For Sunshine Coast FC’s Antony Hall, the most satisfying thing about being a goalkeeper is hearing the opposition’s “yesss!” quickly changing to a “noooo!” when he comes out of the dust and makes a save.
It is a feeling Hall has become accustomed to after playing with the Fire for the past six years, and his success on the field has this year led to him winning the Safe Hands Award at the NPL Queensland Awards Night.
The award recognised the most effective goalkeeper in the competition, based on the number of clean sheets across the season.
This season the competition was particularly tight, with three keepers each retaining six clean sheets. It came down to the keeper with the lowest number of goals conceded per game, which Hall dominated with just one goal conceded on average per game.
The Fire prides itself on having a strong defence and centre-back Ryan Smith credits much of the backline’s confidence to having Hall in goal.
“We have confidence in him and the experience he has due to his career as a goalkeeper,” Smith said.
“His shot-stopping is excellent and his reflexes are the best I have seen in the competition,” he said.
Hall in turn is quick to name the defenders in front of him as a big part of his success.
“You are only as good as the defence you play behind and we had an amazingly solid defensive unit with tremendous experience. Greig Henslee and Ryan Smith are the best centre-back combination in the league, Takanori Sato is one of the most technical players and Sam Knight is one of the best local talents the Sunshine Coast has ever produced,” he said.
The success of this season was somewhat unexpected for Hall after he chose to take a break from football last year. He returned as first choice keeper in round six this season against Olympic.
“It was great to take a break last year and rejuvenate myself; it has given me an even greater appreciation for the sport,” Hall said.
“I have almost retired so many times and was initially just helping out (as reserve keeper) and coaching this year but was given the opportunity by the gaffa and really started to enjoy my football more than ever.”
Hall continued working with the Fire’s young keepers throughout the season, providing them with once-a –week training sessions.
“I have watched some good youngsters turn into fantastic goalkeepers and great young men. We have some great talent coming through the ranks and I hope I can further develop their goalkeeping and help them achieve their goals.”
As far as next year is concerned, Hall would love to continue to play at NPL level.
“We started to develop a great balance throughout the squad towards the end of the season and I feel we have unfinished business to take care of next season.”
