Arana United off-season recruit Georgia Buchanan has hit the ground running at her new club.
She has featured in all four of Arana’s South East Queensland Futsal Premier League (SEQFPL) games this season and has found the back of the net an impressive five times, becoming the club’s joint leading scorer in the process.
Buchanan’s quality has been clear from the offset, with the 20-year old bagging a hat trick on her maiden appearance for her new club.
Her finishing ability isn’t the only thing Buchanan has bought to her new club, her speed has allowed Arana to develop a high-pressing style of play.
“I’m pretty quick off the mark, so I can put pressure on up the front of the court pretty quickly, and we’ve scored a few of our goals from doing so,” she said.
“I go pretty fast into tackles and sometimes it lets me down using that speed, so it can be an attribute and a disadvantage as well.”
When she isn’t lighting up the SEQFPL, Buchanan plies her trade for National Premier Leagues Women’s (NPLW) Queensland outfit Mitchelton FC.
In the 2018 NPLW season, she made 25 appearances for the club, scoring on three occasions and helped navigate the club to a respectable seventh placed finish.
While Buchanan confessed she finds futsal a lot different to the traditional format of the game, she has noticed the positive effect it has had on her skillset.
“I find it very different to the outdoor game,” she said.
“It helps in tight areas when you’re under pressure and you’re trying to get out quickly, because in futsal you only have a little area to play in.”
Buchanan’s Arana have started the SEQFPL season on fire and at the halfway point of the competition find themselves on top of the table, much to the delight of the young attacker.
“It started off pretty well, and we’ve continued to have pretty good form, so I’m excited for the second half of the season,” she said.
For the run in, the main objective of Buchanan and her teammates remains the same as when the competition first kicked off.
“We all want to go out there and we want to take it out, we want to win the competition,” she declared.
“I know the girls have narrowly missed out on winning it the last couple of years so they really want to get a win this year, I’m very competitive so I’d like to make sure we win.”
On a personal level, Buchanan harbors aspirations of becoming the competition’s leading goal scorer.
“I like scoring goals a lot,” she said.
“The Golden Boot was definitely something I was keen on, well still am keen on.”
Buchanan currently sits third in the Golden Boot standings, but she has her work cut out for her if she is to catch Louise Rolfe who leads the charge with 17 goals after bagging an insane 12 goal haul against Redlands United last weekend.
Arana get the chance to rest this weekend as they have a bye round, meaning Buchanan and her teammates will be in action next when they host Redlands United on Saturday, 3 November at Bowen Hills YMCA.
Words: Samuel Johnson