Congratulations to the Gold Fields WA Paras who have reached the final of the 2023 National Paras Football Championships with a thrilling semi-final win over Victoria.
On another spectacular day of Paras football at the State Football Centre, WA held off a strong finish by the Vics to prevail 3-2.
Connor Bunce once again came up trumps for the hosts, scoring two screamers while the other came via an own goal.
WA will try to go one better than their best finish of second in tomorrow’s final against pre-tournament favourites NSW, who defeated Queensland 3-0 in their semi.
WA and NSW played out a hard-fought 1-1 draw earlier in the week.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 1pm WST, and with free entry it would be great to see a large crowd down at the State Football Centre.
The match will also be live streamed on the Football Australia YouTube page.
SEMI-FINAL 1: WESTERN AUSTRALIA 3 - 2 VICTORIA
The first of the semi-finals saw Western Australia host Victoria for a spot in Saturday's decider and it was the hosts that drew first blood, a long ball from one box to the other saw Connor Bunce pounce to put WA in front.
Victoria levelled the scores through Christian Bitsikas, linking up with Kaylan Van Heer to keep Victoria in the contest. WA restored their lead almost immediately, Bunce scoring his second of the match in spectacular fashion from a free kick to give WA a 2-1 lead heading into the break.
WA started the second half strong, with Bunce forcing an own goal to make it 3-1. Victoria clawed one back to make it 3-2 in the dying minutes of the game to set up a grandstand finish, with Western Australia holding on to book the first ticket to the final tomorrow.
SEMI-FINAL 2: NEW SOUTH WALES 3 - 0 QUEENSLAND
The second semi-final of the day saw a replay of today's earlier game, with defending champions New South Wales looking to book their spot in the finals for a second year, in their way a Queensland side.
The opening goal took a while to come, with NSW finally breaking the deadlock at the 20-minute mark through Timothy Blowes to give the defending champions a 1-0 lead heading into the break. Some crucial saves from Christopher Pyne in goals ensured that NSW kept their clean sheet heading into the interval.
Jeremy Boyce came off the bench and made an instant impact, doubling NSW's lead after finding the back of the net from just outside the box. NSW added a third just less than 10 minutes left on the clock, with Jack Williams scoring to see NSW finish the game 3-0.
NSW will take on the hosts, Western Australia, tomorrow for a chance to lift the National Para Football Championships 2023.
Day Four - Saturday 7th October:
3rd Place Playoff - Game #14 Victoria v Queensland - 9:30am AWST/12:30pm AEDT - Watch Here
Final - Game #15 Western Australia v New South Wales - 1pm AWST/4:00pm AEDT - Watch Here