Having last season won its first ever Premier League title, and then followed it up at the start of the this season, with its first ever Community Shield trophy, Bentleigh Greens now has a first ever Dockerty Cup trophy set squarely in its sights after a dominant win over arch rival and traditional powerhouse, South Melbourne secured it a semi-final spot.
Last Friday’s Dockerty Cup semi-final draw, pits coach John Anastasiadis’s talented Bentleigh team against another traditional powerhouse and five time winner of the trophy, Melbourne Knights in a match for a finals berth.
Bentleigh Greens has a good recent record over the Melbourne Knights which sits just outside the top six after some inconsistent performances in the league this season.
Realistically, the second placed Greens are probably the favourites to lift the Cup from here but coach John Anastasiadis commented that he expects the semi against the Knights to be a ” tough game. No game’s easy for us. We’ve got to be at our best. We’ll prepare appropriately for that game. Hopefully we’ll go the next step.”
One potential problem that coach Anastasiadis faces in preparing for the match is finding a suitable replacement for centre half Ross Archibald. The reliable Archibald has proven to be a more than capable replacement for the departed Steven Topalovic at the heart of the Greens defence. But he is expected to be out for six weeks following a shoulder injury suffered in the recent cup match against South Melbourne.
The other Dockerty Cup semi-final will be between Hume City and Green Gully. It will be the third time Hume coach Lou Acevski and Gully coach Arthur Papas pit their wits against each other in Cup matches over the last 12 months. Coach Papas faces Hume City in a second consecutive Dockerty Cup semi-final. The current Gully coach led Oakleigh Cannons to a Dockerty Cup semi-final win over Hume City last season, followed by an FFA Cup quarter final loss against Hume later in the season.
The dates and venues of the Dockerty Cup semi-finals are yet to be confirmed however they will take place between Tuesday 5 July and Thursday 14 July.
