Buffalo Sports Premier League Round 17 Preview

GOLD Coast Knights will secure the Buffalo Sports Premier League crown this weekend if they can overcome title rivals Musgrave at Keith Hunt Park on Sunday afternoon.

With just two rounds remaining, a win will give John Stewart’s Knights an unassailable lead at the top of the competition leaving both Musgrave and Burleigh Heads to fight it out for the runners-up spot.

Oscar Langone’s Musgrave outfit will be out to spoil the party however after spending the season hot on the heels of the formidable Knights. But even if Langone’s troops do triumph on Sunday it will surely only delay the inevitable as Stewart’s men have looked every inch a Premiership winning side for the vast majority of the campaign.

Patchy form in the middle of the season cost Burleigh Heads dearly and even though they are mathematically still in with a Premiership shout, the reality for Col Phelan’s men is to focus on finishing on a high and concentrating on a solid finals showing.

They won’t have it all their own way this weekend though against a revitalised Coomera who have at last discovered goalscoring form. A midweek 7-0 trouncing of Mudgeeraba has given Coomera a late relegation lifeline and at the same time plunged Mudgeeraba into a desperate struggle to avoid the dreaded drop to Division One. 

Marc Boelen’s Mudgeeraba are planted at the bottom of the ladder and locked on 13 points with this weekend’s opponents Surfers Paradise. It sets up a Titanic battle at Lex Bell Oval on Saturday night in a game that will go a long way in deciding the fate of both sides.

The game represents perhaps Surfers’ best chance of taking the points they will need to stay up with their final two fixtures of the season coming against Palm Beach and Premiers-elect Gold Coast Knights.

The tussle for the last remaining place in the top-four finals series will be fought between Magic United, Palm Beach and Broadbeach United, three of the most inconsistent sides in the competition. Magic’s hot-and-cold season has been propped up by their terrific early form and having been amongst the leading pack for most of the year they will be desperate to compete in the finals.

Magic’s clash with Nerang, who themselves have little to play for, could give them the edge in the race for fourth if they can register a ninth win of the season.

Coast powerhouse Palm Beach were expected to be strong Premiership contenders at the start of this term, but find themselves locked in an unexpected battle to just make the finals. Their head-to-head with fellow finals hopefuls Broadbeach United on Friday night will go a long way to deciding who takes out fourth place on the ladder.