Drop ten turn and face 54

Drop ten, turn and face

Quilty’s Football Yarns 54

Two Cup wins

Season 2017 was one we entered with considerable anticipation. For the first time since 2005 we appointed joint captains for the 1st XI, James Kellendonk and Alec Vinci. Both had played for the side previously, James for his third season. As ever we had our full programme of trials and competitions arranged but in this year we had two new ones. The first involved our Queensland tour. Since 2004 we gone up to play either the original Southern Skies Tournament or in later times the re-badged High Energy Tournament. Both involved our squad staying at the wonderful University of Queensland campus and taking on a range of Australian, New Zealand and International sides. Historically we had played teams with players from Africa, Noumea, New Zealand, Malaysia and Korea. Sides also came from every state in Australia including NSW where we regularly took relatively local rivals. This year was to be different because the Tournament was actually one organised by the EREA, again including sides from every state. It also took place in April rather than mid-year..

Kicking off the year we took on the usual range of local club sides and schools. Berowra, Saints Utd and HFC All Age and St Michaels U21’s. We also played Asquith Boys High and St Augustine’s who both play in different competitions to ourselves. Five wins and a draw were a good return as we made ready to fly to Queensland. St Laurence’s were to host the EREA competition and for the first time we stayed away from the University staying in serviced units and providing our own mini bus transport. I’ve never been one to write off coincidence’s but this tour was to mirror that of 2014 in every way.  A great effort by the boys saw us play five games in three days against sides from Canberra, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. As in 2014, we once again shut out all the opposition, St Edmund’s 

1-0; St Columban’s 5-0; St Paul’s 3-0 and St Patrick’s 1-0 which put us into the Grand Final v St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace, who came from the Brisbane GPS Competition. A partisan Queensland crowd certainly let us know just where their loyalties lie! In what was a very tough match we led the whole game until the last minute when Terrace forced an equaliser. History repeating itself! We were forced into extra time and the penalties only conceding a goal in the last minute of the week, just as in 2014. Adversity and resilience were two of the words that came to mind at the time. The partisan crowd did their best to influence the outcome but midfielder Nathan Mellino stepped up to put away the final penalty and we were the inaugural EREA Cup winners.

Returning to Sydney we had the annua,l two day, St Andrew’s Cup the following week out at Valentine Park.  Wins against St Spyridon’s and Shore followed by a 0-0 draw with Riverview landed us in the semi-final. Unfortunately, we ran into a very strong Oakhill side and went down 2-0. Up until this point we’d actually gone 17 games unbeaten in season 2017. This St Andrew’s Cup defeat sent us into a bit of a form slump because we went down by 2-1 in three consecutive games against St Aloysius; Oakhill and St Spyridon’s in the ISA followed by a NSWCIS Cup defeat to Pacific Hills. Fortunately, our recovery was as impressive as the slump had been worrying, because wins over Chevalier; St Pats, Oakhill; St Andrew’s and St Spyridon’s put us in ISA finals contention all without a goal being conceded! Because our Queensland tour had taken place in April rather than mid-year, it brought about the need for a new Tournament to be arranged by ourselves out at Oxford Falls. The 'July Cup' which was dedicated to my dad who had recently passed away, ‘The Sid Sanderson Memorial Trophy’. Riverview, the Kings School and Sydney Grammar all took part. Three good victories over these GPS sides lift the trophy and set us up well for the ISA run in. An away draw with St Pats preceded two clear wins over St Andrew’s and Chevalier. Finishing second on the ladder we faced St Spyridon’s in the semi-final. In a truly topsy-turvy match we came from behind to eventually win 8-3 booking a place in the ISA Final. 

As I have said multiple times in this series of reflections, we run our Football program a particular way. We have always endevoured to get the best SPX players to play for the college, be they anything from Year 9 to 12, club or Rep players, they are all welcome. In 2017 we went down 4-0 in the Grand Final to Oakhill who were the best team in the competition. We had already faced them in both the St Andrew’s Cup and the ISA regular season. Unfortunately, our co-captain Alec Vinci was down to play for Manly on this day in their finals games. Fight as much we could we were already several goals down by the time he arrived to play for us. In over 20 seasons my luck had usually been good having players available, so am in no position to complain. A quality player, Alec went on to play for the NSWCIS at the All Schools Championship and then captained Central Coast Mariners Youth side after school. Alec is still pursuing what he loves, playing in Germany today. Oakhill fully deserved their victory on the day, but our boys were disappointed not to have got closer. One particular player, Scott Browning shed a tear at the end as a young, Year Ten student. Fortunately for Scott, that bitter memory in 2017 was to be put right in 2019 when he emulated his brother Luke to lift the NSWCIS Cup. Scott himself going on to be currently playing as captain of Sydney FC U20’s. In spite of the ISA Final defeat we had one more game to play because Chatswood High invited us over to be their first opponents on their brand new astro-turf all weather pitch. As ever, we’ll go anywhere for a game!

The ‘management team’ of parents, Heidi, Margaret and Enya had done us proud setting the standard in ISA culinary entertainment and communications. It was also time to say goodbye to media powerhouse Danny John and his wife Tanya. Sam John had put the finishing touches on his families playing involvement at SPX representing the ISA along with Chris Kastropil, Lachie Back, Scott Browning, James Kellendonk Charlie Hammond and Alec Vinci. Danny John had reported on amazing SPX success in his time through Shoot Tackle and Goal. The journalism and photography have been outstanding, while the fanzine itself truly mapped our ups and downs, as one of school football’s best sides of that period. Danny reported on a 2013 ISA win; a 2014 NSWCIS Cup win; a 2014 High Energy Cup win; 2016 High Energy Cup win; and in 2017 wins in both the EREA and July Cups. The gratitude of Simon Yue and I to Danny John is hard to express in words. Communications from Danny were unmatched in schoolboy sport. Finishing season 2017 we had collected two trophies. Co-captains Alec Vinci and James Kellendonk had done a fine job, the latter playing over 100 games for SPX in three seasons. Youngsters Liam Tachjian, Jack Berte, Andres Nolan and Scott Browning had enjoyed playing for SPX and would be stronger for the experience. Nathan Mellino, Andrew Kelly and Diego Cuadros and Matt Hettler said goodbye having played significant roles all season. On the goalscoring front youngster Robbie Leonardi got 14 while Julian Di Ciano got 12 and Alec Vinci 10. Our 2017 top-scorer was Connor Brannan with 20 goals who I rate as the SPX player with the hardest shot in my time at the college. In the wash up our season looked like this:

Played 38 Won 26 Drew 5 Lost 7 Goals for 109 Goals against 35.