‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 14 1995 Sweeping all. (Old video added at end)

‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 14

1995 Sweeping all. (Old video added at end)

Probably don’t acknowledge it enough but I feel I have been truly privileged to work the sides I have coached over the years, in all grades of football. That also goes for the fantastic fellow coaches who I have stood alongside over those years.

When season 1995 rolled around it was a truly purple patch for John Paul II School. The School made the State wide ‘Schools Rock Eisteddfod’ final ably coached by past masters Henry and Christine Taylor. They'd previously won the whole thing back in 88'. In addition. Principal Michael Carr’s ‘masterplan for Rugby League’ was coming to fruition. They were already dominating the very strong MCS competition and were now making their run at the nationally televised Commonwealth Bank Cup. The school, through Michael, had established a very close relationship with two NRL sides, Penrith and Parramatta. An illustration of this connection was demonstrated to me one day when the ‘Super League War’ broke out’. This was a truly massive sporting story around Australia so I was very surprised to be standing next the school fax machine when the following message came through.

Dear Michael Carr

I am writing to ask you, in your capacity as Head of MCS and NSWCCC Rugby League, to align your organisations with Super League in Australia.

This was a massive story but it showed just how important schools, such as JPII, were in the Rugby League player production line to the National Competition.

Over the years we also had seeming direct line to many of the best schoolboy prospects out of New Zealand and the Islands. When coming to the school these players were helped with accommodation and their school fees through sponsorship. Coach Bill Dowers, assisted by Michael Carr, had established a strong record locally and the side were now striving to become National Schoolboy Champions. So serious was this intention that the school managed to secure land to build a field for the team. This was located half way between JPII and our feeder school Holy Family. In 1994 JPII duly won the Commonwealth Bank Cup in a commercially televised game defeating Eagle Vale in the final, repeating the effort again in 96’ v Erindale College Canberra. With JPII having secured two major events in the year, it was now footballs turn to deliver.

Learning from our disappointment of season 94’ we were much better placed in 95’ to win the MCS competition, as things turned out we’d go beyond that and advance all the way in the NSWCCC cup competition as well.

Our 95’ squad was very well balanced. While we had super stars such as Michael Pfeifer and Michael Cunico we also had a deep vein of talent across the squad. As mentioned earlier we had many players who had played other sports at a high Level. Grant Lambert played cricket for NSW and Australia, Stephen Falls was both a good athlete and fine rugby player, Craig Beacroft was a state level touch footballer and race walker, Justin Waring went on to be a professional golfer while every player other played football at representative club level. Our Captain Adam Scarpin made the NSW Football side only being surpassed by Cunico who played for Australia U15 and U17 in the World Cup.

The MCS Competition, as ever, would be tough. In 95’ we also had a top B Grade side who went on to win their Grand Final, many of that squad would have been A Grade players for almost any other school in the competition. They did it the hard way finishing fourth and then winning their semi-final on penalties against Minor Premiers Holy Cross Ryde. In the final they beat Dundas, a side they had lost to 4-1 in the first round game. Captain John Longhurst proudly lifting the Trophy.

Our run to win the NSWCCC Cup was truly epic, going from early in Term one until late in Term three. Our first round 5-1 win over De La Salle Cronulla was quickly followed by a come from behind 2-1 win against Casula. Playing on a very wet Holy Family field we then took on Oakhill College from Castle Hill. This tie was a cup classic. We led 1-0 with just a minute to go only to concede on the final whistle. Things got worse when with just five minutes to go in extra time we trailed 2-1. A brilliant finish by midfielder Michael Pfeifer pulled us level for what seemed a certain penalty shoot-out. However, our Captain and sweeper Adam Scarpin had other ideas. With minimal fuss he signalled to the coaching staff that he was ‘moving up’. Within a minute he’d picked the ball up on half way and literally went right through the middle beating numerous opponents to calmly finish, we were in the next round.

Our fourth round opponents were old rivals Parramatta Marist and surprisingly we allowed ourselves to be ambushed. On the afternoon in question we changed our routine and allowed half our team to make their own way to the ground. Mistake. A big mistake. These players arrived right on kick off. In the meantime, Parramatta had cancelled all training for the afternoon and had a massive cheer squad there for their boys. Predictably, we conceded in the first minute. Alarmingly we conceded again two minutes later and then in the twelfth minute we were 0-3 down and heading out of the cup. Somehow we filtered our late arriving players into the game and held on until half time when we could actually talk to the team and put things right. Our message in this case was twofold. For our team we had 40 minutes, starting at 0-0 to pull this around. For Parramatta, we told the boys that we would gamble that they wouldn’t know whether to ‘stick or twist’. It turned out to be a winning approach because as soon as we scored one goal the opponents just fell apart. Their big crowd went very quiet as the minutes past. A 3-1 score-line soon became 3-2 and then with ten minutes left, we won and converted a penalty for 3-3. Our momentum was such that we scored again for 4-3 with just five minutes to go. Our amazing turnaround was complete. This NSWCCC fourth round win was big wake-up call. For the second game in a row we had come within minutes of defeat. That afternoon the squad pledged to do all we could to go on to win it.

The rules of the NSWCCC cup are such that at the Quarter Final stage the ‘City schools have to go Country. Our next round opponent was St Johns, Kempsey, a six hour drive north from Sydney. Our Headmaster Michael Carr insisted that we would drive up on the Sunday, play Monday and drive back the same day. Normally this would have been fine for me but on this weekend I actually had visitors over from the UK. A compromise was made. The team would drive up in the mini bus Sunday morning while Michael Carr paid for me to fly up that afternoon. Sorted! That night our squad stayed in apartment’s just outside Kempsey. The plan was to drive in next day, play at midday and drive back to Sydney after the game. Wrong! The Headmaster of St John’s made us wait until 3.30 when he brought out the whole school to watch the game. In the warm up we were still pretty confident, we had our full squad and they looked a pretty basic side. It was then that we met the ‘local country referee’. Pulling our side together for the boot inspection, he clearly liked very little about the way our boys looked. As mentioned previously, we had a very culturally diverse side. The referee didn’t like our hair, the headbands or product in the hair. He clearly disliked our kit, especially the long baggy shorts and colourful boots worn by all. By the time the match began we saw that this would be more of a contest than we realised, especially with an official who seemingly disliked everything about us! The match was brutal. He allowed St Johns to kick three shades of shit out of our boys and with ten minutes left at 0-0, I made a big decision. I took off the two Michael’s, Cunico and Pfeffier. Most of our group didn’t believe it, they were our two stars. As both a teacher and coach I felt I had a ‘duty of care’ to these players. They would either get sent off or carried off and I wasn’t willing to see either happen. Then, just when extra time seemed certain, our main forward Jason Vella hooked the ball home at the near post and we won the game 1-0. Offers of ‘afternoon tea’ at the school were declined as we left Kempsey in a cloud of dust and headed home to Sydney, relieved but more than that, in the Semi-final of the NSWCCC cup!

As mentioned earlier during my four years at JPII I was fortunate enough to be involved with the NSWCCC representative teams. These guys competed every year in the All Schools tournament which ultimately picked the NSW Schoolboys side. During my involvement numerous players we coached advanced to both the Australian Joeys and Schoolboy sides. In tournament itself there were two NSWCHS sides and one from the independent sector the NSWCIS. The commitment for players was considerable because many boys also played Representative club football at places like Marconi, Sydney United and Sydney Olympic. I remember around the time of our great cup run I was also preparing the NSWCCC side. Players came from all over Sydney and country NSW. This was just one illustration of the tyranny of distance in Australia. In my experience at trials the country boys had to be better to be picked. Just equal and the city boy tended to get the nod. The major reason for this being that with training commitments, it was difficult for the boys to get there midweek. To me both School and Club representative football were as much a test of parents as it was the players. In 1995 I remember a training session was switched from Bankstown to Blacktown quite late. The player parents had to be informed. A phone call with the mum of Clayton Zane expressed this test quite clearly. I told her of the switch and she said it wasn’t a problem because they were coming down from Newcastle anyway. It made me think. What about those players along the way who just couldn’t get there for whatever reason? Lack of transport, cash for travel or even being unable to afford the fees that accompanied representative football. In the event Clayton Zane went on to play for Australia and NSL side Northern Spirit. He has also made a career for himself in coaching at Newcastle Jets. Our paths crossed several times in 1995 because not only was Zane in the NSWCCC side but also a player for JPII’s semi-final opponents St Xavier College Hamilton.

Now this was a big game for all concerned. We were down to the best four Catholic sides in NSW. It was no surprise then that I was angry that the game was not only to be on a school day afternoon but we would have very little in the way of student support. Up until now all our big MCS Finals were night games, with considerable crowd support. The late Dougie Schultz, the JPII Sports Master managed to calm me down before I clashed with the school executive. I suppose this was one of those examples where the relative inequity between Football and League was coming out. I sensed that they would have been better accommodated. From this time I actually began to frame my own coaching and sporting philosophy. I said to the boys very clearly, ‘Don’t worry about other teams and sports. We need to set our own goals and standards’. Driving out to Valentine Park to play St Xavier’s our boys were very motivated. A squad of 16, manager Chris Wilson and myself. That was it apart from a few odd parents. Really we should not have worried. We absolutely demolished Clayton and his Newcastle based side. The score was 5-0 and it might have been more. We were through to NSWCCC cup final and would face Christian Brothers Lewisham from the MCC competition, out at Melita Stadium.

Having had such a great cup run and also winning both the MCS A & B grade Grand Finals made us favourites to also lift the cup. It was a massive blow then, that before the final it was announced that Michael Cunico had accepted a place at the prestigious AIS in Canberra. He would be unavailable to play in the final! If that wasn’t enough Michael Pffeifer accepted a job and was on the brink of leaving school as well. In the event the school refused to ‘sign him out’ until after the final which meant he remained a student at JPII long enough to play in the final!

One coincidence around this final was that the coach of that Lewisham side Maranko, many years later came to work alongside me at SPX. Something similar also happened when we defeated Ryde in an MCS final and then a few years later the coach of that side Craig Sharply turned up as coach of the St Joseph’s Hunters Hill side in a NSWCIS Final.

Christian Brothers Lewisham came from our sister competition the Metropolitan Catholic Colleges (MCC) ours being the Metropolitan Catholic Schools (MCS). Our intimate knowledge of Melita Stadium, having won our previous four finals there, probably gave us almost a home advantage. On the night with a big crowd in evidence, the game was very tense with both sides all out to avoid a mistake. It was no surprise then that at full time the result was an unresolved 0-0. Missing our cup talisman, Michael Cunico, meant it was time for a hero to stand up. We shouldn’t have worried because three season veteran Trent Worrall broke the deadlock early in extra time. Then leading 1-0 deep into the second period of extra time, Captain fantastic Adam Scarpin stormed forward to seal the win with a fine finish. We were NSWCCC champions for the first time, an achievement that gave us the ‘double’ having already lifted the MCS A Grade Grand Final trophy. The girls side also won the MCCS for a second successive season.

That 1995 Season had seen JPII have a fantastic sporting year. Football won four trophies while the Rugby League side won their MCS A Grade division. Add in the Rock Eisteddfod Open Final and one could see why the school was absolutely buzzing. https://youtu.be/rxqKmLLRkW4