Drop ten, turn and face. Quilty’s Football Yarns 49

Drop ten, turn and face.

Quilty’s Football Yarns 49

Season 2012 was a brilliant one for SPX 1st XI. For me it was a return to coaching the side after two seasons away and for the first time for many years, I was unfamiliar with any of the players. Working with Simon Yue we both agreed that there could only one player chosen as captain. Luke Sullivan. Luke had played the previous season along with Will Richardson, Christian Barker, Lachlan Pollet, Tommy Matic, Peter Kastropil and Ben Haughton. Three players came up from the 2nd XI, Danny Guerinoni, JC Di Manno and Mitch Cook, while Greg Bayer, Jayden Milat, Joel Olivieri and Adrian Prieto graduated from the U16’s. We also persuaded three quality players, Nick Morabito, Tommy Higham and Luke Capra to play for SPX for the first time. We had a super squad. Being able to go 14 or 15 players deep, in terms of starters, is a special position to be in. Many of these players also played Rep football. I particularly recall the early Sunday morning when player dad Dom Morabito, came to watch Nick play a pre-season trial for us. At the end of the game he came across and just nodded saying “Yep, we want him to play”. A good choice all around because Nick went on to be our ISA winning Captain in 2013.

In a season which was to stretch to 38 games we played all comers early on Sunday mornings, coming an early cropper v Northbridge U20’s and then the SPX Old Boys by 3-2. Wins over Wakehurst, Mt Colah, Kings and Redfield’s set us up for the St Andrew’s Cup, but it was washed out! Straight into ISA competition we had an early set back losing 3-2 to St Pat’s. Wins over SCECG’s, Chev, St Andrew’s and then SCECG’s, again put us back on track. Two NSWCIS Cup wins against Broughton Park and a thriller shoot out win against Riverview, was followed by another ISA win over St Andrew’s. These victories, setting us up well, for our Queensland Tour in July. 

The Southern Skies tournament again saw us stay at the University of Queensland, St Lucia. Five consecutive wins over Sydney Grammar, Clontarf, Clairvaux, Kings and New Zealanders, Bethlehem College, was a great start. As ever there is always super competition on tour and we lost our last group match 5-2 to John Paul College of Queensland.  This was a heavyweight opponent which as ever, included multiple Korean academy players. We still went through to the semi-finals by virtue of our 5 and 1 record. Over the years we have had many battles with Sir Peter Claver school from Queensland. This game, in 2012 was a great contest that went to penalties after extra time. Captain Luke Sullivan stepped up for the fifth kick but unfortunately rattled the crossbar and we were out! Devastated, he was to have a shot at redemption later in the year.

Returning to Sydney we still had two competitions to pursue. Two ISA draws with Oakhill and Chev were interspersed with a 3-0 NSWCIS Cup over old bogey team, Trinity, placing us in the semi-finals.  ISA wins followed over Oakhill and rivals St Pats who we took apart, 5-1 at Oxford Falls. By the time we played St Joseph’s in the semi we were already looking good for silverware.

A funny story preceded this Joey’s game. One evening I came across a series of their games on YouTube. They actually had a media unit that produced quality highlights packages of all their GPS and NSWCIS Cup games. The several hours I look to analyse their set up, was time well spent, because it revealed their preferred formation and most dangerous players. On a magical night out at Hensley Athletics Park, at East Gardens, we made a strong start and raced to a 2-0 lead. Then in a repeat of the 2009 ISA Final, we inexplicably gave up two goals in four minutes. Into sudden death extra time we went. Then, up stepped Peter Kastropil in a ‘clutch’ moment, to drive home a free kick from distance and we were in the NSWCIS Final. I made a point of thanking the Joey’s Media unit and a copy of the semi-final game is included here at the end. Our final opponents were another GPS side, Newington College.

Returning to our own ISA Competition we were too strong in the semi-final for Chev, winning 5-0. Things were shaping up well and we came up against Oakhill in the ISA Final out at their place. While it is nice that that college puts on the Finals day, it pales as a venue in comparison to Christie Park and its Night Finals! Controlling only what we could control we took on Oakhill knowing that if were patient for long enough they would probably lose their discipline. Going a goal down we saw a calm Peter Kastropil step up to score an equalising penalty right on half time. This set up a pressure cooker atmosphere, second half, and ‘as predicted’ Oakhill lost their cool. Our 2012 side were tough cookies. Several, including goalkeeper Lachlan Pollet, actually played Rugby after our morning games, also for SPX. It was no surprise then, when fellow dual sportsman Tommy Higham shifted numerous opposition players to volley home the winner. We were ISA 2012 Champions! Our boys probably celebrated long and hard Saturday night but had a NSWCIS Final to play just three days later, again out at Hensley Athletics Park, at East Gardens. 

A big vocal SPX crowd came out to help us pursue history that evening. We had lost in both the 2000 and 2010 NSWCIS Finals against Trinity and Joey’s but were determined to make it third time lucky. The final v Newington was tight, tense and inconclusive. We had largely dominated but they had the best chance. Extra time came and went and once again we found ourselves in a penalty shoot-out. Keeper Lachlan Pollet did his bit saving a kick. As I wrote at the time, “Karma had certainly made a note of our Captain Luke Sullivan’s football movements this season, because here, once again, he was entrusted with taking the last kick in the shoot-out, just like in Queensland!” Luke calmly slotted his spot kick and we were NSWCIS Champions! Things had now come full-circle, Luke had put the wrong right, being brave enough to step up having failed in a similar situation in Queensland. That is what leaders do.

At SPX we had a lot of success over the years but both Simon Yue and myself are agreed that this was the game which put us firmly on the map in NSW Independent School Football. We went on to contest the NSW All School ‘s Championship going down on penalties after a 1-1 draw with NSWCCC Champions St John’s, Dubbo. Over 350 sides had entered these NSW Competitions and we had classified third, a great achievement. 

Our record for the season being Two Championship wins and a Cup final defeat boiling down to 

Played 38 Won 24 Drawn 8 Lost 6

Personally, I had the satisfaction of completing a long range double of the NSWCCC Cup in 1995, and NSWCIS Cup in 2012. These being the top competitions in both the Catholic and Independent systems.

https://youtu.be/IXy5tvXdGnU

Joeys Semi video

http://stevenqoz.blogspot.com/?m=1