Goulburn Valley Suns rally ahead of ‘biggest game in club history’ against APIA Leichhardt

The buzz around Wednesday night’s match at McEwen Reserve has gripped Shepparton’s round ball community for all the right reasons.

The Suns are one of 32 teams in Australia left in the competition, gearing up to take on a three-time cup winning club.

Who will be the one to stand up, throw the spear and fell the mammoth?

The most likely candidate is import striker Russell Currie.

He has 24 goals to his name this season including three Australia Cup hat-tricks, with the setting of the rangy Scotsman bulging the net all too familiar.

“We play a lot of midweek games under the lights (in Scotland) and I kind of feel at ease with it all ... it reminds me a little bit of home to be fair,” he said.

“This a really big game, probably one of the biggest I’ve played in. There’s a lot of coverage for it as well which is nice.

“It’ll be an entertaining one.”

Currie has been a revelation in the attacking third for the Suns, but another hero has announced himself this season.

Fellow import Joe Adoo-Peters: the Suns’ own Rock of Gibraltar.

The towering English centre-back has been swept up in cup fever the past fortnight and is ready to drop a big performance in front of the Suns’ faithful.

“I think it’s taken a while, but this week and last week I’ve definitely now realised the size and scale of how big this game is,” he said.

“Not only for the club, but the community as well. I’ve seen signs and posters put up around Shepparton, I’m seeing it on Instagram and stuff like that, so it’s started to hit how big it is now ― it’s a massive opportunity.

“Everybody is ready for the occasion, just looking forward to getting down and being a part of it.”

Adoo-Peters has often looked a class above his opposites in National Premier League (NPL) Three, but APIA is a different beast altogether.

The Tigers lead the NPL NSW first tier and are coming off a 5-3 league win over Sydney Olympic on Saturday.

The thought of APIA’s ex-professional forwards breathing down your neck would startle most defenders, but Adoo-Peters isn’t flinching.

He says bring it on.

“You want to get to the highest level you can, so playing against teams like that really shows the level where to be at,” he said.

“It’s all well and good smashing up teams in your league, you want to step it up and keep striving for more.

“We’ll see how the game goes, hopefully get a win and maybe even try take on an A-League team ― who knows.”

If Adoo-Peters and Currie can appreciate the game’s weight after being in the country less than a year, one could only imagine a local’s perspective on the situation.

Alexander Georgopoulos is exactly that ― a local.

The Suns’ goalkeeper is a pure bred home grown talent, working his way up the grades to finally reach the senior ranks of his boyhood club.

“The energy has been really high (this week), the boys have been pumped,” he said.

“It’s good to be involved because obviously I’m still young and it’s just more experience under my belt.

“We’re not talking about the game too much, we don’t want to overthink it, but everybody is pumped.”

It would be easy to overthink a game of Wednesday night’s stature.

Labelled the ‘‘biggest in club history’’ for the second time this season ― the first was the Hume City match ― all eyes are on the Suns when they take to McEwen Reserve as they’ve done week in, week out.

But this time around, the scale of potential onlookers has multiplied exponentially.

To go along with an expectedly large home crowd, a massive audience may be watching with 10Play broadcasting the game on national television.

It’s the stuff of dreams for players like Georgopoulos.

“I don’t think we’d be nationally televised like this,” he said with a laugh.

“It’s great to get the whole nation to watch us, the GV Suns from Shepparton playing at John McEwen on TV.”

· The GV Suns versus APIA Leichhardt at McEwen Reserve will kick off on Wednesday at 7.30pm.