The Cooma Tigers are on the verge of their most important piece of silverware in the club's 63-year history, but have an uncertain future in the Capital Football National Premier League.
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The Tigers can seal their first NPL league championship if they beat Belconnen United in a top-of-the-table showdown at Nijong Oval on Sunday.
However, their future in the NPL is under threat after Weston Molonglo's decision to end a partnership involving their junior players and align with Woden Valley instead.
As one of the criteria for a three-year licence in the NPL, clubs are required to field teams in the under-12, under-14, under-16, under-18, under-20 and senior divisions.
Since 2010, the Tigers had formed a partnership with Weston Molonglo to provide the under-12 and under-14 teams to alleviate the pressure on parents making the two-hour round trip to Canberra every second weekend.
Canberra City also needs to align with a junior club after Gungahlin United's decision to go it alone with senior teams in the NPL next season.
Tigers president Harry Hovasapian admitted his club "may have difficulty with juniors", but was confident a solution would be found.
"We've put our application in like all the other clubs and I would assume we will go for an interview and see what questions are asked," he said.
"It's my understanding Weston Molonglo are going with Woden, and I wish them all the best.
"You could argue it should be a senior NPL and a junior NPL, but then again, how would you grow your home-grown players? So you've got to look at it both ways.''
The Tigers were established in 1952 by the workforce of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme and won Capital Football Premier League grand finals in 2006 and 2012. However, they are still chasing their first league championship and went on a 10-game unbeaten run before last week's last-ditch 2-2 draw with the FFA Centre of Excellence.
Tigers striker Stephen Domenici said the match with the Blue Devils on Sunday will go down as one of the biggest game's in the club's history.
''We've got those couple of grand final wins, but the premiership has always eluded us,'' he said. ''It would be huge.
"Coming down from 2-1 to score in the last few minutes shows we've got the quality and the attitude to do anything in any tough situation.''
The Cooma Tigers' NPL team trains in Canberra, but Hovasapian said the town, with a population of 8000, embraces the side wholeheartedly.
''We treat them like they're our players,'' he said. ''We don't have any geographical boundaries. We've never had that problem and we've always been behind the team.''
In this weekend's other NPL games, Tuggeranong United hosts Woden Valley and Monaro entertains the FFA on Saturday, while Canberra Olympic takes on Canberra City on Sunday.
