off in the Men’s State League Night Series final at Frank Drago Reserve (5pm).

The game is the first of a pre-season double-header at the home of Bayswater City, with the NPLWA - Men’s final between Inglewood United and Olympic Kingsway following it at 7.15pm.

Both Fremantle and Mandurah recorded top-four finishes last year and know similar form this time around will put them in the mix for promotion, given the introduction of the inter-divisional playoffs between the NPL and Division One.

Mandurah finished in second spot in 2022, winning their final eight matches. This culminated in Top Four Cup success over champions Kingsway.

Joe O’Brien scored the only goal at Dorrien Gardens last September and the Division One Golden Boot winner also bagged the decider in the club’s previous pre-season final appearance, again against Olympic, two years ago.

City head coach John Baird is hopeful another trophy on Saturday evening can spark the Dolphins title charge this year.

“We’ve done well in recent seasons to win silverware and to obviously finish second in the league last season as well. The experience of being in those finals should hold us in good stead,” the former Falkirk and Raith Rovers forward said.

“We got out of the group stage, which we didn’t do last year so that’s a major improvement, and we have kept it going to get through the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

“That’s massively down to the players. Their condition and fitness have been incredible, and that’s why we’ve been able to get through the Night Series in good shape.

“We want to win this game. We want to win it desperately for our supporters as well who have been brilliant throughout the Night Series and are among the best in WA.

“They (Fremantle) have obviously signed a lot of players and also want to get out of the league. We’ve had good games with Fremantle over the last couple of years and there’s a lot of respect between both teams. It will be a good game, there’s no doubt about that, and it will be a well fought.”

Hopes of a promotion push for Mandurah were further boosted on Wednesday when they confirmed the signing of former Celtic and Scotland striker Leigh Griffiths for the 2023 State League season.

Griffiths made a two-game cameo at Genesiscare Stadium late last season and Baird is hopeful he can continue to help Mandurah’s growth on and off the pitch.  

“When good players become available you’ve got to try and bring them into the football club, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“This year is a totally different situation now to last year because we’ve got Leigh for the season, whereas last year he came to help us enhance the club and get it out there.

“But what he did do last season was lift standards which drove us on to win the Top Four Cup. I don’t see it any different this time around. The boys want to work and train again to that level.

“Since it’s been announced, I’ve had media from all over the world in touch and at the heart of that is the Mandurah City Football Club badge, the eyes on the league we’re in, and the interest in the final on Saturday.”

Fremantle City will also hope to use this Night Series campaign as a springboard towards promotion as the port town chases representation in the top flight for the first time since the East Fremantle Tricolore era in the 1980s.

Tricolore merged with Fremantle United in 2014 to form Fremantle City and having earned promotion to State League Division One in 2016, the club has finished in the top half of each second-tier season since.

City have also been in magnificent form throughout the competition with 26 goals scored and only one conceded in their five matches to date, which was in last week’s 6-1 semi-final win over Gwelup.

First team coach Matt Sparrow is now looking forward to the challenge Mandurah will present.

“Winning any sort of silverware automatically breeds confidence throughout the club,” Sparrow said.

“I'm so proud of the boys that we've been able to reach a final so early in the season, but now we are there we need to find a way to win it.

“The games are coming thick and fast now with a cup game next week, followed by Round One, so it's important we try and keep some sort of momentum going. Having two teams potentially going up this year gives every club in the top half of the table a massive incentive to push every minute of every match to the very end.

“We face many challenges from Mandurah because they have so many dangerous players throughout the team. They have their own way of playing with a lot of forward-thinking players who can create many goalscoring opportunities.

“We definitely need to be ready for them, but I'm sure they will be doing their own homework on us as a team, too. It's set up to be a cracking final tomorrow, but whatever happens we're fully focused on the bigger picture that lies ahead, which is trying to win this league for the first time in the club's history.”