Wow, another year down in "The Beasts" history book, another chapter added to the well known Beast bible

This year was one of the more successful years for the Beasts, however not much silverware was to show for it.

 The boys started the year and the regular season with the Connetics Shield they rightly earned from last year's efforts, however came up short against St Thomas 3-2 mid-season and resultantly lost the shield. After that game the boys went through a tough time putting out a few poor performances but form was found in the home stretch of the season giving the boys third place overall in Christchurch. 

Going into the season the team came up against Cashmere in the semi-final and me oh my did the team put on a show, hard work and a whole load of trainings and tactical sessions finally paid off for the boys with a dominant 3-0 victory coming from the game. The final was to be played against St Thomas', hands down the biggest school football game to be played in Christchurch. The team knew what was required so many rested from school in the buildup to the game much to the dismay of teachers. A 500- strong crowd came down to CFC for the final and an absolute cracker of a game was fought out between the two best sides in Christchurch. Heartbreak was to be the word that summed up that game as The Beasts absolutely dominated St Thomas for 90 minutes but just couldn’t produce the goods to end up losing 2-1. An unfortunate side-note from the game was key striker and overall good lad Aaron ‘Squiddy’ Zhang pulling tendons in his back ruling him out of Nationals the following week.

 Focus quickly shifted to National Tournament for the team as they wanted to rebound strong from the unfortunate loss in the previous week yet the boys just couldn’t get it out of their heads and could yet again not produce the goods Bully, Dave and Grandad desired. A tough 4th place in the pool put the team up against Boys High in the playoff matches and the boys sure did turn up for that game running absolute riot 7-1, putting the boys on good track for an overall respectable 19th spot nationally. The Beasts thoughts and prayers go out to Byron ‘the five year old’ Heath who suffered serious knee damage on tournament, a tragic way to end an illustrious 4 year career with The Beasts, a true legend in the boys' eyes. 

A huge thank you to our coaching staff - Bully, Dave, Graham and Eric, without them the year's success would not have been possible. To our departing lads, Byron ‘the five year old’ Heath, Haris ‘gooseneck’ Zeb, Christian ‘filthy boy’ Firth, Milan ‘Conor’s brother’ Clarke, Jamie ‘thirsty boy’ Palmer, Daniel ‘the danger man’ Oakman, Naweed ‘no skill/show’ Ahmadi and Aaron ‘squiddy’ Zhang - a thank you is not enough for your service over the years. You have all contributed in a great way to this team's success and there is just too much to write, however, like all good picture books it must come to an end and this year's the year to move on. Once a Beast always a Beast.

 Milan Clarke and Byron Heath