Manly United’s ‘Assist Queen’ Libby Copus-Brown had the Northern Beaches club bouncing on ceilings after her five-star performance in the club’s epic 3-2 victory over Sydney Olympic, but her focus has now been pointed directly to this Sunday’s Grand Final against Sydney University SFC.

“I think it showed character for us to be able to come back after being down majority of the game, but it wasn’t our best game of football I know we can be better.

“But I’m so proud of the girls for never giving up and fighting hard and sometimes that’s finals football.

“I don’t think it was the best Manly can be football wise and that’s including myself, it was a great feeling to be able to help the team but at the end of the day it was a team effort and I’m just glad that I was able to play my part.

Manly United fans are hoping of more of the same from Copus-Brown who hopes her troops can push the Premiers to the limit come Sunday afternoon and send head coach Chris Williams off a Championship winner.

“The girls are in good spirits; we are fine tuning and working on what we need to do to be better.

“I know that everyone is pumped for the big dance this Sunday and doing everything they can to make sure we prove what Manly United is really about and send our coach Chris Williams off in a way that he deserves.”

The 22-year-old English born star who is also a Childcare Educator has earmarked former Matildas star Michelle Heyman as one to watch out for at Sunday’s huge clash.

“Sydney Uni are a solid team, they have depth right through and majority of the girls have played together for a long time now.

“They have the likes of ex-Matilda Michelle Heyman and plenty of current and ex W-League girls who are all class.

“It won’t be an easy challenge but we will be definitely up for it.”

Manly United’s talented Queensland star Sunny Franco has her eyes firmly set on Sydney Olympic this Sunday as the National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s top tier competition clicks into Finals Series overdrive with a ticket to the 2020 Grand Final up for grabs.

Franco and co were over the moon with their round 11 fixture after storming home to a 4-0 victory over the highly fancied APIA Leichhardt outfit, putting the Northern Beaches side in good stead for their do or die finals series clash against Olympic.

“It’s really good to head into this decisive game after a strong 4-0 win over APIA on Sunday.

“Everyone’s really excited as Olympic are always a tough team to play against.

“I think we always find a way to play our best under pressure so it should be an exciting game but one I really do hope we come away with the victory.”

The former Australian youth international got herself on the scoresheet for the second time in 2020 against APIA and will be hoping do the same at Peter Moore Field on Sunday.

With the likes of stars such as Remy Siemsen, Tara Andrews, Claudia Cholakian, Ally Green and skipper Chloe O’Brien to name a few, Manly United will be going all out to defeat what is a highly talented Olympic outfit.

The 23-year-old former Redlands United junior has really enjoyed the rebooted season and is hoping that she and the team can fulfill their objective of clinching some silverware this year.

“Despite the unpredictable circumstances this season, it’s still been a great year and we’ve all had a lot of fun.

“I think we have a lot of depth in our squad and with that comes a really good team environment.

“Every player that comes in brings something different and keeps the games exciting.

“Winning has been our main objective since round 1 of this year’s competition.

“I think if we keep performing the way we are, I truly believe we can win the grand finals.”

It didn’t take long for gun striker Remy Siemsen to find her feet once more in the National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s competition with the 20-year-old notching up four goals in the club’s first two matches for the newly rebooted season.

A brace in Manly’s opening 4-2 win against the Football NSW Institute and another two-goal haul against the Emerging Jets last weekend has really set the engines roaring for Siemsen.

“I’m really happy with the start of the NPL NSW Women’s season and to bag four goals in two games has been a great feeling.

“I am hoping to score plenty more goals this year and more importantly win as many matches as possible.

“My teammates have provided great service and we seem to be gelling really well which we hope will continue throughout the rebooted season.”

Siemsen has once again felt right at home at Cromer Park after returning back to her old stomping ground following another decent W-League campaign with Sydney FC.

“COVID unfortunately put the brakes on a few opportunities in Europe, so it was a no brainer to play back at my junior/senior club Manly United – the club has been so welcoming and it’s great to be back with a great group of teammates and staff.

“After a fun and rewarding W-League season, I’ve been working extremely hard and Manly has been so understanding regarding my drive and aspirations to go overseas in the near future and developing my game even further.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and happy to be back playing football and games again. I’ve been training full-time and I’m excited to be able to play games again with my teammates. You can see the excitement from coaches to players, creating a fun and happy environment.

“My goals and ambitions for this season is to contribute wholeheartedly to my team and hopefully win the league. I believe we have the squad to definitely achieve that goal.

“Personally, I just want to develop my game further and further each week and look forward to future opportunities here and abroad.”

North Turramurra Recreation Area will play host to a eagerly anticipated local derby as Manly United tackle the Northern Tigers this Sunday afternoon with kick-off set for 3:30pm.

The game, which will be shown live and exclusive only on NPL.TV, is set to be one tough encounter between two fierce opponents as both teams look towards taking out another three points for the season.

“Northern Tigers have always been a tough competitor and have some great players like Ellie Brush and Servet Uzunlar.

“We are really looking forward to a big match this Sunday and playing our natural game at North Turramurra where hopefully we’ll come away with the 3 points.”

Away from the game, the former NPL NSW Women’s Player of the Year winner has kept herself busy working casually at the local bowling club and has also assisted in various football clinics run by Sydney FC.

“I currently work casually at the local bowling club and help coach at a few Sydney FC clinics locally.

“I also study but I’m hoping to resume online University this coming semester.

“Training has become a full-time affair with plenty of travel to train with boys as well as with Manly United and technical sessions which has kept me very busy.”

Manly United attacker Claudia Cholakian couldn’t hide her excitement after hitting up the pitches at Cromer Park on Tuesday evening as the National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s side put out its first training session hit-out post COVID-19 restrictions.

“Training was amazing, it was so good to be back.

“I felt so fresh and fit surprisingly but I think it was just adrenaline from the excitement of being back playing with all the girls.

“It was a little different than usual as you’d expect with the club and players following the strict social distancing guidelines but we were all so happy to be at a place we missed very much.

“When I drove to training that night it felt like I never left such was my feeling for the game I love.”

Asked what she missed most during that layoff Cholakian replied.

“I’ve missed match days for sure!

“Sometimes when I’m sitting at home on a Sunday, I’d be thinking I’d be kicking off my game right about now and that would make me sad.

“It was even tougher for us to take at Manly when the league stopped because we had such an amazing start to the season and so did I on a personal level, but this is what’s made me more excited to get back into it knowing the girls are confident in continuing on with our good form.”

The 23-year-old was fortunate enough that during the full football lockdown, she kept herself occupied with work as well as training thanks to a well-coordinated Manly United fitness program that was put together for Claudia and her teammates on top of picking up some interesting hobbies.

“Not much changed for me during the proper COVID-19 break because I was still working full time.

“I have two jobs; one is in fashion retail which remained open during lockdown and the other is in sustainability in property development which I’ve been doing at home.

“The only big changes in my life were not being able to play football and not being able to hang out with my friends during that period.

“I guess because I was still so busy it really didn’t feel like there was a global pandemic going on.

“On the training front, Manly United provided us with a fitness program which involved 3-4 days of fitness work to do at the park so I was really grateful for that.

“Manly also gave us a GPS to wear so knowing they were tracking our work meant it stopped us from slacking off.

“On the new hobbies front, I didn’t have that much time to relax but when I did, I coloured in and painted a lot, I was doing all kinds of artistic stuff (laughs).

Claudia is of course the sister of Manly United’s NPL NSW Men’s talented star attacker Brendan – someone she looks up to in her footballing career and confidence in getting better and hitting her achievements and goals.

“I don’t want to sound biased but he’s actually so good and I really do believe he should’ve been playing in the A-League years ago.

“I always try to incorporate what Brendan does on the pitch in my games so that I can improve and hopefully make the W-League one day.”

2019 was a tough year for Manly United, despite major changes to the playing roster though, the fantastic youth set up at the club allowed for them to still be competitive throughout the season.

They didn’t qualify for finals football for the first time in four years but Chris Williams will look to set the record straight in 2020 with his girls.

Williams expects the new season to be the most competitive one ever and with clubs across the league recruiting well, he is aware there will be no easy games.

“We’ve heard along the grapevine that every club is strengthening.

“At Manly, we knew last year was going to be a transition season for us but now it’s time to take what we learnt from 2019 and get back to where we feel we belong as a club.

“I’m not putting any targets on the players I just want us to work hard and improve the way we play in every game and then if we can ensure our effort and performances are consistently high and improving every week –  I’m sure we’ll be at the right end of the table at the end of the season.”

Creating a style of play and culture within the club, right through to their girls SAP program, is a major part of what United is about.

“For many seasons the strength of the club has been the players’ togetherness and willingness to work hard for each other.

“That hasn’t changed in 2020 and the players know they have to work hard for each other at every moment, make life difficult for our opponents and then if we can get that right, we’ll play the style of football we believe is the ‘right way’ for us.”

The Northern Beaches side is looking more experienced and stronger than the last season following the recruitment, giving Williams a positive outlook for the upcoming campaign.

“I’m really happy with the work we’ve done in the off-season in keeping the bulk of our squad together, promoting from the Academy and we know we’ve not only secured some great players, but also some great people.”

Manly United travel to south-west Sydney for their opening game of the season when they take on Bankstown City at Jensen Park.

Major Signings: Tara Andrews, Libby Copus-Brown, Cassidy Davis, Naoko Wada

Major Departures: N/A

Up and Coming Star: Kahli Johnson

Player to Watch: Hannah Peric

By Nikola Pozder, NPL NSW Women’s 1 writer